The Home Audio Catch-All Thread

I'm glad you revived this thread because I missed it the first go round. I have an old technics system from the late 80's my dad bought me brand new that works great except for the disk changer. It worked great too until I left a disk on pause overnight a few years back now the cd player won't play. It will switch disks and act like its playing but doesn't spin. I'm guessing the motor burned out due to it being paused indefinitely. Where would be a place to start looking for a motor? I haven't taken it apart yet.  the model is SL-PC25 and I can get one from ebay but I'd rather get this one working again if its possible. Also should I just take it apart so I can get the motor out to test it and maybe get a part number from it?

In reply to Tony Sestito :

I have a similar-looking Onkyo receiver, a TX-DS838 that I've had since about Y2K.  I bought it from a co-worker who didn't like the fact that the remote, if you tried to adjust the volume in tiny steps, would just get stuck and refuse to move.  No issue if you made decisively large adjustments.  I have no issue making volume adjustments manually if necessary.  I think I paid 100 bucks for it, which at the time--given it was near new, was a pretty good deal.  The thing has been flawless and sounds great.  It weighs a ton--well, 16.5 kg, which is almost a ton.

If I'm in a mood to listen to a cassette tape, I still rely on my Denon DR-M22-- a 3-head, dual capstan deck I bought new in 1986 and still works!

gunner (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm glad you revived this thread because I missed it the first go round. I have an old technics system from the late 80's my dad bought me brand new that works great except for the disk changer. It worked great too until I left a disk on pause overnight a few years back now the cd player won't play. It will switch disks and act like its playing but doesn't spin. I'm guessing the motor burned out due to it being paused indefinitely. Where would be a place to start looking for a motor? I haven't taken it apart yet.  the model is SL-PC25 and I can get one from ebay but I'd rather get this one working again if its possible. Also should I just take it apart so I can get the motor out to test it and maybe get a part number from it?

Before you buy anything, try taking it apart and looking at the gear/belt mechanism. Some of these changers rely on gears or a belt to turn the carousel. Also, the laser track might be frozen up. Sometimes, they just need to be cleaned/lubed. If it has a belt, it might need to be replaced due to stretching and/or decay. Could be a simple fix!

Over the weekend, I reminded myself that I used to have a tablet attached to my stereo rig in the old house, and I wanted to get that going again. I stream on Spotify a lot (yes, I know it's the devil, etc.) and I want to rebuild my old Plex server at some point, so I figured now's a good a time as any other to get it going again. 



My wife had this janky Fire tablet kicking around that wouldn't accept an Amazon sign-in for some unknown reason, so I side-loaded the Google Play Store on it and mounted it to the wall. It had not been turned on in a few years, so it had loads of updates, and it's slow as anything, and also it doesn't want to play nice with my Bluetooth adapter. But after installing an EQ app, it does the thing well enough for what I need it for. 

And the full rig, for now: 



Really happy with how this turned out. Remember, everything here equipment-wise (save for the Jamo speakers) was purchased from thrifts or was acquired for free. It sounds pretty great and does the job well. 

Now, I should probably turn my attention to getting our old Westinghouse console running better. I'll be working on that soon. Specifically, the Voice of Music turntable needs a major service. That should be fun. 

Kind of a long story, so grab a beverage and a comfy seat. 

My dad is retired, and one of the things he does to keep himself busy a couple times a week is volunteer at his town's "swap shop" at their transfer station. In our area, that place is legendary, because it's an affluent town and rich people throw great stuff away all the time. I've scored tons of different stuff from there over the years. And one of the perks of volunteering is being able to get first crack at anything that comes in, so he gets all sorts of great stuff. Last weekend, while visiting for Easter, he asked if I needed anything, so I said to keep an eye out for stereo gear, specifically some decent speakers. 

A couple days ago, he sends me a pic: 





Speakers! But what brand is "Ohm"? A quick Google search showed that Ohm is a high-end speaker manufacturer based in Brooklyn, and they have been around since the early 70's. They are still around, mostly making home theater omnidirectional stuff. I looked these up, and they are the K2 series that were made from around 1985-1990, and they were their "entry level" speakers that retailed for $395/pr. That's nearly $1200 today! SCORE! 

But there was a catch. 



The reason why they were there is that one of the woofer surrounds had some sort of mishap and the mounting ears crumbled to bits. Luckily, most of those bits were still in the speaker, so I gathered them up and started piecing the puzzle together with super glue to see if they would hold. 



Not pretty, but functional. Worst case scenario: I can order another woofer right from Ohm; they restore and service their old stuff! But I let it bond overnight and decided to see how they did. 



And yeah, these are INCREDIBLE. The speakers are classified as "bookshelf" speakers, but as you can see, they are more in the floor speaker category than that. They are beefy, and have chambered and ported cabinets to produce a thick, punchy sound while still retaining great mids and highs. I've been cranking them all morning, playing everything from Death Metal to Fusion and everything in between, and they do it all well. The best part is they are really matched well with my new Onkyo receiver, and can run at either 8 or 4 ohms and still sound fantastic. This was what I was missing. They are keepers for sure. What an upgrade. 

