Roman J. Bednarek

Email: roman@twcny.rr.com



Education

  • Bachelor's Degree, Electrical Engineering - Clarkson University - Potsdam, NY - 1995
  • Master's Degree, Electrical Engineering (Wireless Communications) - Clemson University - Clemson, SC - 1999

Hobbies

  • Classical, acoustic, electric & bass guitar playing - began playing in the late 1980's. Performances include self-written classical guitar instrumentals, electric bass guitar for a few amateur bands, acoustic guitar rhythm/lead backup, lead guitar and recently mandolin. Enjoy writing many different kinds of music and although I've written some songs which have lyrics, I have yet to find the courage to sing them in public (which is why most of my "coffee house" open mic performances are classical guitar fingerpicking instrumentals). Recently I tend to enjoy playing improvisational lead guitar along with other musicians and take pride in being able to "learn" songs on the fly. I plan to put some examples of my music on my "Interests" page as I make more recordings (I'll admit that recording at home tends to be very frustrating for me partially because I'm a perfectionist but mainly because I tend to get more nervous when recording and in general I find it tedious and lose patience very easily).


  • Disc Golf - discovered disc golf in 1998, currently a member of the CNYDGA (Central New York Disc Golf Association). Currently only a casual player but still enjoy playing and find it to be a great form of exercise as well as a great way to spend time with family and friends outdoors. www.cnydga.org


  • DIY Speaker Design (hence the website) - built my first set of homemade speakers in 1997 using clearance Bose woofers (boy have I learned a lot since then!)


  • Walking/Hiking - not a real serious hiker but I do enjoy going to parks, especially ones with waterfalls (my brother and I have spent a few summers visiting as many waterfalls as we could find within a few hundred mile radius of Syracuse, NY).


  • Bicycling - I don't ride as much or as far as I used to when I was younger (I guess that I can blame some of that on my driver's license) but still enjoy it and since my brother bought me a very nice Trek "Hybrid" style bicycle a few years back it has given me even more incentive to get some exercise this way. In general I find that I don't like to exercise unless it is enjoyable or I am getting something accomplished... if I'm going to have to lift something, I'd rather have a good reason to do so (like move a 300 pound pinball machine into my brother's basement, for example).


  • Driving - enjoy scenic drives in the country, especially in the fall when the foliage is at its peak.


  • Pinball - I'm not a big fan of video games but am still fascinated with pinball. Growing up with two pinball machines in the house (Humpty Dumpty and Evel Knievel) since the early 80's probably contributed to my pinball addiction. Since then I've learned how to repair and restore them, but tend to prefer playing them over fixing them (which seems to be the opposite of my brother who has an ever expanding collection of pinball projects). See my "Interests" page for details on some of my newer pinball machines and projects. Pinball is slowly becoming extinct these days and even when you do find a pinball machine on location in public, most of the time it is in very poor shape and not much fun to play which is why owning a pinball machine seems to be the best way to enjoy one.


  • Website Design - not really a hobby but something that I picked up a few years back when Victor Lopez (my guitar teacher) needed a website which made it easier for me to design and maintain this website (although I'm a bit better at designing websites than maintaining them in terms of updating information and/or links).


  • Electronics/Mechanical Repair - I enjoy the challenge of trying to fix just about anything that is broken (as my dad says, there's nothing worse than "broken" so what do you have to lose). While I enjoy fixing things for friends, I often find that my pile of equipment in need of repair (which I call projects) sometimes gets neglected until that particular device is needed for some reason. Although my background is in electronics I've been learning a lot more about cars/mechanics lately, especially since I got my 2004 Honda Civic Si back in 2009 (it was in a front end accident which was supposedly repaired by the fellows that I got it from but I ended up having to fix a lot of the things that they did wrong... I wouldn't have it any other way though because it was the only way I could have found that car for over $4,000 under the book price and the repairs didn't cost me much because they already bought most of the parts that were damaged in the accident).




