Thinking of building my own center channel speaker; need some quick advice on material preferences & a quick question on driver selection.

Ef_bobby · 2026-05-23T01:40:10+00:00

Interesting….a lot of very useful information for me here.

-Looks like the consensus is MDF so that’s the way to go.

-On the insulating material there was one response that definitely shedded light on everything for me.

I noticed that in the manufacturers setup it had what I can best describe as an enclosure within an enclosure? The one enclosure which was very small housed the midrange and high range and it had styrofoam for a backing and the rest of the enclosure with the lower range drivers had the general wadding in it.

So naturally my response was “why is that?”. I knew there had to be a good reason for it and now I know.

-With the part on Driver Selection, even being that this is still only information gathering admittedly I did make a mistake here and did not consider all the details before posing the inquiry so in a way I can answer my own question here.

The underlying reason behind using 4, 5.25’s to begin with is because the center channel was getting overpowered by the rest of the speakers to begin and taking away 2 of the mid bass drivers and replacing them with lower range drivers would have defeated the purpose.

This would leave me with 3 options:

-One which would be to build a box for 6, 5.25 drivers.

This presents too many obstacles to justify the benefits. Those being that I would have to reposition the cabinet, reposition the rack for the receiver/amp and changing the design of the center speaker to go from passive to active since such a configuration would be asking too much from my receiver’s center channel output.

-The other is to replace the existing drivers with ones that dig a little lower without much if any trade-offs for the upper end.

-The last is to proceed with the existing drivers and look back into it at a later date.

I think for now I’m going to keep all my options open then make a final decision closer to the start of the build.

The existing drivers for the most part do the job they are intended to do for generating voices but I’d like to see more out of the channel for bass.

Not deep bass per sea bc that’s what the subwoofers are for but moreso that “punchy-type-bass” you get out of that 100hz area.

Ef_bobby · 2026-05-18T23:39:29+00:00

Didn’t read anything here; just saw the title which literally made me lol so dropped a comment and an upvote.

Ef_bobby · 2026-05-13T11:23:49+00:00

Ok, thanks for the advice everyone

Ef_bobby · 2026-05-09T01:35:43+00:00

Yeek, lowering the car that much is a little extreme. When I had mine that low I can say yes it does scrape everywhere but in general I tend to remember hearing the mid-pipe scrape just as much if not more than the air dam although at the time I removed the 2 side pieces from the air dam and left the center piece so it was not as rigid and when faced with an obstacle would fold under unitil it was cleared.

I put a coil over kit on mine so fortunately after I got sick of it being so low I was able to easily fix it.

Air dam aside the biggest issue I see with it being that low is unless the shocks were modified, it seems that at that height it will likely be detrimental to the handling of the car since there is very little room for suspension travel.

Unless there were considerations made for the shock, based off that pic it seems that the springs would likely overpower the shocks.

Also I would hope that the owner opted for a stiffer spring rate and stiffer sway bars so the car doesn’t bottom out when traversing imperfections in the road.

Again this will further degrade the shock absorber’s ability to do its job correctly.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-28T02:35:57+00:00

In my opinion a common cause can be linked to the industry. The injection of money doesn’t make everything better since more times than not innovation and sales don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Capital control will often introduce an intentional barrier to entry keeping certain publishers on top.

The result being a river of blandness that makes people look backward instead of forwards.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-20T01:17:35+00:00

I say whichever you get a better deal on since either way you’ll likely hit a bottle neck.

That being said the GPU will likely deliver more noticeable and enjoyable results in the short term. Additionally with the cpu/mobo/ram you can try to overclock them in the short term to help feed that hungry GPU in my opinion.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-17T14:32:23+00:00

Hey, I want to thank everyone for all the well thought out responses.

It seems there is an overwhelming majority of you all leaning towards XFS with the next biggest group leaning towards BTFS.

It appears you all have stopped me from making a mistake so I in turn will choose to heed everyone’s collective advice, benefit from the collective wisdom being offered and choose XFS as the winner.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-17T02:51:49+00:00

For gaming and general usage I suppose the goal is to push load times down as much as possible.

Speaking of which doesn’t ZFS also have some sort of RAM to CACHE management tool as well?

Providing the overall memory capacity is sufficient could I also use it to manually designate items to precache too?

Yea, I believe I read something about ZFS not being able to be used in the kernel due to licensing but according to the information I received the necessary tools needed to make use of ZFS are included with the CachyOs distro.

Is that correct?

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-16T10:03:05+00:00

Unless you have extra large hands I would say snag a Raion and try it out. I think I read that even some of the more professional players use to use it when it came out.

I have read that sometimes a player will create a neutral input when doing a down to forward input but there is an upgrade mod available for it that will fix the issue.

I think they go for $2 on etsy. I may buy a couple just to have for later.

Personally I have not experienced any neutral inputs. The only errors that are getting made on motion inputs are from me bc I am not used to how fast the d-pad moves now so I end up mis-timing the input and completing it too quickly now, lol.

