I was about to mention the Comfort Suites (literally next door to the Hampton) but seems they have no openings that day. This one does though, just over 100 bones:
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Ramada Plaza by Wyndham Fort Wayne Hotel & Conference Center 305 East Washington Center Road Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825-4406 -
A bit further though, about 5 miles down the road from the Hampton.
= Howard Stark: "This is the key to the future. I'm limited by the technology of my time, but one day you'll figure this out."
I'm back in the running! Planning to attend on saturday. One week after my car was totaled I bought a New 2019 Toyota Yaris. First new car in 20 years.
Posted these earlier on FB. Can’t wait for @4thtry pics that will truly reveal the superb craftsmanship of a lot of the Indy designs. JR mentioned it and he’s right. DIY has conquered SQ so now the focus is shifting to aesthetics and I agree. It’s all coming together and we are (relatively) annihilating commercial offerings.
Rasmus won the theme build with an interesting little speaker. Very wide range for a smallish bookshelf. Slate/MDF construction, TB 5" sub and some Tymphany tweeter or other in a Visaton waveguide.
Some thoughts/reactions on my end. It has become nearly a cliche at this point in time that we say "the bar is raised" etc - but my comments paraphrased by Bryan in an earlier post on this thread are, I believe, absolutely true. There will always be people who are still in the learning curve and have some improvements to make - but for the most part it is getting extremely difficult to make decisions on relative sound quality. This is not to say in a more intimate listening environment that there are speakers that wouldn't resolve in a more engaging fashion. The noise floor in the room was generally in the mid-50's, listening levels were set relatively low for an event like this. I do not believe the SNR was adequate enough to really hear certain factors that separate speakers from one another. On other things like treble balance, bass alignment, and crossover integration of course the room was decent enough for quick-style event evaluation.
The problem is, most of the speakers exhibit very little unit to unit variation. This is a good thing, a great thing, actually. It demonstrates that we are converging on a consensus of what a good loudspeaker sounds like. There are minor voicing differences, of course, and out of the sweet spot to either horizontal axis the variations became greater - but overall I would not hesitate to recommend pretty much anything that showed up to a newbie. I believe the question going forward to newbies should be centered on their tool collections and skills using those tools as quite a few of the designs would be hard to recreate for many of us.
Waveguides are becoming quite common. I believe there are still things our community is learning about integrating them - but several showed that they do not have to sound like horns or exhibit the "bb's in a pan" effect I pick up on a lot of those builds. I believe we might still be crossing too low despite the significant boost offered on the bottom end, and we may be listening too much to what is radiated off of the waveguide - but that is pure speculation and I have fuck-all worth of evidence to back that up, so leave me alone. I cannot explain what is happening between variations of boosted tweeters, except to say I hope someone with enough time can put together an integration guide of sorts.
I offered MAC as a resource for collecting data on using the Visaton/Monacor waveguide with common tweeters, as I believe there is a lot of trial and error involved in that process and see no reason for people to re-invent the wheel. I asked several people what their process was and it was generally along the lines of "screw it to the back and see". So maybe we have a little more work to do to get past the trial and error stage. I don't know. The reason I am writing so much about waveguides is because they were *everywhere* this weekend. I can see in a few years they are the norm, as even Bagby brought a waveguided speaker this year. As he is quite influential in steering the course of DIY, I can see his adoption of a technology he has been reluctant to endorse in the past will accelerate widespread usage. Personally - I see the waveguide technology as extremely useful for diffraction control and am reserving full judgement on its usefulness as a bass boost for tweeters.
SB, SB everywhere! With all due respect to the gracious host (great job, Ben) and Emcee (great job, Chuck) - it seems this event was really geared towards promoting SB Acoustics. I do not know if that was by design, but a lot of time was spent talking about their products. Most of you know my feelings on DIY becoming indebted to vendors, and I just get the feel that SB is making a backdoor push to establishing dominance. Great products, but I caution on allowing them to wield too much influence on our thing. We want to avoid a Stahl situation. That being said, the SB designs I heard this year were outstanding - the big 10" 2-way in particular was very well done, as was the SB kit using the ceramic drivers. I am very glad they exist as a check to companies like ScanSpeak and Accuton. I only hope that attendees using other brands are allowed the same forum to talk about their stuff as the ones who are corporate sponsored.
