Are these really any good?
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Are these really any good?
^^^ I have no idea. Build some and report back.
Boards for the chip amp just showed up, and last night I also finished up the huge Rotel rb-1090. This is the 380 watt per channel (yes at 8 ohms) flagship amp from Rotel I was working on a number of months back. It is fixed, reassembled and tested. It weighs 85lbs. It was very well reviewed back in the day, so I am interested to see how it does vs the honey badger on the big speakers. I think I'll test it a while longer on some less fancy speakers first. The newer rb-1590 is basically the same amp with a new exterior.
Attachment 381648Attachment 381649Attachment 381650
sent from Utah.
I wish phone mics recorded bass well, cause this one is SOLID.
Makes these little polks sing.
https://youtu.be/UKfhcchlngo
sent from Utah.
Got the big Rotel up for sale on ksl. Come take a listen if you are interested. $100 off for maggots.
Listening to a little chick corea on it now. Sounds oh so nice. In SLC.Attachment 382028
sent from Utah.
Attachment 382668
Not musically related but they will keep my beer cold.
Building a DIY lithium iron phosphate battery for my new camper setup. 100 amp hour for less than half the price of a Battle Born.
I like to camp. I do it frequently and sometimes for a couple of weeks or more at a time since I can work remote. The battery setup on my current truck is sub par. I recently added some portable solar panels and this has helped but my current "house" battery is just way too small to power a fridge and charge a laptop for more than a few days. I'm in the process of building up a new truck and wanted to make sure I did it right this time with a bigger battery and more solar but I'm also really cheap. One morning I woke up and googled "DIY lithium battery" and now it looks like I'm building bombs in my basement.
I bought 4 x 100 Amp hour cells. They are each 3.2v. When wired in serial they will create a 12v battery. I also got a BMS (battery management system) which does a few things like overcharge protection, low voltage cut off, cuts off charging in cold weather and watches the voltage of the individual cells to make sure they stay within a certain percentage voltage difference of each other. It also has bluetooth and an app that I can connect to on my phone to see current state of charge, rate of charge or discharge and keep tabs on the individual cell voltages among other things.
Not including some new tools that I needed anyways to do all the wiring in the new truck it was about $400. You could do it cheaper with a less expensive BMS and maybe cut $100 off of that price, maybe more if you didn't mind buying from sketchy China stores on aliexpress. I bought all my stuff from US companies, it seemed less risky.
Those cells just showed up today. I've got them wired up in parallel and I'm charging them all to a voltage of 3.65 using a power supply. Once they are at 100% full I can hook then up in serial using the BMS and start putting some 12v loads on them to do some capacity testing.
cells:
https://batteryhookup.com/products/n...000mah-cells-1
BMS:
https://store.currentconnected.com/product/jbd/
That some good shit. Makes my head start spinning, battery powered amps for Powerful portable boomboxes.
Thea are pretty much complete tda7293 chip amps. The thread should you want to learn more is here...
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/chip...ml#post6488134
Attachment 383031
sent from Utah.
Damn Chinese box got delivered... To Chihuahua Mexico of all places. So... Found some heatsinks out of a dead Yamaha reciever. I know I kept the junk around for a reason. Hopefully I'll get to testing these this weekend.
They should be fun to play around with and test different combinations of parts. I have 3 more boards, so can build different configurations. Each complete amplifier module (not including heat sink, power supply, etc) costs about $30.Attachment 383706
sent from Utah.
Ye olde scrapboard amp. The case was delivered to Chihuahua Mexico. I am not in Chihuahua. So... Ye old scrapboard for now.
It works.
Listening impressions to come.
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sent from Utah.
Ghetto tk421 playing in the living room. Sounds pretty good with some cheapo Polk monitors (great little speakers for $20. if you get a chance to pick some up cheap, do it.) Using a nad preamp and a denon tuner. This nad preamp seems to play nicely with everything I hook it up to.
Gonna play it in here for a while, get a real feel for this amp. The boy says it sounds good.Attachment 383901Attachment 383902
sent from Utah.
Oh, I think you need all that bass!
Ha. Those little peashooters of speakers are not adequate for the room, and the amp is a lower water unit, 40 or 50 watts per channel. But for a temporary location until my case shows up, it can hang here. I think eventual resting place will be in the kitchen. I may pair a digital streaming preamp with it, who knows.
