The infamous Honey Do List

Larry Chanin

Hi All,

I've been working pretty much non-stop on my home theater since April. Now, that I'm visibly nearing completion, my wife ceremoniously announced a couple of days ago “Its time you started working on the “Honey Do” list I’ve been compiling for 9 months!”.

So I asked hesitantly. “Oh yeah…what’s first on the list?”

“I’ve gotta have In-wall speakers mounted in the Breakfast Nook,” she replied.

“Say what?” Not believing what I was hearing. “Yes, we’re having friends over Saturday and we need good sound, “ she persisted.

“Well dear…if you’ve gotta have it, you’ve gotta have it. I’ll see what I can do,” I responded obediently.

So yesterday I headed down to Circuit City and picked up a pair of RC65I’s for the Breakfast Nook. (I’ve got a pair of LC265i’s in performance enclosures in my home theater, but for a nook I could't really justify anything close to that.)

Well, as usual the installation process was not without some speed bumps. I cut the first hole and ran into some hurricane tie-down straps (we live in Florida). After dealing with that things went smoothly until I tried powering them up. Absolutely nothing, nada, zip. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So as a last resort I removed one of the speakers from the wall and tried it out to see if they were defective.

Nope, so it had to be the wiring. After a lot of head scratching I finally figured it out. I was using one of those “as seen on TV” “easy” wire strippers. They don’t do a good job for me. What was happening was they were leaving the last layer of insulation which was a very thin clear plastic. So the copper looked bare, but wasn’t. :mad:

So after fixing my connections with one of those "old fashioned" wire strippers everything worked. In fact it worked a lot better than I expected. My wife and I are very pleased with the sound, and our friends coming over tonight will be treated to “good sound” to paraphrase my wife. :cool:

The only problem with this happy ending is things can only go downhill on this "Honey Do" list thing. :rolleyes:

Larry

steveinaz

Ok, so give it up...how do you like the RC65i's?

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by steveinaz
Ok, so give it up...how do you like the RC65i's?

Hi Steve,

Like I said I was pleasantly surprised by the sound coming from a set of small speakers.

I don't have a "Golden Ear" and we've only had them for a few hours, but I found the sound to be very crisp and lifelike.

Larry

GZ

I once had the dreaded 'Honey Do List' hanging over my head, or should I say, hanging on the refrigerator. Mine didn't include buy and install speakers though. So I countered with my own list for her, things like - vacuum, dust, buy beer, grocery shop, do laundry, wash windows, buy more beer, etc. I wasn't surprised that the list intended for me all of a sudden ceased to exist. Score 1 for me!!!!

fireshoes

How about the LCi's? Nobody ever talks about them and we don't stock them where I work.

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by GZ
I once had the dreaded 'Honey Do List' hanging over my head, or should I say, hanging on the refrigerator. Mine didn't include buy and install speakers though. So I countered with my own list for her, things like - vacuum, dust, buy beer, grocery shop, do laundry, wash windows, buy more beer, etc. I wasn't surprised that the list intended for me all of a sudden ceased to exist. Score 1 for me!!!!

Hi GZ,

I'm hoping the next "Honey Do" item is "Iinstall Plasma TV on Great Room wall", but I'm not holding my breath.

Larry

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by fireshoes
How about the LCi's? Nobody ever talks about them and we don't stock them where I work.

Hi fireshoes,

The LC265i's, especially with the performance enclosures, do put out some serious sound. You folks will probably cringe when I say that I'm using them for my surround back speakerss in a 7.1 theater setup. As you know our hearing is not as sensitive when the sounds are coming from the rear.

However, I find that they give my SDA-1C's in the front a "run for their money". My educated guess is that the LC265i's can go almost as deep as the SDA's.

