IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

[kenny_k]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

My poor little speakers took some abuse, by the baggage handlers, that the ports were knocked out.
They were epoxied in place. Ow. :eek:

[Chris Roemer]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Brutal

[[email protected]]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

My poor little speakers took some abuse, by the baggage handlers, that the ports were knocked out.
They were epoxied in place. Ow. :eek:

Just to be clear, I liked your speakers.

[Jim Holtz]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

As usual, I'm late to the party. I'll only repeat what has already been said, thank you to all that helped make 2015 Iowa DIY a success again. Good job folks!

I had a great time and enjoyed hearing everyone's speakers, seeing old friends and making new ones. I really enjoyed it!
Here's my play list;



I hope everyone that attended the event enjoyed it as much as I did.

Jim

[Jim Holtz]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

My poor little speakers took some abuse, by the baggage handlers, that the ports were knocked out.
They were epoxied in place. Ow. :eek:

Hi Kenny,

Sorry to hear about the speakers. Are you traveling UPS airlines? :rolleyes:

Do you have any info available on your design? I was amazed how they filled the huge auditorium.

It was good to see you again!

Jim

[turn2]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

My poor little speakers took some abuse, by the baggage handlers, that the ports were knocked out.
They were epoxied in place. Ow. :eek:

Have Ron E. line that suitcase! Really glad you brought them and thought they sounded pretty impressive. Those and the single driver pipes gave special meaning to "last, but NOT least."

[fdieck]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

My poor little speakers took some abuse, by the baggage handlers, that the ports were knocked out.
They were epoxied in place. Ow. :eek:

Were you flying United?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

[Thumper Tom]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Just to reiterate what has already been said, but thanks again to MAC for putting on an excellent event. I had a great time as always and it was nice to stay for the second night. A lot of great speakers and going to have to setup an AB switch next year just to be able to pick out my favorites. Also, thank you to PE/Dayton on the new ES25NdXP-4 tweeters door prize and other sponsors that make these events happen.

Tracklist
1: Daft Punk - Give life back to music
2: Johnny Cash - When the man comes around
3: Puscifer - Bohemian rhapsody
4: Amaral - Alerta
5: Alice in Chains - No Excuses

[johnnyrichards]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

OK... unpacked completely, and am done with home maintenance for a little while, thought I would put down in words my thoughts from the weekend.

First of all - thank you to all of you who come out to these things. Your enthusiasm for our shared passion is, without a doubt, the main reason we do these things. I saw so many familiar faces, and several new ones. I apologize if I did not spend face-to-face time with you during the weekend, I really tried to meet up with each of you at some point.

I apologize for the rough start on Saturday. We were missing some equipment, so I was not able to do my room-wide sound check prior to most of you arriving. We tracked down the balance issue to a slider on the PC we were using as a source, and later on one of the (non GLS) locking banana plugs broke, so in my haste to repair using traditional banana plugs, I crossed one of the cables. We got that resolved as well. Throughout the day, I periodically sit my fat bvtt dead center to make sure things are working as they should - but I also get good feedback from those in the audience. Thank you. The equipment issues will not happen again.

It has become somewhat of a cliche at these things to say stuff like "no dogs in the bunch" - but it is also 100% truth. In just my five years of making the trip to Iowa, the level of improvement in crossover design across the board is very impressive. I was commenting to my wife on the drive home how educational, humbling, and flat-out entertaining it has been to watch some of the guys grow by leaps and bounds over the years. Another cliche - but I believe the gap between the expensive stuff and the cheap stuff is narrower than ever before. Tom was evidence of that with his excellent SB19/HiVi design. He obviously made some seriously smart decisions in the design process, and he presented the first SB19 design that really grabbed my attention. Not to say the various Iron Driver entries I have heard to date are bad - in point of fact, I really enjoyed all of them - but Tom hit that magic spot, and whether that is due to the physical time alignment, the faceting, the crossover work or just my personal bias for faceted baffles I cannot answer. My wife was also particularly impressed with them, for whatever that is worth. She is incredibly difficult to make happy, by the way. It is just a really good example of what can be milked out of budget drivers with the right design choices.

So many great speakers there this year. One of the drivers that really impressed are the new Dayton Classic 6.5" subwoofer. Man, that driver may not dig into Tang Band 6.5" neo territory, but it could be argued that where it does reach, it does so much cleaner and more convincing. What a great implementation of a great little driver.

Another driver that really made me happy was the big SB woofer in Matt's excellent 3-way, possibly the best bass I have heard at a DIY.

One thing I was excited about was the sheer variety of designs - both in scope and budget. These DIY events are becoming like an all-you-can-eat, made-to-order buffet. It is impossible to be bored these days.

Thank you all, and I will be taking a break for a while to recover my senses. Been a roller-coaster of a few months. I am going to hide in the nerdery and decide what to keep and what to try and sell of my hobby, in order to make room for the next years worth of fun. Expect a classified ad soon.

Be well, all.

-JR

[JasonP]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Ok guys I built the demo download page finally, sorry for the delay! Here is the link: http://www.midwestaudioclub.com/even...demo-download/

I have everyone's tracks listed there that I could dig up via post or email, if you are missing please contact me and I'll fix it up!

My apologies for the both the balance issue in the early morning and the horrible skipping on Robert's demo, those were both totally my fault and I've learned for future events what not to do. Thanks for your understanding on the matter.

[jhollander]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Jason, thanks for all you did. I thought the digital audio format was great, a major advancement.

[martyh]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

You know what I miss? The post-event reviews, that's what.

Some of you guys take terrific notes during the event and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the builds, the goals each designer had in mind and if they were achieved. That feedback can be entertaining, enlightening, and even useful to the designer too. It would be great to get that type of feedback going again.

[PWR RYD]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Hi Marty,
I had several great conversations with guys at Iowa about my impressions of their designs and their impressions of my designs, both positive and negative. Only speaking for myself of course but I feel much more comfortable giving my subjective opinion to someone face to face rather than posting it online where others might read something into it. I guess I don't see the benefit of anyone reading my opinions of someone's design if they weren't also there to hear it with the same tracks in the same room.

[mattsk8]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

You know what I miss? The post-event reviews, that's what.

Some of you guys take terrific notes during the event and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the builds, the goals each designer had in mind and if they were achieved. That feedback can be entertaining, enlightening, and even useful to the designer too. It would be great to get that type of feedback going again.

Marty, I like the idea of including design goals. Maybe having that as part of the entry registration would be a good idea in the future. But I'm not comfortable critiquing other people's speakers, it just never ends well. I'm all for it if anyone wants to offer me advice or their (honest) opinions about one of my builds, but sometimes people get carried away and you begin to realize that their speakers are the only ones that rate well ;). FWIW, if you're interested, I did include my design goals for the one I brought in my 3 way build thread.

[bkeane1259]

Re: IowaDIY 2015 - October 24th, Grinnell, Iowa

Very sorry for my tardiness......

My playlist:


Oh Daddy (early take) – Fleetwood Mac
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon
Blue Moon – Sha-Na-Na
My Favorite Things – Christian McBride
Subdivisions – Rush
Locomotive Breath – Jethro Tull
Grease (reprise) – Frankie Valli

All on the awesome download page that JasonP created: http://www.midwestaudioclub.com/even...demo-download/

I will be back with videos and many many many more pics..........soon...like in the next few days. Been a little hectic at the Keane household as of late but $hit happens.