Zen
Posts: 763 +49
Well I don't know what got into me when I woke up this morning, but I got rather miffed with an old set of 2.1 stereo computer speakers, that were connected to my Dell Dimension 3000. A friend sent me a music file via e-mail and it sounded like crap. So not wanting to spend any extra money that I didn't have to, I pondered. Then it came to me, since I got my Playstation 2 I was able to integrate it with a Harmon Kardon 2.1 surround sound system. Why can't I do the same with a computer, so I grabbed a spare Panasonic 5.1 Dolby Pro Logic home theater system that I was keeping in storage, and went to work.
I took off to Ace Hardware and bought all the fixings I would need to build home made speaker stands, got a couple cans of black spray paint, "got to match my living room colors"! Went to Radio Shack and bought all the required RCA to 3.5mm jack cables. Got home, opened up the Dell 3000 and upgraded the hell out of it. I installed a old Nvidia GeForce 6200(A) 256MB DDR2 video card, so when I watch things it will look better than watching it off the motherboards video adapter, which was only 64MB's. Next I installed a sweet Creative XF-I Titanium Fatality 7.1 capable sound card. Confirmed that Ubuntu would allow these new devices to work, talk about flawless, not one darn problem, it all worked.
Went to work on building those speaker stands, with a power drill both prefab and build only took about 30 minutes. Got them outside and painted them black, gave them a while to dry to the touch. Went to an audio web site that dealt with custom setup's like mine, printed out the positioning chart and used that as my base.
Oh my God, talk about an audio sweet spot right where my head is! Sounds like the music band is singing and playing to me around my recliner.
Here is the setup, take a look, I am so fricking proud of myself, all smiles here!
There's one of the front main speakers on it's newly made stand!
There's the PC and Home Theater system side by side, 1000 watts of pure sound!
There's the Sub resting and pumping out the bass behind my chair.
There's the monitor, got the Sky.fm web radio thing going!
And lastly..........the whole darn package!
I love this, I also love the fact that the home built speaker stands from start to finish only cost me $12.75, where Walmart wanted $39.99 for only two matching aluminum speaker stands. I made mine out of soft pine wood, brass wood screws, a little dab of wood glue and paint, $12.75, I like that.
Sorry to be rambling on about all of this, but using an older home theater system meant I didn't have to buy a computer sound solution, I already had that covered. And I always get a little gitty about do it yourself home projects, I'm happy.
Time to bust out Star Trek 2009, grab a beer and pop some pop corn and see what this new setup will do for a movie.
I took off to Ace Hardware and bought all the fixings I would need to build home made speaker stands, got a couple cans of black spray paint, "got to match my living room colors"! Went to Radio Shack and bought all the required RCA to 3.5mm jack cables. Got home, opened up the Dell 3000 and upgraded the hell out of it. I installed a old Nvidia GeForce 6200(A) 256MB DDR2 video card, so when I watch things it will look better than watching it off the motherboards video adapter, which was only 64MB's. Next I installed a sweet Creative XF-I Titanium Fatality 7.1 capable sound card. Confirmed that Ubuntu would allow these new devices to work, talk about flawless, not one darn problem, it all worked.
Went to work on building those speaker stands, with a power drill both prefab and build only took about 30 minutes. Got them outside and painted them black, gave them a while to dry to the touch. Went to an audio web site that dealt with custom setup's like mine, printed out the positioning chart and used that as my base.
Oh my God, talk about an audio sweet spot right where my head is! Sounds like the music band is singing and playing to me around my recliner.
Here is the setup, take a look, I am so fricking proud of myself, all smiles here!
There's one of the front main speakers on it's newly made stand!
There's the PC and Home Theater system side by side, 1000 watts of pure sound!
There's the Sub resting and pumping out the bass behind my chair.
There's the monitor, got the Sky.fm web radio thing going!
And lastly..........the whole darn package!
I love this, I also love the fact that the home built speaker stands from start to finish only cost me $12.75, where Walmart wanted $39.99 for only two matching aluminum speaker stands. I made mine out of soft pine wood, brass wood screws, a little dab of wood glue and paint, $12.75, I like that.
Sorry to be rambling on about all of this, but using an older home theater system meant I didn't have to buy a computer sound solution, I already had that covered. And I always get a little gitty about do it yourself home projects, I'm happy.
Time to bust out Star Trek 2009, grab a beer and pop some pop corn and see what this new setup will do for a movie.