This room already has a large speaker setup. Cause I need the bass.
sent from Utah.
The next project has arrived.
The Wolverine ef3 power amplifier. These are prototype boards, I am part of the prototype test builder group. This is the long awaited successor to the honey badger amp (of which I have built two now).
Lots of soldering ahead.
Attachment 384339
sent from Utah.
Got my hands on a pair of jbl L5 tower speakers. Missed a pair locally several months ago, but someone reached out to me and asked if I would trade some speakers for the big Rotel amp. Sure. Trading is fun. So we traded. They're in nice shape, and first impressions are good. They are a true 4 way speaker where the bang and Olufsen are a 3 way with a phase link driver.
Imaging appears to be superior to the b and o. Bass is stronger, but maybe not quite as tight and controlled. They get great reviews online, and have a smaller footprint than the big b and o, so maybe a little more wife friendly.
Can they dethrone the b and o?
Any SLC mags want to come over and do a little a b testing? https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3fb2ffc97f.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...3e862bf7ce.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2f285359d6.jpg
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Either way, you're gonna have a nice set up! What music do you like to B test with?
I'm listening to one of my favorite albums right now, medeski martin and wood, Tonic. Just cause it's one of my favorite albums. The speakers are doing a VERY nice job at lower "kids in bed" listening levels. Imaging is superb. Can't tell the music is coming from the speakers at all, instrument placement is crystal clear. Nice clear details. Nice so far.
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Depends on the music type. Hard to beat JBL for rock music.
Welp, the JBL L5 are here to stay. They are solid. Kick ass. Thinking about throwing the big bang and Olufsens up on KSL. Maggots get first dibs?
Listening to daft punk random access memories. Thought meh in the car, but at home where I can pay attention to it, it's pretty damn good. Picked it up at the DI today for $0.50.
Good deal for these... Not mine, I already have a pair ..
Jbl L5 Speakers https://classifieds.ksl.com/listing/66031770
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Picked up a pair of signet sl280 b/u. Impressive two way. Excellent sound stage, great bass response for a two way. Highs are not as bright as the JBL L5, a little recap action might be in order, but no doubt this is a high quality speaker. My big bang and Olufsen ms150 have move along to other hands, and I picked these signets up for a fraction of my proceeds. But I dare say they are a better speaker. There is a little bit of muddiness in the middle when the action gets complicated and loud, but better dynamics and soundstage than the b and o. I don't think these will move the JBL L5 to the basement, but they are solid! Very musical.
Edit. Daft punk, random access memories. What a great album. I keep putting it on, and say, a song on this then something else, next thing I know the whole album has played through. So good. And I am not a big edm guy. But I dig this album.
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I should have asked this group: just bought my daughter a turntable and powered speakers to take with her to college. Spent way too much time trying to figure out what to buy. Wanted to spend around $300-350 or so. Ended up with a 1byone H005 turntable and Edifier 1280db speakers. Both the turntable and speakers are Bluetooth so she can listen to records over headphones and use the speakers as a stereo playing her music off her phone.
Ended up with a bunch of time on Reddit geeking out on entry level audio gear. So many arguments between those guys about this turntable versus uturn orbit basic, and what $150 powered speaker set to buy. Those guys are pretty serious.
Anybody have thoughts? Can still return and buy new stuff quick but these were good Black Friday deals.
Love Edifier products. For the price they are extremely hard to beat. I think you did extremely well. I have a pair of Edifier speakers as my office desk system and I absolutely love them.
And @basinbeater, those new speakers look gorgeous. What records (CDs) have you been spinning lately?
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Picked up tom petty wildflowers and all the rest on vinyl, always love me some time petty. That daft punk album has been getting a lot of play. Took me a couple times to get into it, but man is it good. Bit of pharcyde thrown in, some chick Corea.
Lots of KUAA and Krcl. KUAA is the best. 99.9 if you don't know, only in downtown SLC or on the web kuaafm.org.
After a couple hours of listening, man those signets are goooood. Not quite the JBL good, but very good. L5 has more focused imaging, while the signets feel more open, airy if you will. L5 go deeper in the bass, little brighter highs, and a clearer mids where the signets crossover. The L5 are also crystal clear in all the complex material where the signets muddy up the mids a bit... but the signets are incredibly musical and room filling, very satisfying so far.
