# Old school gear anchors workshop build.



## Trapps (9 mo ago)

I'm still a noob to this site, but I think this post belongs here, as its a member contribution, build log and install. Unconventional as its not in a vehicle, and uses Old School gear mixed with some new stuff. The other options were Old School showoff or DIY Home; Mods please move if it is in the wrong place.

First a few disclosures:
1. I am not a pro, I am a hobbyist - if my technical terms and electrical acumen are incorrect, please set me straight.
2. I am a pack-rat and borderline hoarder.
3. I believe SQ is more important than SPL.
4. I have not had a system, other than OEM, in a vehicle for more than a decade.
5. I'm also into HT with a similar mix of old school and newer gear.
6. I am a devout DIY guy.

Scroll down to pics if you want to avoid my blah, blah, blah...

I have been building a workshop/mancave/motorcycle garage (and Home office since Covid) for nearly 5 years. It's been an evolution and I hope to finish it this year. Who am I kidding, It'll probably never exit the evolution stage...

I've put a fair bit of time into the shop sound system and its evolution. I had set it up to provide basic sound, but had always planned for a more complete system. I've recently completed an overhaul from speaker orientation to adding a sub to rewiring everything. I'd say I'm 90% done.

I’ve been a bit of an audio junkie since I was about 14. A neighbor had a killer sound system and a stack of gear fronted by some pretty old school Magnaplanars. The sound wasn’t for everyone – Maggies are a bit of an acquired taste in my opinion. But the clarity was magical. The soundstage is probably what really drew me in. Sitting in his living room, you could almost point to where each musician was. He would say things like ‘listen to the fingers slide on the guitar strings between notes’ or ‘can you hear the reed vibrating on that sax?’ I was hooked and playing the latest Kiss album on my Dad’s old KLH rig was as close as I’d get to decent audio gear until my early 30’s. I had the bug and it spilled into car audio too. I’ve been out of the game for a long while now, but being a bit of a packrat - ok borderline hoarder, I kept some gear from over the years. I had always intended to use the gear in a future project vehicle, shop or man cave. That’s been evolving now for a few years in AttrezziVeloce which is what I named my shop.

The a/d/s 236is mid bass speakers, 6.5”, present a 4 Ohm load with 91dB of sensitivity and are rated at 150W RMS; no max is listed. Highs are Hertz CP25 tweeters, 1”, (a replacement for the original a/d/s units I smoked – literally and figuratively ) are also 4 Ohm with 91dB and handle 105W RMS and 315W max. They reside in boxes I made from 1x lumber screwed and glued, covered in felt. Bottom end is courtesy of a new Dayton RSS210HO-4, an 8” 4 Ohm sub with ratings of 300W RMS and up to 600W max. It is mounted in a sealed box I made from ¾” MDF. Screwed, glued, braced inside and sized at just under 0.58ft^3. It’s very close the T/S parameter target of 0.53 but not perfect….

The Nakamichi PA 504 is used as a master amplifier and drives 4 channels by 50W. It is bridged into 2 and good for 170W per side feeding the a/d/s external crossovers, who in turn split the signal and feed the tweets and mids. They’ve been all playing well together without any critical tuning so far. A second Nakamichi amp, a PA1002, is a slave and also bridged, sending 370W down one channel to the Dayton sub. Both amps are mounted on ¾” standoffs to aid ventilation on the backside. I haven’t ruled out running a cap on the 1002, but so far no dimming lights in the shop, LOL.

The head unit, a Nakamichi CD400, is a fairly simple but quality piece that was well regarded ‘back in the day.’ I use the tuner, the CD player and I also feed the AUX RCA inputs from a Harmon Kardon BTA 10 bluetooth adapter which gets a stream feed from my phone. The 400 sends a 4V output signal to the 504 which passes lows to the 1002. I'm experimenting in the 80-130 range to cross over in my tuning experiments.

The ground distribution block and some of the wire terminals are old school stuff from StreetWires. I do not know the brand of the positive distribution/fuse block (maybe Stinger or KnuKonceptz); it is probably 25 years old and plugged with Maxi blade fuses at 30A each for the amps and 20A for the head unit.

Wires are a real hodgepodge of old and new. 4ga KnuKonceptz Bassik runs from the power supply, a 45A PowerMax, to the battery and then again to the distribution blocks. 8ga InstallGear handles power, ground and remote duties after the distribution blocks. A couple of pairs of old AudioQuest G-Snakes, pilfered from my home theater stash, serve as interconnects. Speakers have both 12ga InstallGear and 12ga Belva connecting to crossovers and amps.

Although the a/d/s crossovers are capable of both bi-wire and bi-amp, I chose to run bridged on the 504 picking up more power per channel. I also experimented with the head unit’s SUB OUT going straight to the 1002. I got noticeably better sound quality by running the master/slave configuration, not to mention better ‘tune-ability’ with the very adjustable amps for both in/out and the settings they offer in terms of sensitivity, processing and range.

The highs are balanced and almost neutral if not _just_ slightly bright. That can be tuned out; the crossovers have a +/flat/- 3dB selector, and if that fails, I can always turn down the treble on the head unit. I’m happy with the mid section as is. I’ve got really clean, tight bass that you can feel like a punch in the chest. Nothing boomy and I don’t need or want that much down that low. Having said that, I could see a second sub assembly someday in the future. Perhaps a complimentary and ported arrangement. 

Wire routing is still being tweaked but the components (except for the sub) are in their long-term homes now. In addition to making the battery shelf, I modified the cabinets to change the orientation of the speakers after an evening of listening and experimenting.

I’ve got about 2 hours into tuning it so far. Finding the right balance of settings is still eluding me as I’m trying to land on one setup for all of the rather diverse music I listen to. I won’t be waking the dead, but pissing off the neighbors’ neighbors is easily accomplished. That wasn’t the goal, but it’s a nice benefit.

In the beginning this gear was installed in a 1999 Contour SVT:









I saved most of that gear and some other stuff I had accumulated:









Phase 1:









Phase 2:









Current state:









A few detail pics:








































































Subwoofer firing down from ceiling:









Items left to complete:
1. Install dedicated circuit for the power supply
2. Relocate the external x-overs
3. Grill for the sub (on order now)
4. Relocate radio antenna

Thanks for checking in!


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## Old Skewl (May 30, 2011)

Very Cool! Nicely done!


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## audiobaun (Jun 8, 2011)

Very interesting


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## Theslaking (Oct 8, 2013)

Someone was just asking what type of distribution block that is.

Nevermind it was you!


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