Niall’s virtual diary archives – Saturday 8 December 2024

Sunday 8 December 2024: 22:20. My last post on my house build I said I would be describing this project of mine next post:

3D printing extensions to an IKEA Fridans blind to avoid the expense of IKEA Fytur blinds.

Alas, this post won’t be that. I will write that post soon, not least that I need to write down everything I will need to do when I have to go make thirty of them for the house. But writing it out properly will be time consuming to do it correctly, plus all the 3D prints need to be uploaded and blurbs etc written for them too. In short, chances are I’ll write it up during Christmas break, that kind of time consuming long form instructional writing needs more time than a single night after the kids have gone to bed.

So what will I be talking about tonight? Well …

House build actually takes a step forwards …

On the 11th November, Structural Engineering finally completed! They had been working on it since July.

I removed the logos of the firm because I’m going to be mildly critical – I did have to formally complain about how long it was taking. In fairness, they did step up very much after me complaining, they were like a whole new company after in comparison to before me complaining. If I had had the company after my complaint before I complained, I would be falling over with praise for them. Still, I cannot argue that they most definitely did step up, albeit without any admission of having done anything wrong to begin with.

In fact, they were rather critical of me instead! Apparently I had not been driving forward the process sufficiently i.e. I should have been a plague about their houses forcing myself to the front of their work queue, instead of just letting them at it. And okay, fair enough, Ireland is currently the hottest construction market in the OECD and everybody is at capacity. If you don’t make noise, nobody will be prioritising you right now. You need to be a pest to get put ahead of everybody else. Lesson learned.

I am not a Structural Engineer, in fact it is probably my weakest area of skill of all the skills in the building of a house. However from my best understanding, their quality of work looks to be good. I did some spot calculations using my Applied Leaving Cert Maths from more than a quarter century ago and they appear to have built in very significant safety margins everywhere I checked (which was, admittedly the simpler cases because the complex cases are beyond my capabilities). The work appears to be high quality.

If I did have another mild criticism, they were annoyingly narrow in their scope. Lots and lots of stuff they simply hand waved away as ‘this isn’t something we do’, punting it onto somebody (which sometimes felt like anybody) else. And I get they have a lot of business on right now, and they’re focusing on their narrow tunnel of the specific engineering they do. But as I made very clear in my feedback to them, I hired them to help the wider team build this house. From my point of view, that means applying yourself to solving the wider problems up to the point where your expertise ends. It doesn’t mean shunting off everything outside your narrow remit onto anybody else – that, in my opinion, helps cause systemic failure because it opens gaps between expertise which only the client (i.e. me) can fill, sometimes using best guesses from what he can glean off Google. That isn’t - in my opinion - what engineering is about. I certainly wouldn’t tolerate that kind of attitude in my workplace, and if I ever exhibited it myself I would view it as a personal failure for which I would publicly apologise.

All that said, my workplace(s) hire from global talent pools, and the minimum bar is very considerably higher than any national bar. My workplace(s) expect global top tier talent, and anybody who doesn’t perform at a globally competitive skill level quickly gets dismissed. It is unrealistic to expect the same here. I am also mindful that the sums of money involved for my house build are a small fraction of what my workspace(s) spend, and to a certain extent, if somebody is paying big bucks they can expect a level of service not appropriate for somebody like me who isn’t paying big bucks. So I need to arrest my expectations, and I am very sure I’ll need to keep on doing so.

What next?

After my TF supplier received the completed structural engineering designs, they put my house into the queue for the metal webbed joist designer. They apparently have a six week lead time, and they are not expected to even look at my house until the New Year.

After the metal webbed joist design is complete (I’m thinking February at earliest), my TF supplier says we’ll be immediately put into the queue for foundations design which apparently currently has a lead time of three months. They’ll then use those months to do the detailed timber frame design which is the specific bit they do in-house as they manufacture offsite the TF panels. I am told it is highly likely they’ll complete that work before the foundations are done as those are holding up everybody in the Irish construction industry right now, they’re all at capacity and hence the lead times. So we’re looking at an earliest possible build start date of May or so. Which is more likely June.

That is real bad timing for me, as school holidays start then and I’ll be on childcare. I can’t say I’m looking forward one bit to childcare whilst trying to get that house sealed up externally before winter sets in. It’s going to be an absolute bear.

However, I suppose there is a good chance that we will get that house weatherproof by this time next year. We then beaver away at the internals, with a bit of luck we get to move in by Summer 2026. That is many years later than anybody ever expected, but better than no house at all.

Music while we work

With the family having been on austerity for the past two years as our bank accounts have to be absolutely pristine for the mortgage application (they scan every line item, require explanations for anything unusual, and of course they prove your savings and spend rates which says how well you would afford the mortgage), we don’t ever spend anything discretionary except on the house. Black Friday and Singles’ Day 2022 & 2023 we spent many thousands on stuff from China and elsewhere, but for Black Friday 2024 I was kinda at a loss on what more is worth buying now not later? After all, anything bought now ties up cash and this build will be primarily cash flow constrained, however if very large savings are on hand, or I need an item for testing now to make sure it’ll work, I’ve tended to go for it.