Sold the b an o last night, some guy came over and brought a 1973 dark side of the moon vinyl, we listened to most of the album, then he coughed up asking price. It was a good session.
Tgapp, you'll have to stop by one day for a listen.
Here is a an stereophile review of the signets...
https://www.stereophile.com/content/...80-loudspeaker
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Go back and ask them what the best speaker and interconnect cables are. That always gets the monkeys flinging poop on just about any audio site.
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Picked up a free pair of Speakerlab Super 7's a while back, the vinyl veneer was torn off, they were covered in spiders / cobwebs, and one had a little water damage but I knew they were worth saving. They weigh about 85 pounds each, have 10 and 12 inch woofers, EV T-350 tweeters, and the larger mid horns in a cabinet not much smaller than Cornwalls. After cleaning them up and giving the leftover creatures and strange smells a chance to leave I brought them in and have been using them as shop speakers and am quite impressed, these may be the ultimate rock and roll speaker. Incredibly punchy bass, amazing highs and the mids sound great. I had planned on keeping them as shop speakers but they sound too good, if I can't make the cabinets look good enough for reel wood veneer I'll make new cabinets (a bit larger) and move the horns to separate cabinets to make them Super Duper 7's. They won't replace the Khorns but I'll find a use for them.
Attachment 395474
Looks like a good project. Keep us posted with progress pics
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No, Speakerlab designed the Super Duper 7 but never had it in their catalog, I have the cabinet size somewhere. Here's a picture (not mine) of them with the horns mounted in them. They were supposed to have even better bass.
Attachment 395562
I wanted to mount the horns in separate enclosures in order to try them with my Khorns (instead of the original horns)
I'd imagine then, that the mid bass driver would have its own enclosure inside the larger cabinet. The larger cabinet would allow for a lower resonant frequency for the large woofer, allowing it to dog deeper for more bass... Yes? I think?
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I'd assume they'd have their own enclosure, but on the 7's they're in the same enclosure running parallel and designed to work that way. The recommended cabinet size for the 10" woofer is 1.5 ft3, the 12" wants a 2 ft3, I don't know enough about speaker building to know how they made them work together but they do.
Seeking mag input regarding my home projector > audio setup.
I'm looking to get audio wirelessly from whatever HDMI input (I use two) to my old-timey two-channel stereo and am looking at the following options:
1. take the signal from the projector aux output > BTTx > BTRx > preamp
Upside: simple
Downside: DAC happens in Chromecast or Laptop
2. run HDMI source through HDMI audio extractor > digital output via spdif/coax > BTTx > BTRx > coax to DAC > preamp
Upside: digital signal converted at a proper DAC
Downside: aside from lots of connections that's what I don't know. Latency? Extractor technology sucks?
Ok need some advice. I recently picked up a used guitar amp. Turns out it isn’t working right. Near as I can tell there are a couple issues, but the bigger one is that the volume knob isn’t working at all.
I paid very little for it, and while I can return it and get the cash back I’m kinda tempted to turn it into a project. Any idea how hard it might be to fix a volume knob? There’s also a bit of an issue with the chorus function, but if I get the volume knob working I should be mostly there. It powers up, volume comes out, the other knobs all work, it’s just that one problem.
Thoughts?
Pop the face of the amp off, see if someone bypassed the potentiometer cause it was starting to give them grief. Should be pretty easy to find a comparable potentiometer if you have the schematic.
I think I'm gonna bail. After some research it looks like this is a known issue with these amps (Fender Acoustasonic 30). If you drop it the pot connector (which is maybe also the ground?) breaks off right above the circuit board. In theory the fix isn't bad - get some new fender connector parts, a new pot, take the old one off, solder in anew one, done.
In reality this is pretty tough. It's really difficult to access the board - have to go in through the front by removing the grill and speaker. If the speaker isn't hooked up right and you turn it on, it'll fry it, so now that the speaker's off you have a potential fuck up waiting to happen. Then you have to reach up inside to get to the board. The broken part is hard to find as it's an old amp, blah blah blah. More than I want to tackle - or have time for.
So I think I'm returning it. Thanks for the thoughts though.
Does anyone have a Chromecast audio they would hook a mag up with? I seem to have lost all of mine while divorcing and moving.
Slash does anyone know of a good alternative in today's world?
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