There were a significant number of designs present, and very few were "designed by someone else". I love seeing that. Only a handful of pairs that showed up were presented by a builder who was not also the designer. That is a momentum we need to maintain. The quality of some of the cabinets was absolutely astounding - it again reminds me that apologists for the commercial companies should re-evaluate things. Sound quality, build quality, and the progress with aesthetics is remarkable. We are not only building *nice* well-constructed cabinets, we are also building cabinets that rival commercial guys from an artistic point of view. This is also a momentum we need to maintain as a community. Ten years ago, I would agree with the assessment that DIY was not able to challenge the true high-end. Today, I believe a handful of us are right there visually with Sonus Faber and Focal and Wilson and whatever other brands are out there. Most of us meet or exceed their ability to design a speaker, so closing the rest of that gap is awesome to see.
Many years ago I visited a hi-fi shop in Omaha, NE. I forget what they were called, but it was where my Theta Dreadnaught originated in the late 90's. I was just in the transition from trying to do everything by ear to learning PC tools somewhat more advanced than the BASIC program I copied line by line from the back a David Weems book, so I was hot shit. I was floored at that time by speakers like Vanderstien and Thiel and a few others. Knowing full well I cannot trust my aural memory to be very accurate - I will make the claim anyways that we are better than those speakers were. Or, at the least, their equals. It has been a very long time since I was essentially floored by the availability of high quality speakers as far as the eye can see. Iowa last fall and Indy this year have really driven home how much can be done with a few hundred dollars worth of meaasurement gear, access to an incredibly deep knowledge pool, and our pick of drivers that 20-30 years ago would have been considered very esoteric.
In summary, I was humbled at how warmly I was welcomed (as always), and I absolutely enjoyed myself. Over the years, however, my tolerance for crowds and repetitive sounds has become increasingly smaller. This is why I check in and out so often, so I apologize if it seemed I was being standoffish or whatever - that is not the truth at all. It is just something I am learning to deal with.
I had a great time with Matt, Craig, Mark, Dan, Brian, and Javad Friday night. It has been a long time since I was up past midnight at one of these things! It really drove home for me the *real* reason I go to these events, and why I help with hosting them and making sure they happen. We are no longer competing with each other, not really, so it is the camaraderie, the brotherhood, that compels me to make these trips. That is, to me, the biggest reason to step out of the house, to make the journey. I would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you reading this far on this post for being a part of this thing of ours. We are part of something amazing, and while I am very proud of my contributions to the hobby - I am humbled at being part of something this big. It has grown largely by grassroots, organically -
(continued from above - a wise character limitation we impose)
it has taken on a life of its own at this point. This is because each of you, every one of you - is part of it. Part of this huge, decentralized community held loosely together year round by a common bond rooted in our love of music, our love of engineering, our love of woodworking, our love of exploring and learning, our love of whatever compels us to make these pilgrimages several times a year. I have had views of the crowds at these things that a lot of people have not, I see how we react and how we listen, I see wheels turning, I see people talking, I see them closing their eyes on certain passages. I see them walk up to a designer, I see how easy it is for all of us to be a part of this.
Let's keep this momentum going through 2019. MWAF in July, I am planning on DDIY in september, Iowa in October. 2020 will bring a few surprises from us here at MAC, as well. This is a community I am very proud to a member of, and I am going to do my best to keep developing and pushing (largely behind the scenes these days) to make sure these events play out.
Thank you all who have read this far, and I hope to see you all soon.
That was a very well written synopsis of the 'state of the DIY loudspeaker community' if I've ever seen one. Thanks to all whom attended, and for the nice comments directed at myself and for others. It was a great time for most everyone, and a very busy one for me! I still had a great time reconnecting, listening, and running the show.
Since my first attendance of one of these gatherings I've felt this way. It was like finding a great group of like minded brothers to share a fantastic time with. JR, you couldn't have said it any better.
Comments
InDIYana Event Website
305 East Washington Center Road Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825-4406
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InDIYana Event Website
InDIYana Event Website
InDIYana Event Website
I'll relocate your name back to attending from maybe.
Glad to hear it!
InDIYana Event Website
Looks like a blast of a DIY!
I see Craig K sitting right behind you. Did ya give him a big bear hug JR?
Flyby video on Facebook. Should be viewable by non-Facebook users. Take a look before the copyright algos tank the video.
https://www.facebook.com/423834211082397/posts/1556972947768512?s=1063506603&v=e&sfns=mo
The problem is, most of the speakers exhibit very little unit to unit variation. This is a good thing, a great thing, actually. It demonstrates that we are converging on a consensus of what a good loudspeaker sounds like. There are minor voicing differences, of course, and out of the sweet spot to either horizontal axis the variations became greater - but overall I would not hesitate to recommend pretty much anything that showed up to a newbie. I believe the question going forward to newbies should be centered on their tool collections and skills using those tools as quite a few of the designs would be hard to recreate for many of us.
