Do you build anything for your high fidelity system? If so, what do you make?


After some self assessment and introspection on my own high fidelity habits I discovered that I build or make things for my stereo/audio room. Some examples of these things are;

1 Tore out carpeting/padding/floor tiles in the addition to my house (audio room) and painted the cement floor with epoxy paint and clear coat. Placed out a Turkish area rug.

2 Made cherry wood speaker stands on wheels.

3 Had made custom speaker covers and stereo stand covers for when I am not listening to audio to keep away dust. Thanks to my seamstress....

4 Custom made Paduak wood cover (with legs) with two low speed exhaust fans for my tube amp

So curiosity got the best of me. Have you made anything for you stereo system or room? If so what did you make and why?

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After spending great time and effort looking for the 'right' stand to hold my gear, I finally designed and built a stand to meet MY standards/size/needs.  Frame consists of angle iron.  Shelves are 1.25" thick cherry wood.  Bottom unit has two drawers for basic storage, vinyl brush, stylus cleaner, zerostat etc.  Each shelf can be adjusted in 1/2" increments.  Each shelf is isolated with Isolatit rubber disks.  It is quite heavy and on appliance wheels to allow it to be rolled out, making it easier to hook up equipment.  Very solid.

Back in the 80's a friend built for me a retro looking equipment cabinet using 3/4" solid oak plywood. After I moved in my home, I built two storage cabinets and record shelves (hold about 800 records) on top of them using MDF. Recently, I re-build the basement dedicated room, install all new drywalls, new drop down ceiling (wife not let me use drywall) and re-wire 5 outlets to a dedicated circuit. Ran wires ready for 7.2.4 HT speakers, outles for a ceiling mount projector and electrical drop down screen. Also install smart light swithes to control two lighting zone. While doing the demo, I found out the drain tile contractor did not re-pour concrete under the two outside walls and only nail metal brackets on the floor joint and the wall frame to hold up one long wall (19') and let the other shorter wall (12') just drop down more than an inch!! Besides that, the previous home owner only use 2x2 to frame these two walls!! So, I have to take them down completely, pour concrete before rebuilding them. But the worst, was the egress windows, the two old windows have metal rough frame and some spots were rusted through. No window installers were willing to touch the metal frame, they only replace the windows. Contacted some welders asking them to cut out the rusted metal and weld new metal sheet on the cut out spots, only two are willing to do that but asking for $3000 and $6000!! So, I bought a Dremel and some metal cutting wheels, a 12"x8" stainless steel sheet, lot of sanding papers, some J-B Weld steel reinforceed proxy, and a bottle of rust converter. With a harmer, a metal filer and lot of elbow grease, I got the frames fixed for less then $150!

I built two sets of speakers. Bill Fitzmaurice Davids, because I wanted a flat response speaker with good bass extension at a good price. And Linkwitz LXMinis, because they are so unique, they fit in the space I had available in my office, and I wanted to try an active crossover.

My latest project.  Vibration isolation platfoms for new tube mono blocks.  Total cost $90 each.

 

65 pounds of dry sand

 

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Amps arrive next week.  Also built the speaker platforms.   I marvel at you guys that build your own electronics.  I'm limited to working with my hands.