Posts

Showing posts from June, 2019

Bi-amp progress

I lost a channel off the Sansui again and in the middle  f troubleshooting that problem, discovered the Alesis equalizer had lost a channel. I took the Alsis apart. The design and layout are simple. I traced the problem to a micro break in a piece of copper etch run. The break was at a plate-through. A plate-through is a hole in the pcb that has been lined with metal to connect both sides of the board electronically, at that given point. I scraped the etch next to the plate-through and added some solder to bridge the gap. I'll test later. Now, I'm still troubleshooting the Sansui amplifier. Once I repair the Sansui, or buy another Pioneer SX-255R, I'll insert the Alesis equalizer into the system and run a test. I used the equaizer on one channel before discovering the other chanel was off, and everything sounded good. Currently, I'm still using the cheap Chinese diaphragms on my horns' comression drivers. I have one after market reproduction in storage, a...

Bi-amp stereo update

I've received the parts and begun assembly. I removed the crossover panels. I drilled the new panel holes and mounted the new Nakamichi binding posts. Next step calls for soldering the speaker wires to the posts and mounting the panels inti the cabinets. After that, I'll connect the speakers to the amplifiers and test the setup. I have a power supply for the equalizer coming. When that arrived, I'll use it to duplicate the frequency crossover point on the original crossover panels, 800 Hz. The base of the woofers can be emphasized using the Pioneer Super Bass control.

Transfer stereo audio onto laptop

One option I haven't had, so far, was recording from my stereo/phono onto my laptop. The latptop I chose has HDMI, USB, microUSB, SD card, and combo jack ports. But no sound card inputs. I can use the combo jack as audio input or output, but require a special cable I would have to build myself. The USB ports will not send analog music data to any app. There needs to be an intervening piece of software, and/or, hardware. I tried running a USB-RCA(stereo) cable from my amplifier to a USB port on my latop with no success. However, I did try using the EZCap dongle that I use to record VHS tapes from the VHS player, and that worked. The dongle has standard A/V terminations:Audio Right, Audio Left, and Video. I plugged the audio jacks into the Tape Record RCA jacks on the back of my amplifier, tuned into a radio station, then plugged the EZCap into my laptop's USB 3.0 port. That works, but I had some trouble locating the source of distortion. The signal  was overdriven to the ...

Progress on the bi-amping of my stereo

I received some binding posts today. They're not the ones I will eventually use, but they'll let me test the idea. I looked through my parts boxes and found some banana plugs to use with them. I've installed new external wiring from the speaker cabinets to the Pioneer and, when I install the new binding posts, I'll add the new wiring for the Sansui amplifier. I purchased an Alesis equalizer, used, from an online auction and will be getting that in a few days. I like the Alesis. I read the User Guide, downloaded from the internet, and found a listening room has to resonance frequencies, one high and one low. The Alesis has complete 2 complete, 30 band, 1/3 octave, equalizers. I'll use one for each stereo channel. The 30 bands will let me notch the two resonance frequencies better than an equa;izer with ten, or fewer bands. A parametric equalizer would  provide fine tuning of the bands, but the limitations on availability at a price I find acceptable, led me to p...

Sansui re-purposed

One of the problems associated with speaker systems, for audiophiles, is the crossover network. The crossover network is an eletronic circuit that determines the frquency dividing point between the horn and woofer. My system was design with a 800Hz crossover point. All frequencies above 800Hz go to the horn, and all frequencies belo, to the woofer. Some have overcome this issue by employing a bi-amp system. Instead of installing an electronic network with a knob to vary the crossover point, two amplifiers are used. One amp is for the horns and one for the woofers. Both amps are stereo. I gave some thought to this arrangement. I added the Sansui to the system and ran the Tape Record output of the Pioneer to the Aux input of the Sansui. This works. I can hook up the Sansui to the horns and the Pioneer to the woofers. This still leaves the question of how to implement equalization. In lieu of a wiring scheme, I can get two identical equalizers, one for each amp. I don't need to...