Waveguides are becoming quite common. I believe there are still things our community is learning about integrating them - but several showed that they do not have to sound like horns or exhibit the "bb's in a pan" effect I pick up on a lot of those builds. I believe we might still be crossing too low despite the significant boost offered on the bottom end, and we may be listening too much to what is radiated off of the waveguide - but that is pure speculation and I have fuck-all worth of evidence to back that up, so leave me alone. I cannot explain what is happening between variations of boosted tweeters, except to say I hope someone with enough time can put together an integration guide of sorts.
I offered MAC as a resource for collecting data on using the Visaton/Monacor waveguide with common tweeters, as I believe there is a lot of trial and error involved in that process and see no reason for people to re-invent the wheel. I asked several people what their process was and it was generally along the lines of "screw it to the back and see". So maybe we have a little more work to do to get past the trial and error stage. I don't know. The reason I am writing so much about waveguides is because they were *everywhere* this weekend. I can see in a few years they are the norm, as even Bagby brought a waveguided speaker this year. As he is quite influential in steering the course of DIY, I can see his adoption of a technology he has been reluctant to endorse in the past will accelerate widespread usage. Personally - I see the waveguide technology as extremely useful for diffraction control and am reserving full judgement on its usefulness as a bass boost for tweeters.
SB, SB everywhere! With all due respect to the gracious host (great job, Ben) and Emcee (great job, Chuck) - it seems this event was really geared towards promoting SB Acoustics. I do not know if that was by design, but a lot of time was spent talking about their products. Most of you know my feelings on DIY becoming indebted to vendors, and I just get the feel that SB is making a backdoor push to establishing dominance. Great products, but I caution on allowing them to wield too much influence on our thing. We want to avoid a Stahl situation. That being said, the SB designs I heard this year were outstanding - the big 10" 2-way in particular was very well done, as was the SB kit using the ceramic drivers. I am very glad they exist as a check to companies like ScanSpeak and Accuton. I only hope that attendees using other brands are allowed the same forum to talk about their stuff as the ones who are corporate sponsored.
There were a significant number of designs present, and very few were "designed by someone else". I love seeing that. Only a handful of pairs that showed up were presented by a builder who was not also the designer. That is a momentum we need to maintain. The quality of some of the cabinets was absolutely astounding - it again reminds me that apologists for the commercial companies should re-evaluate things. Sound quality, build quality, and the progress with aesthetics is remarkable. We are not only building *nice* well-constructed cabinets, we are also building cabinets that rival commercial guys from an artistic point of view. This is also a momentum we need to maintain as a community. Ten years ago, I would agree with the assessment that DIY was not able to challenge the true high-end. Today, I believe a handful of us are right there visually with Sonus Faber and Focal and Wilson and whatever other brands are out there. Most of us meet or exceed their ability to design a speaker, so closing the rest of that gap is awesome to see.
Many years ago I visited a hi-fi shop in Omaha, NE. I forget what they were called, but it was where my Theta Dreadnaught originated in the late 90's. I was just in the transition from trying to do everything by ear to learning PC tools somewhat more advanced than the BASIC program I copied line by line from the back a David Weems book, so I was hot shit. I was floored at that time by speakers like Vanderstien and Thiel and a few others. Knowing full well I cannot trust my aural memory to be very accurate - I will make the claim anyways that we are better than those speakers were. Or, at the least, their equals. It has been a very long time since I was essentially floored by the availability of high quality speakers as far as the eye can see. Iowa last fall and Indy this year have really driven home how much can be done with a few hundred dollars worth of meaasurement gear, access to an incredibly deep knowledge pool, and our pick of drivers that 20-30 years ago would have been considered very esoteric.
In summary, I was humbled at how warmly I was welcomed (as always), and I absolutely enjoyed myself. Over the years, however, my tolerance for crowds and repetitive sounds has become increasingly smaller. This is why I check in and out so often, so I apologize if it seemed I was being standoffish or whatever - that is not the truth at all. It is just something I am learning to deal with.
I had a great time with Matt, Craig, Mark, Dan, Brian, and Javad Friday night. It has been a long time since I was up past midnight at one of these things! It really drove home for me the *real* reason I go to these events, and why I help with hosting them and making sure they happen. We are no longer competing with each other, not really, so it is the camaraderie, the brotherhood, that compels me to make these trips. That is, to me, the biggest reason to step out of the house, to make the journey. I would like to take this moment to thank each and every one of you reading this far on this post for being a part of this thing of ours. We are part of something amazing, and while I am very proud of my contributions to the hobby - I am humbled at being part of something this big. It has grown largely by grassroots, organically -
DIY is a brotherhood.
InDIYana Event Website