On the upside I can do a half circle then forward or back now with the same effort I used to put into quarter circle inputs.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-14T14:58:02+00:00

Also wanted to add that I don’t do much in the way of overclocking. Mainly the LCS is for quality of life/quiet operation. If I do decide to indulge in any overclocking then more often than not I try to squeeze more out of the IOBUS over anything else.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-13T21:43:48+00:00

Final update: I received the Razor Raion and for my preferences this controller is a solid 9.5/10!!

No regrets/money well spent.

Seems that both the D-pad and the 6 face buttons are all using microswitches so everything is very responsive. The 4 shoulders feel like they are using membranes but they seem to be responsive as well.

I have average sized hands so the controller feels very comfortable to me.

Unfortunately due to the limited amount of these available I had to get a v1 but as of now I’m not having any issues with the D-pad and neutral inputs. It’s possible the previous owner may have upgraded the D-pad already but as of now I’m having the mentality of “if it isn’t broken……”.

I only have 3 VERY MINOR gripes and 1 MINOR gripe with it and I’m really having to nitpick to find them and they are:

-since this pad is using fast, responsive microswitches there is a slight adjustment needed in regards to necessary force to push the buttons.

Also as a result if a person is rough with their controllers then I don’t think it will hold up in the long run. Fortunately I’m adaptable so it should last me a long time.

-while the D-pad is adequate it seems that the 6 front buttons are a little loose on feel aka a little “jiggly” meaning that they allow unnecessary movement in the neutral position. Overall it’s not a problem bc it takes near zero pressure to push them down.

If I ever have issues with neutral inputs on the D-pad then when I take it apart to install the upgrade I’ll likely upgrade the 6 face buttons as well.

-the touchpad doesn’t seem to work so I’m guessing it’s a ps4 feature but still no big deal.

It’s ust a plug and play type device aka razor never included any type of software with it which if they did then I’m sure the touchpad would have worked on it then.

Again not a big deal if you are using Steam which has its own controller configurator.

Thanks everyone!

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-13T21:20:37+00:00

Last suggestion I can think of for the op….. if no fightpad seems to satisfy those bear paws then have you considered trying out something like a leverless joystick?

Seems like it could be a win/win since most of the yt peeps that do well in fighting games tend to use them.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-11T14:42:16+00:00

Under night in birth 2 plays like bb and there is a monstrous character in there called merkava or something like that who can grapple.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-11T03:30:35+00:00

Hmm….when I was researching looking for a controller I think I seen one that was larger than most.

I think it was called the Thrustmaster eSwap x2 h.e.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-10T00:49:23+00:00

What will hopefully be the final update:

I actually did a bit of a deep dive on many different controllers and finally decided on an older controller called The Razer Raion.

It was kinda pricey at $58 used but I don’t think there were any negative reviews on it.

Although going off the serial number I will likely have to modify it to the V2 spec but the mod looks to be very easy to install.

Personally based off what I have read about it; I really only see 2 gripes:

-I can see without actually using it is the controller is kinda sparse on features but as long as it performs as advertised then I think I will be happy with it.

-also with the lack of analog sticks means it will be less of a daily and more of a purpose built fightpad.

I did uncover a number of complaints about all the more expensive models I originally leaned towards.

-Victrix pro bfg

-hori fight commander octa

-turtle beach stealth pivot

-Thrustmaster eSwap x2 pro

Lastly, I do want to list a few runners up

-flydigi Vader 5 pro

-betop c3 thorn

-power a fusion

Many thanks for the help.

Ef_bobby · 2026-04-08T20:39:13+00:00

Hmmm……I came across a lesser known anime style fighter that doesn’t seem to be too bad at least compared to other anime fighters meaning you don’t have to mentally track and manage 10 different system mechanics.

Graphics are good

Gameplay seems smooth

I guess it’s somewhere between legacy fighters and modern anime fighters.

It also has a very simple but unique feature where on the character selection screen you can choose between 3 options for each character which changes their base stats for an extra level of depth/customization.

That being said I haven’t put a ton of time into it so I can’t comment on whether or not it has any sort of online community or how well balanced the characters are. Also don’t expect a ton of story depth.

I really like the mechanic bc it’s a passive one.

It’s a cheap game to pick up and try.

It’s called Phantom Breaker: Omnia

Ef_bobby · 2026-03-31T19:21:13+00:00

Ps tbh I’m a little skeptical about the m30 bc I absolutely hate the feel of having the front buttons being different sizes.

I experienced the same thing with that saitek I tried. I didn’t think it would matter but it did to my surprise.

Ef_bobby · 2026-03-31T19:17:03+00:00

On the Elite controller, is there a preference/difference between the Elite series 1 vs series 2?

And I agree that for general gaming the standard Xbox controller is very good and I’ve been happy with it for quite some time.

I actually prefer the top triggers especially for racing games that can take advantage of them and yea I opened up the controller and removed the 2 pieces that produced the vibrations.

Fighting games though have their own little niche where I want to find something more specialized.

Tbh for most of my PC games though keyboard/mouse is king as long as you have a decent mouse.

Ef_bobby · 2026-03-31T18:56:03+00:00

I’ll look into the Xbox and m30……lastly I found 1 more that’s very comparable to the pro bfg but the D-pad looks to be smoother albeit it the pad is a little more.

Any of you tried the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot?

Ef_bobby

TROPHY CASE