You might remember the future house TV I bought this time last year in the Black Friday sales. That was an example of large savings being worth the tying up of cash. That is indeed a superb TV, however one thing I found during testing was that the bass was disappointing, as I described this time last year. So I am in the market for something which can do a far better job with low end frequencies.

My completely unrealistic subwoofer in the wishlist is the Klipsch RP 1600SW which is a 16 inch vented driver with about 800 watts of 16 - 175 Hz audio delivery. This very much would deliver all the low frequency audio you would ever need, but it does cost €2,000 inc VAT which is nearly as much as the TV itself.

Getting into a more realistic price range, the Q Acoustics QB12 has a 12 inch driver, 220 watts of bass power, and delivers 28 - 300 Hz. At €450 inc VAT, still a lot of money for a single purpose item. And, in the end, too much money. I couldn’t justify it for that single use case.

What I could justify is something which can act as the TV subwoofer, but can also act as outdoor music if we were on the patio, and also act as a general portable audio e.g. when working on the inside of the house. Which kinda ticked the box that this is arguably a future house purchase and therefore ‘allowed’. So I ended up buying at a good Black Friday discount the JBL PartyBox 710 for €650 inc VAT. It has 800 watts of total power, and can deliver 35 - 20,000 Hz (but see later about that). It does have serious audiophile chops, rtings reckoned it the best Bluetooth capable speaker available along with similarly high ratings from several audiophile sources including enthusiast forums on Reddit. As you will see shortly, I don’t think it that good personally, especially for €650, but I don’t regret the purchase. Here it is in action (and yes, the light show can be turned off):

The JBL Party Box 710 compared

I’m not a serious audiophile, but I have sought good ‘bang for the buck’ in audio systems. My first set of speakers attempting audio quality was a 2.1 Audio-Technica set. I still have them – in fact, I was only listening to them a few hours ago as they’re out at the site – and despite being a quarter century old, they still work perfectly and still sound great. Funnily enough, I can find zero mention of these on the internet, so I really wish I’d taken a photo of the model number so I could give you some technical details. In any case, they have a reasonably sized subwoofer, and two (later upgraded to three) ‘full range’ satellites (which usually means they struggle at the low mid range, which is exactly true in this case). The reason I added the third optional speaker is because the satellites were a bit overwhelmed in a TV scenario, and the unit is capable of 3.1. The third satellite provided a dedicated centre channel and made them into excellent TV speakers. If used as computer speakers where the satellites are right close to your head, two is plenty, but at a distance you do need more satellite power. In any case, these go real loud, the bass is thumpy enough, for a small fairly inexpensive and certainly very long lasting speakers, they were and remain a great purchase.

I seem to have some luck when picking speakers. After a few years with the AT 2.1 set, I invested in a Logitech 5.1 set. I remember they lasted a while and then blew up, so I then bought a more expensive Logitech 5.1 set which I think was the second most expensive model they had at the time. Those remain working perfectly to this day after nearly two decades of continuous use. As they’re next door, I know the model number this time: they are the Logitech Z-5400 5.1 speaker system released in the year 2006:

• Total 310w RMS
  • 1x 6.5” Subwoofer 116w RMS
  • 5x 2.5” Satellites 194w RMS
• Claimed 35 - 20,000 Hz (one user reported measured 3 dB from 42 Hz)
• I would say the bass has plenty of power but not much definition i.e. it is muddy.
• Crossover is approx 120 Hz to compensate for the ‘full range’ satellites not having much at the low end, so the muddy subwoofer does much more lifting at the low end than anything hifi would.

I remember ex-girlfriend Johanna didn’t think the audio quality from these were good back when we lived together, but we were using them as room speakers when they were designed specifically to surround a single individual sitting in front of a computer. If you have them arranged like that, well I find them better than the Audio-Technica’s, but I have also heard better again though I must admit not by much. The Z-5400’s got sniffed at by audiophiles, but end users absolutely loved them and I see from the internet that if arranged in their intended position closely surrounding a single seated individual, empirical measurements found audiophile level quality.

Finally, I suppose the other audiophile type audio system is the one in my car which is the maximum trim possible for a Ford Focus. It is made by Sony, and is the only one with proper dedicated tweeters, mid range and subwoofer speakers. Music sounds great within the car, and if you crank it up you get everybody staring at you thanks to the dedicated subwoofer which sits on top of the spare wheel in the boot and is the same diameter. Rock music sounds particularly amazing, indeed you can be singing so loud as you’re driving I’m not entirely sure it’s safe.