Now, I have some music to listen to! And thanks, Dad! 

1988RedT2 said:

If I'm in a mood to listen to a cassette tape, I still rely on my Denon DR-M22-- a 3-head, dual capstan deck I bought new in 1986 and still works!

I still have a DR-M2 that has a bad head, never could find a replacement head.  It was a great machine until one channel went out (can't remember if it was the record or playback head).

BTW, I'm still using a pair of JBL 4311 studio monitors that I bought new in 1979.  Still sound great but could probably use new caps in the crossovers, really don't want to tear them open as you end up destroying the foil labels.

In reply to Tony Sestito :

You could always use mirror hanging clips that come in 1/8" or 1/4" offset and in plastic or metal.

I picked up a nice condition Acoustic Research XA table and bought a Dayton Audio hybrid tube amplifier. My speakers are Vandersteens and I run a klipsch powered subwoofer. All  together for under $1,000 just by looking for deals, as we do. Sounds pretty amazing 

In reply to OjaiM5 :

What are your thoughts on the Dayton Audio hybrid?  I've been waffling on getting one, unsure if my needs wouldn't be better met out the Schiit Audio catalog.  I'm looking for a low power amp to drive my C-notes, which I'm using as desktop speakers.   Clearly a want more than a need since the cheesy solid state Dayton amp doing the job now sounds fine.  You know how it is. 

I want to redo the setup in our living room, we use it for TV/movie watching/PS5/music, etc. Currently it's a 3.1 setup I want to at least make it a 5.1 in the future, but I have no idea how I'm going to run the speaker wires to the back part of the room......no wall on one side as it's open to the dining and kitchen area, the other wall has a door, vents, fireplace, and the bar area. 

The current TV is 65" and the stand it's on is 48" wide. The towers are old (like 13-14 years old or so) Polk 65T, 1" tweeter and 3 5.25" midrange drivers.....the towers are bi-amped using my Onkyo TX-NR777, center channel is a Polk with the same tweeter but only 2 5.25" midrange and a 10" Polk sub with a couple hundred watts. I think it's the third one in 7+ years, you've really got to push it to fill up the volume of space with open layout and high ceilings. You can see the speaker on the right is about as far right as it can go because the door to the backyard is next to it, if you can see the little springy door stop. 

Goals: jump to a 75-80" TV mounted on the wall and likely move whatever center channel to the wall above the speaker to free up space. Get a new console so the A/V receiver, PS5, and turntable can all fit. I think the receiver will be good for now, but definitely need to drop money on a better sub and the tower speakers will need to go as well since I wouldn't want them sitting in front of the screen on the sides. 

I'd like to find or have a console built, or floating dual shelf that will hold the aforementioned turntable/AV receiver/PS5 and also put some speakers on the far edges or mounted from the wall just above so as not to interfere with the turntable. Still have to have room for a proper sub (Looking at SVS stuff).............are there any smaller speakers that will still give me the clarity and output in a shorter package as the old Polk 65T's? 

A few pics for reference:

From my current seat on the couch:

From the TV looking back toward the bar area/behind the couch:

And from behind the couch so you can see the high ceilings and how much volume a sub ends up filling up:

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I love the way it looks and how it sounds. I was running a huge watt Yamaha before I bought it and it Sounds as good if not better. I had the house set up with Sonos before but because of all their bullE36 M3 updates and planned obsolescence I got rid of it all. I just stream now with the Dayton. I have the HTA100 and can only guess the HTA200 is so much better.

For the C-Note speakers the 100 would be plenty. 

Schiit Audio is most likely a better quality amplifier but Dayton is a good option as well. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Pull up the edge of the carpet and lay the wire along the wall in front of the tack strips. It should be easy to rent a carpet knee stretcher and chisel to stretch it back in place.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I was always told to have an amp with double the speaker's RMS power rating because what blows speakers is an amp that is being asked to over deliver in power forcing it to clip, sometimes going into DC instead of AC which means one direction speaker travel and then releasing the magic smoke.

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

Clipping with an underpowered amp creates a huge amount of high frequency harmonics which tend to toast the tweeter.  A huge amount of clean unclipped power tends to fry the woofer voice coil, although a really dedicated metalhead with a huge amp can do worse.  I had a buddy toast ALL his speaker drivers by getting way too enthusiastic with a monster amp while buffing his plane in his hanger.

I really like the Fosi V3 for a cheap high quality medium power amp.  We have a bunch between my family and friends.  Sounds good, decent power, not expensive.  I'm not huge on reviews based fully on measurements, but Audio Science Review is a good place to start looking for amps that at least measure well in your power and price range.

In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for the clarification. I own a world famous 1977- Crown DC300A 150wpc amp, the same amp that powered Wood Stock, (so I hear). The urban legends I've heard is that the company was formed by a church to come up with a good, clean transistor amp to power the speakers hanging in their mega churches back in the 1960's. Not only was it stable down to 0 ohms, but you could weld with them. Supposedly, they where hooked up by the dozens and wired to vibration transducers to shake airplane wings. I've also heard they like to default to 0 ohm welding current. Maybe it's DC current.

