Hi Fidelity, Hi - The Bear and Badger

davyK

I like my old hifi separates system. It's over 20 years old now. Have a NAD amplifier, CD player and turntable. Also have a Yamaha tape deck but that's packed away - doubt it will ever be used again. I have a neat little Bluetooth gizmo plugged into the auxiliary input from Philips that lets me play from Amazon, iTunes etc. and it works great - volume needs to be set higher but otherwise great and gives the old boxes new life. Have 2 Mission bookshelf style speakers.

My amplifier's phono stage has developed a fault such that one of the channels doesn't work - only get sound out of one speaker when using the turntable. I've switched speakers/cables around etc. and have isolated the problem to the amp. Otherwise it works fine though it seems to have lost some of its oomph and seems to get hotter than I remember.

So I was going to see if I could get it repaired but a guy in work has sold me an old Pioneer amp he had for £35. It's a beast of a thing - I turned it up half way and almost wrecked the speakers - one of them now has a dent in one of the dome shaped parts of the speaker....so I'd need to be careful. There's no volume issue via Bluetooth devices either.

I've also noticed that at low volume the balance is a bit off - seems louder on one side. Have swapped speakers and connections around and it does seem to be the amp. Unlike the NAD it doesn't have a balance control so I can't correct it. It's not a massive deal as once it's turned up it isn't really noticeable - however I might just get that one repaired instead as the sound it punches out is gorgeous - better than the old NAD.

Might be worth getting beefier speakers for the Pioneer and using the NAD in my little boys room - perhaps with my retro consoles.

Anyone with hifi ever experience an imbalance like this? Something that can be repaired? It's maybe caused by an aging variable capacitor?

cockbeard

If you had a balance control I'd say yes a worn pot in the variable resistor would be causing that problem, but if you don't have one then it's could be anywhere on that channel. Most decent stereo amps will have two completely separate signal paths, the power supply would be split to a pair of large capacitors, or even to two separate transformers, so it would be a case of getting out the multimeter and checking amps at different places along the signal path. Could be a capacitor I suppose, but if that was the case I'd expect no sound until it was drawing enough power that the capacitor wasn't storing just flowing through. You could call Pioneer support and they might be able to email you information. NAD did that for me a few years back when I got an old NAD amp, they sent me manuals and schematics, were a great help

davyK

Yeah - will see if I can get a Pioneer manual to start with.

cockbeard

If yo can handle a soldering iron I'm pretty sure that all parts (or chinese clones) will be available, and it'll be less fiddly than a fancy pudding

davyK

erm…...looking at the manual - the volume control dial appears to have 2 parts - one for left and one for right -not sure that's the case with my model but I'll check when I get home...

davyK

cockbeard wrote:

If yo can handle a soldering iron I'm pretty sure that all parts (or chinese clones) will be available, and it'll be less fiddly than a fancy pudding

Heh.

I actually do own a soldering iron but have never used it!! I am pretty hamfisted but it's something I want to get into to be able to look after my old consoles.

I have a multimeter I have used for diagnosing a problem I had with my Asteroids cabinet.

cockbeard

If it's split like a victoria sponge, then they could be stuck together in an offset position and at higher volumes it's simply less noticeable as your brain is already attenuating the sound???

Skerret

Lots of amps display channel volume imbalance at low volume, presumably just the amp unless its very pronounced

I enjoy my KEF Q350s and Rega Brio R, excellent setup for a midsize room.

poprock

I used to be all about the separates, but eventually I just wanted all that messy hi-fi stuff out of my otherwise lovely-looking living room so I got rid of everything and set up a nice sound base under the telly instead.

davyK

cockbeard wrote:

If it's split like a victoria sponge, then they could be stuck together in an offset position and at higher volumes it's simply less noticeable as your brain is already attenuating the sound???

That's what I'm thinking. According to the manual that's how it's split - will give it another look this evening.

davyK

poprock wrote:

I used to be all about the separates, but eventually I just wanted all that messy hi-fi stuff out of my otherwise lovely-looking living room so I got rid of everything and set up a nice sound base under the telly instead.

For convenience and damn good sound the modern stuff is hard to whack.

I have a nice Bose iPod dock that I have put a Bluetooth dongle on - have it in another room and it's great with an app. Have a hefty Yamaha soundbar too but it has no Bluetooth so not as handy. I could use the hifi dongle with that though as it has standard red and white input as an option too. Using the digital with that for my TV.

I still like having media such as LPs and CDs so it will be some time before I leave hifi behind. I've got away with not spending much on it too - if this amp works out I really do need beefier speakers though.

poprock

I have a lovely Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth speaker on a little leather strap, for music in the kitchen, garden, etc. Incredible sound for a wee steel dot of a thing. I would never have believed it was possible 10 years ago.

What I really need is to sell my CD collection, but I have no idea how to go about it. And I’m lazy. Anybody want a couple of thousand CDs? Good price for a badger. Can get ’em delivered by a man with a van, probably.