Original Audio System Configuration (~2005)

5.1 Channel Home Theater System

  • Marantz SR7000 - 5.1 Channel Dolby Digital/DTS Receiver with 100 Watts x 5 channels - Excellent amplifier section with lots of detail that has no problem driving 5 Proteus jrs. (impedance as low as 4 Ohms)
  • Marantz CC3000 - 5 disc CD changer - Analog output sound is average but I use the coaxial digital output with the D/A converters in the SR7000
  • Pioneer Elite DV-45a - Universal DVD player - plays every type of disc imaginable except a frisbee but I primarily use it for multichannel DVD-Audio, SACD, and DVD-Video discs
  • 5 Proteus jr. speakers - having five identical speakers preserves tonal balance and offers exceptional imaging between all channels
  • 12" Titanic 1200 sealed subwoofer with 250 Watt Parts Express plate amplifier
    • or
  • Dual 15" TC Sounds sealed subwoofers(4 Ohm DVC wired in parallel) with Ashly FET-2000 power amp that provides 675 Watts per channel into a 2 Ohm load - did somebody say foundation repair?
  • Acoustic Research Pro Series analog and digital interconnects
  • Ixos 11 gauge speaker wire

Secondary Stereo System

  • Yamaha A-700 Natural Sound Integrated Amplifier - 100 Watts per channel
  • Marantz CD-67SE cd player - replaced JRT2114D op-amps with OPA 2604 Burr Brown op-amps and now the sound is very nice with deep, tight bass, smooth midrange and crisp, clean highs - see the audiofiles page for details
  • Asterion two-way bookshelf speakers with ports sealed
  • Seriphus powered subwoofer/speaker stands x 2 - Peerless 850146 CSC-X 10" woofer and Parts Express 250 Watt plate amp with 30Hz boost
  • Acoustic Research Pro Series II directional analog interconnects
  • Monster Cable 12 gauge speaker wire


Current Audio System Configuration (2009-)

  • Maranzt SR7000 - Same receiver as above but now used as a pre-amplifier for the front L/R channels. Also used for 4 channel surround sound (no center channel) using the internal amplifiers to drive the rear surround speakers (either Asterion or Microbe speakers depending on the space available) for multichannel SACD/DVD-A discs.
  • Harman Kardon Citation Twelve/Hypex UcD180AD project power amp - There are some details about this amp under the "Audiofiles" section but basically I modified the original power supply from my HK Citation 12 and used the original case to house the Hypex UcD180AD digital amplifier modules. I really like the sound of this amp and find it to be very neutral with great clarity which I tend to prefer when it comes to designing speakers (I like to say that it is like having a clean canvas which allows me to hear the speakers and not the amp when it comes to tweaking crossovers).
  • Marantz CD-67SE cd player - I had been using my Marantz CC3000 cd changer with the digital connction for a while but recently found that the modified CD-67SE sounds much smoother with much more emphasis in the very deep bass region.
  • Pioneer Elite DV-45a Universal SACD/DVD player - I use this unit mostly for stereo and multichannel SACD/DVD-Audio discs.
  • Rabco ST-4 Turntable/Yamaha A-700 (as a phono preamp) - Actually right now the Rabco ST-4 is in need of belts and I haven't actually used it in decades but am anxious to get it repaired eventually. For now I have a very inexpensive Pioneer turntable with a very cheap Pickering cartridge.
  • APC H15 power conditioner - Primarily for surge protection and I probably wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't such a good deal ($99 on clearance).
  • Asterion/Alpheus MkII/Dionysus - I typically rotate between these three different pairs of speakers every few months or so. I consider these three designs to be my all time favorites ("keepers" so to speak) and find that each one has a particular aspect that makes it special yet all three speakers allow me to listen to the music without being distracted by the speakers. I suppose that having these speakers is part of the reason why I've been able to take a break from designing many newer speaker projects in the past few years.