So, onto the party box! You may find the rtings review of interest, but my own notes are these:

• Total 800w RMS
  • 2x 8” Subwoofers
  • 2x 2.75” Tweeters
• Claimed 35 - 20,000 Hz (rtings measured 3 dB between 26.7 - 14,100 Hz).
• SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs.
• Noticeable volume drop near to 100 Hz during a frequency sweep (rtings found the same). This is surely a firmware glitch.
• Many users report volume past about 66% simply swaps treble for bass i.e. bass is actively reduced in favour of treble. I couldn’t check this because this speaker at that volume in this small rented house is just too much to bear.

All testing was done with a wired cable from a MBP, not over Bluetooth to eliminate Bluetooth codec compression effects.

The party box is on paper the most powerful audio system I now have. Yes it goes loud, yes everything in your house will vibrate, however as with all powerful audio systems, they max out at about 100 dB of noise to prevent damaging human ears. The difference in power is how much air volume gets moved i.e. dB is the amplitude of the wave, but doesn’t say anything about the mass of air moved. More powerful speakers move more air volume. If this is hard to conceptualise, it’s like a light having a maximum point brightness otherwise you get glare, so past a certain power level lights would add brightness by adding surface volume to emit more light from more surface. The party box is really big, easily more than a metre tall, and the large bass vent it has at the back pushes lots and lots of air. Putting a 24 Hz tone through it, I can’t hear anything but given that the house and everything in it is shaking (including me) I can’t fault the power delivery.

Unfortunately, the party box is also the least consistent of any audio system I have. On some material, it is goosebumps good. On other material, it sounds actively crap. I upgraded to the latest firmware as the actively crap tracks are almost certainly due to firmware issues, but in the end I have to call it as I hear it:

• If music has ‘tight’ swooping bass, this speaker very much favours that. Basically it bats you physically around with bass.
• If music has lots of ‘general’ bass e.g. most rock music, this speaker doesn’t favour that. The sound is off-kilter or unbalanced or crowded somehow.
• Most music falls somewhere in between. Most is well rendered, however just because it has a beat or is EDM doesn’t necessarily make it stand out. Rather, it’s ‘competent’ rather than ‘wow’. Whereas on my other sound systems above, the exact same material just sounds better and sometimes a lot better.

To try and nail this down better, here is specific material I tested:

Most improved tracks (like wow! goosebumps good):

1. Timeless by Goldie. I had no idea until now how much attention he paid the bass track!
2. Porcelein by Moby
3. Teardrop by Massive Attack

Disappointing (sound is brash? crowded soundstage? somehow sounds bad)

1. Being Everyone by After Forever
2. Is Nothing Sacred Anymore? by Meatloaf
3. Ironic by Alanis Morissette

Very acceptable:

1. Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield (no crowded sound at all, very spacious)
2. Halo by Beyonce
3. Talk that Talk by Rihanna
4. Here with me by Dido
5. Fotografia by Juanes (but getting a bit of that crowded sound issue)

Tested movies (all with 5.1 or better audio with dedicated LFE channel):

1. The Matrix. Breathtaking. Bass here is exactly right and clean. Every bullet fired is like a bass punch into the chest. It shows just how good this speaker can be with the right input.
2. Sleepy Hollow intro. Amazing, and it’s what I got this speaker for because this exact movie had a sound not commensurate with the picture on that nice TV.
3. Starship Troopers. Amazing.
4. Ultraviolet intro. Superb.
5. Edge of Tomorrow. Almost as if you’re in the battle scenes.
6. Deadpool and Wolverine intro. The movie has too much general bass in the intro music, it doesn’t sound good, it’s crowded. Rest of the movie is good.
7. The Rock. Very good, but not as good as I think it could be. Where is the bass punch in the chest per bullet fired?

Movies, as you might surmise, suit this speaker far better in general than music.

I will say that almost nobody seemed to find the same as I have above online. You could say it’s low quality source material, and maybe it is, however I deliberately threw on each of those three disappointing tracks on the Audio Technica speakers earlier today. And they sounded great, Being Everyone was spacious almost felt like you were at the concert. Meatloaf had Julia my three year old bopping around. Alanis’ most famous song came through clear, very much not crowded, and there was plenty of midrange even though that isn’t the strength of these speakers. I played all three in my car too, and all three sounded superb there, better than the Audio Technica speakers.

I can’t really explain it nor that none of the reviews online found anything similar. I’m very sure it’s not a hardware defect, Teardrop by Massive Attack would nearly bring you to tears it sounds so good. No, I reckon it’s something misconfigured in the DSP firmware, the fact there is that arbitrary volume drop off around 100 Hz would suggest their firmware is just buggy. It’s a shame.

Now, all the above said, the party box does tick all the boxes it was bought for: it can be wheeled wherever you need sound, it can be safely left outside in the rain, no fiddling with wires is needed thanks to the Bluetooth, and it works very well to add bass to movies as a standin for a dedicated subwoofer. So I’m happy with my purchase. I guess my only temptation now is whether two of them would sound better because you could send left channel to one and right channel to the other, and maybe that might solve the crowded sound problem.

Anyway, not a concern for the next few years. This will do for now.

I guess my next update will probably be during my Christmas break. See you then!

#house