Twice something has died in my system 

1) Back around the mid 90's There was a giant loud POP and everything on the left side was was gone. Pre-amp, Passive Equalizer, Crown amp, and Altec A7500 Woofer and Horn.

2) I rebuilt the Crown around 2011 and recently used it to drive a pair of automotive Alpine 10" Type R subwoofers. around 2020 or so, one day the right channel played the loudest white noise signal I've ever heard (150db?) that tested my reaction time to jump up off of the couch and run over the the stereo and hit the power strip switch. I did poorly. 

I deduced that the Beringer electronic crossover died in the subwoofer line out right channel killing the whole thing. I've replaced the crossover and the rest of the bi-amped front left, center, and right work, but something is seriously wrong with sub circuit. I doubt that the Alpine subs are blown and assume that the Crown is dead again. I've been able to live without subs for a few years and I only have to turn up the bass on the Altecs to make up for the loses.

All of my state's entire audio/video repair shops have died/retired/quite, but Crown still exists and can and will repair my antique amp. Or do I spend the same amount of $$$ and just buy a new Crown class D GuitarCenter.com: Crown XLS1002 2-Channel 350W Power Amplifier With Onboard DSP

You don't say if  you're still running the Altecs which are classic and super high efficiency.  If so, I'd borrow a decent tube amp.  I think you might be convinced that's the most musical option, and it's a classic pairing.  I don't know about the new crown amp, but I think that the newer class D amps sound great for the money.

DC300s are a classic pro amp, but I think newer designs, both analog and digital, sound better in stereo systems.

In reply to jwagner (Forum Supporter) :

I still have those Altecs, still waiting for a trip to Oklahoma for a re-cone and re-magnatizing. Another pair of father/son home built Altecs fell into my lap for a price I couldn't pass up when years later the son sold the Altecs to buy some Bose speaker. These are much more appropriate for up close listening and use 150wpc 16" bass guitar speakers vs the A7 30wpc 15" woofers.

I was just using the Crown to run my subs, I have an early HDMI Yamaha A/V 6.1 receiver with pre-amp outputs that I use as a pre-amp to drive a non-HDMI 130wpc Yamaha A/V 6.1 receiver that I use to bi-amp this new pair of Altecs plus an Altec coaxial 16" center channel speaker. 

I spent a significant amount of time trying out those Ohm K2 speakers over the weekend. I can't stress enough how great they sound. And they sound great with everything! They can pretty much get as loud as any human can tolerate without breaking up, which is impressive. I've never heard speakers that sound so good that you truly feel like you are in the room with the band while they are playing before. The biggest surprise was that they seem to be perfectly well rounded to the point where I don't need to go out and find an EQ like I was planning to do. The simple bass and treble controls on the Onkyo are all they need. That glue fix actually held up, but if that doesn't work out, those mirror clips might be an option.

I posted them (and the fix) over on a FB group dedicated to repairing old audio stuff, figuring I'd get flamed to hell for gluing them back together, but the consensus was that I hit the jackpot. They are indeed very rare, and even if they are their entry level units, they have a following. The crumbling mounting tabs are apparently common, too. There was a comment from someone that found a set in similar condition with the same problems, and they contacted Ohm and got a quote of $1000 to replace a woofer and mount, which makes me happy that I was able to repair these. Not sure how accurate that is, given their website shows a price of $99 with trade-in, but spending $0 is even better. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Yeah, you have a lot of cubic feets to pressurize.  Here's what I'd do.
Get one or two 10" subs with sealed cabinets. Maybe something like this https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-10-Reference-Series-HO-Subwoofer-and-Cabinet-P-300-7091?quantity=1
I'd cross them over at about 60 hZ because, while I think you'll get output below that in that big space, it'll roll off dramatically.  

Then I'd get some tactile transducers, or 'butt shakers' (or make them) and put them on the couches to fill in the frequencies below 60. Since those frequencies are largely non-directional and too low to hear, nobody will know the difference. 

DrBoost said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Yeah, you have a lot of cubic feets to pressurize.  Here's what I'd do. Get one or two 10" subs with sealed cabinets. Maybe something like this https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-10-Reference-Series-HO-Subwoofer-and-Cabinet-P-300-7091?quantity=1
I'd cross them over at about 60 hZ because, while I think you'll get output below that in that big space, it'll roll off dramatically.  

Then I'd get some tactile transducers, or 'butt shakers' (or make them) and put them on the couches to fill in the frequencies below 60. Since those frequencies are largely non-directional and too low to hear, nobody will know the difference. 

Oooohhhh, that's an interesting idea! I hadn't thought of that. I was kind of going along with the "if the hammer isn't big enough, let's get a bigger hammer." That's why I was looking at one of those monster SVS subs. 

VolvoHeretic said:

In reply to z31maniac :

Pull up the edge of the carpet and lay the wire along the wall in front of the tack strips. It should be easy to rent a carpet knee stretcher and chisel to stretch it back in place.

Anything physical is a no-go the next 4-5 months. I've still got to lose a few more pounds and then have surgery for a hernia. So I can't do anything now, and won't be able to for a few months after. But that will likely line up with when I get my bonuses to be able to what I'm thinking of.