Like my SDAs the LCi's are widely spaced and the precise imaging and front to back pans are quite extraordinary. As I said I don't have a "Golden Ear", but a friend who does was very impressed with my surround envelopement and precision. I attribute this to a combination of my Lexicon processor and the performance of the LCi's. I know that he has a good ear and is candid in his remarks because he politely informed me that my CS400i center channel didn't timbre match with my SDA's. (I've since upgraded to a pair CRS+'s for my center.)

Larry

landry_p2000

Hey Larry

I just moved into a new home about 6 weeks ago and The house has an old in wall cassette / am-fm radio with speakers in the wall throught the house. They appear to be about 5 1/4" to 6 1/2" in diameter. My question is do you know of an in-wall unit that I could use to replace this one with? I want one with a CD player. Any suggestions?

The speakers will be replaced with Polks of course.:D

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by landry_p2000
Hey Larry

I just moved into a new home about 6 weeks ago and The house has an old in wall cassette / am-fm radio with speakers in the wall throught the house. They appear to be about 5 1/4" to 6 1/2" in diameter. My question is do you know of an in-wall unit that I could use to replace this one with? I want one with a CD player. Any suggestions?

The speakers will be replaced with Polks of course.:D

Hi,

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with in-wall cassette systems.

As far as round In-wall speakers go, here’s a link to all of Polk’s current In-Wall speakers.

Polk In-wall Speakers

It would appear that the smallest round speakera are 8-7/8” in diameter. You would have to enlarge the openings to accommodate them.

Larry
.

landry_p2000

Thanks.

GZ

Hi Larry,

I'm hoping the next "Honey Do" item is "Iinstall Plasma TV on Great Room wall", but I'm not holding my breath

If that were on the list you can bet it would get done immediatly, but I'm not holding my breath either.

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by fireshoes
How about the LCi's? Nobody ever talks about them and we don't stock them where I work.

Hi fireshoes,

I just received my copy of Home Theater Magazine in the mail today. They have a review that was very positive with an overall rating of 92.

Here's a few excerpts:

One of the first things that grabbed my ear with two-channel material was the LC265i speakers' excellent imaging, despite the fact that you won't be able to toe them in.

The imaging was solid and consistantly centered---so much so that I had to confirm that the center channel speaker wasn't operating.

As with virtually all in-wall systems, a subwoofer is a necessary acompaniment. Still, the LC265i clearly has more real estate to offer and a punch to its sound that many of its in-wall peers don't; in the apples-to-apples comparison, it fares rather well in terms of presence and full exploitation of the frequency range. It's particularlry impressive that it does this without requiring a large wall-print, if you will, as some more-potent in-walls do.

Larry

dorokusai

I wish something like that would happen to me Larry....ho hum, I guess I'm meant to sneak speakers into the house for the rest of my life.

Sounds like a great little project, I bet they sound great.

Larry Chanin

Originally posted by dorokusai
I wish something like that would happen to me Larry....ho hum, I guess I'm meant to sneak speakers into the house for the rest of my life.

Sounds like a great little project, I bet they sound great.

Hi Mark,

Yes, my wife has been very supportive throughout this project. If you knew me you'd know that I'm not a do-it-yourself sort of guy. But for this project I really threw my self into it, and to be honest, my wife is still in shock at what I've been able to accomplish, but not as shocked as I am.

Anyway she's coming out of it and just an hour or so ago I got my second assignment. (It's not installing a plasma TV. )

Your comment about sneaking speakers into the house reminds me of when I bought my SDA-1Cs new a thousand years ago. I waited for my wife to go to sleep then lugged them out of the garage into the family room by myself. I'm a pretty skinny guy, and I was even skinnier back then. I nearly killed myself trying to rassle them up the stairs without waking her.

I wonder what I was thinking. Did I really think she wouldn't notice two four-foot high speakers sitting across the front of the family room that she had just decorated?

About the theater, yes it sounds good to me and folks who visit, but...I've entered into the neverending tweaking stage. That search for perfection can sometimes interfere with the pure enjoyment of the hobby.

Larry