The end of my journey...

[cameronthorne]

...at least for now. I have finally finished my system and am ready to start a new thread with my impressions. I think this is actually just the *beginning* of a lifelong journey of learning and enjoyment in a new hobby.

I do still have a few more tweaks to do that I hope to finish up within a week, and I'm experimenting with some new measurement tools. I will be updating this thread in the coming few weeks with my listening impressions, some measurements, of course, more questions.

For now, I'd just like to kick it off by saying that I am hosting an open house next Friday, November 23. I have already emailed the OUG members that I know of within driving distance, but if there are any lurkers on the forum near DFW, Texas who are interested in attending, please PM me for information.

My work schedule has not allowed me to devote the time I need to really dial these in, but so far I have immensely enjoyed my listening sessions. These are quite capable speakers, and I'm pleased with my purchase. I believe these are a good value.

-- Cameron

[David Miller]

Cameron, I hope your Pluto party was a success and that you took photos. Please post. I live vicariously now, until I get build my Plutos.
Dave Miller

[cameronthorne]

Just a quick update for now. The small open house I hosted was quite successful. The PLUTOs performed quite well, even at ridiculous volumes, and impressed many of my guests. I (like someone else on this forum mentioned) find the sweet spot to be just outside the normal equilateral triangle. This may have something to do with mine being slightly too close to the walls for optimum imaging. The soundstage is very impressive.

Yesterday I had Another Brick In the Wall, Pt. 3 playing with Dolby Pro Logic II Music post-processing applied, and the effect was fantastic. The crashes during the intro panned across the room perfectly. I could not reproduce the effect in stereo mode.

At least one person to patronize my open house is going to build his own PLUTOs (he was considering them prior to my demo). I've encouraged him to join these forums.

I have a few more comments for another post, but no time at the moment.

-- Cameron

[Bill Schneider]

My current room placement is to have the listener inside the normal apex of an equilateral triangle, but as you know, a lot depends on the room. I have to experiment with each different room to find where speakers work best.

Why is it that the best listening position is always the worst place to have a speaker in the room?

At least one person to patronize my open house is going to build his own PLUTOs

Those Plutos really sell themselves, don't they?

[cameronthorne]

It's been a while since I posted an update. I have been enjoying my system almost every day, but since I have been working a lot of overtime lately I haven't had time to play with any tweaking.

My setup suffers from a few sub-optimal compromises, being it a living room system. My room is set up along the diagonal of the room. My living room is also an open floor plan, so I have interesting and somewhat unpredictable reflections versus a standard rectangular room. Also, my PLUTOs are only about 0.5m from the walls -- less than the recommended minimum 1m. I was happy to hear SL say that the PLUTO is probably more forgiving about this than ORION, but I still understand that this probably does compromise the soundstage somewhat. Finally, my main listening position is inside the equilateral triangle, and I've found that imaging improves when I move further back and stand behind the couch. I am currently trying to negotiate to move the PLUTOs closer together, but so far have been unsuccessful.

On a humorous note, I have found a good way to clean the midrange drivers on the PLUTOs. Yesterday I was demoing the system to a friend, and we had it cranked up quite a bit louder than my normal after-work listening levels. I was experimenting with some surround sound post-processing on a few tracks, which gave the rear speakers more of a workout than they have gotten in a while. Well all the dust that had piled up on the cone rolled up into a little dust ball and was bouncing around as the music played! Since I was vacuuming the house that day anyway, I just blew the dust ball off on to the floor. Just like your oven, set the volume knob to self-clean and you are all set! The rubber parts, like the surrounds and rubber coupling, do seem to attract dust more than the other parts do. The dust on those parts seems to like to stick, and does not come off easily with gently blowing. Has anyone else noticed this, or do you just keep your houses cleaner than I do?

-- Cameron

[Bill Schneider]

Our house has been dusty because of MDF dust and sawdust floating around lately, but I was surprised at how clean the Pluto midrange remained. I expected a little self-cleaning action, and the Pluto mid without the sub really gets moving on some selections. It must be enough to shake the dust off.

The rubber surrounds are clean too. Turn off your subs once in a while to give them a better workout!

I was thinking about posting about how clean that rascal keeps itself, but you beat me to it.

Bill Schneider