Yossarian

I’m in the middle of clearing out boxes full of discs that I stored away a decade ago. Fortunately for me, there’s a Music Exchange around the corner from my flat which also buys and sells DVDs, so I can offload them all and probably get enough for a pint in exchange.

poprock

I’ve got a friend who is having problems with her vintage B&O system. She moved house and the hi-fi didn’t like it. Can’t get any sound from the turntable through the amp. I’ve checked it over. My pal who used to be a B&O install tech has also checked it over. Neither of us could see anything wrong. And yet no sound comes out. Baffled, I tell you. Completely baffled. I genuinely think it might just be sulking.

cockbeard

could it be cartridge or the cartrdge connection rather than the amp or phono stage, just thinking that they are smaller and more delicate and might be more likley get damaged in the move

davyK

Selling CDs wouldn't garner much income I'd suspect. Probably could sell them by the kg.

I like the cut of the jib of the Brennan boxes that are a CD rip'n'store + music streaming box. Works wirelessly with speakers and will work with a hifi amp too. They even have a web server on them that lets you control it with an app or full on webpage via PC. Very nice.

https://www.brennan.co.uk/

poprock

cockbeard wrote:

could it be cartridge or the cartrdge connection rather than the amp or phono stage, just thinking that they are smaller and more delicate and might be more likley get damaged in the move

Sounds sensible, but we tried changing the cartridge. No dice.

poprock

davyK wrote:

Selling CDs wouldn't garner much income I'd suspect. Probably could sell them by the kg. I like the cut of the jib of the Brennan boxes that are a CD rip'n'store + music streaming box. Works wirelessly with speakers and will work with a hifi amp too. They even have a web server on them that lets you control it with an app. Very nice.

Aye, those things are quite nice. Have you seen the Innuos Zen Mini? Similar idea, but recommended by high-end audio guys.

I have a lot of unusual or hard-to-find stuff on CD. Can’t face the idea of chucking it to a pile-it-high-sell-it-cheap firm. Think I’ll eventually get around to offering it all for sale on Discogs, let the rare stuff get picked up at market value there, and then dump the remainder to one of the cheap places. I have about half of my collection logged on Discogs so far and it’s showing median market value as a few grand already.

Moot_Geeza

I don't think I'd ever get rid of my CDs (I still buy in that format exclusively too), but I do like the idea of ripping my dvds to storage/playback device.

davyK

I like owning CDs - even if I got a rip-n-store I'd more than likely keep them as an archive. I don't own that many - a couple of hundred probably - so space isn't a huge issue for me - though I'd like a better shelving solution than I currently have.

poprock

My CDs are really just a physical backup of my music collection nowadays. And since I have digital backups, I don’t really feel I need to keep ’em. I guess, like Davy says, it’s about space. I have too many and they feel like a weight on my life.

davyK

That Innuos Zen looks lovely. Swish.

Moot_Geeza

I've got everything ripped and backed up, but mostly in MP3 (256kbps) or going back further, wma (128kbps, nooooo) format. I've got less than 20% ripped in flac. I like the idea of logging them on Discogs though, didn't know that was a thing, but I reality if I can't be arsed to alphabetise them I'm pretty sure I wouldn't find the time to type them all into a database.

poprock

It’s handy. Get the phone app and you can barcode scan your vinyl and CDs (the ones that have barcodes, anyway). It gives you the current market values for each item in your collection – they quote you the lowest, median and highest prices recently paid on the site for each.

I used it when I got rid of all my vinyl. Scanned everything in, then switched on the ‘for sale’ button. The next morning all my ex-wife’s Biffy Clyro 7"s were sold for a small fortune to kids in Norway.

Brooks

I really like Paul from PS Audio's Youtube channel. If I'm ever in CO I'm going to visit.

davyK

My impression is that @Brooks has gold plated valve technology on the go re this.

Yossarian

I reckon Brooks has gold-plated valve technology on the go re: everything, from his toaster up.

Moot_Geeza

Barcode scanning, didn't even realise that could be done on phones. Technology eh? Cheers.

davyK

Barcodes are kind of great. A British invention by the way. When I worked with public library management software I really got into the technology inc. algorithms for reading them etc. I didn't need to for the job - lowest level I had to work at was generating check digits using a little used PLESSEY standard which involved binary long division but it was hard to resist delving deeper down the rabbit hole. Really clever stuff.

Brooks

davyK wrote:

My impression is that @Brooks has gold plated valve technology on the go re this.

I don't sit still enough to really make the best case for kitting out a audiophuck dwelling cavern. Posh cans and a good clean solid state headphone amp/DAC do me fine for now. If I were buying actual speakers and things I'd still trend studio monitoring spec first. Not cheap but not life-threateningly dear either. And practical.

davyK

Nice.

I suppose technology has brought the standard up and price down over the years anyhow. So even one with a modest income can enjoy a great sound now.

I'd be interested to see what I spent 20 years ago would get me now. I've been happy with the upper entry level stuff I've had but I reckon if I auditioned something up the range I'd probably want it.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories