All things Hi-Fi and Audio - show and tell and discussion

Some more tube pårn. I just love the fluorescence on those old Westinghouse power triodes. This thing is a 6B4G DHT Single ended. Some might think using small signal pentodes (in pentode mode, no less - gasp!) to drive direct heated triodes might be a bit unorthodox, but then they'd not heard of the Western Electric 91A, I guess. Though I used a more modern E83F here, to provide enough current to not end up in the territory where slew rate starts limiting frequency extension before the LRC time constants get to do their diddly to the FR.

Anyhow, it's a brisk 4 watts and it'll happily pound away Infected Mushroom at 143bpm given a suitable set of speakers.
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I should be having some nice offcuts of Walnut coming my way so I am thinking of a new plinth for the turntable, I think I will make it able to have 2 or three arms also so I can do a bit of experimenting there also.
 
Random question: with some rather modest bookshelf-type speakers which came as a set with our Toshiba record player, I've never been very happy with the sound, it seems heavy and lacking in the mids to highs unless you turn the volume up higher than we want. With non-powered speakers which use the typical two thin wires to connect to the unit, can you splice in an amp or DAC or something like that to spruce up the sound? Obviously, audio newbie here.
 
agentlossing said:
Random question: with some rather modest bookshelf-type speakers which came as a set with our Toshiba record player, I've never been very happy with the sound, it seems heavy and lacking in the mids to highs unless you turn the volume up higher than we want. With non-powered speakers which use the typical two thin wires to connect to the unit, can you splice in an amp or DAC or something like that to spruce up the sound? Obviously, audio newbie here.
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What is powering the speakers currently?

Edit - adding an EQ between the power source and the music source via a good ol’ pair of RCA cables will allow you to fine tune the sound, assuming your power source (amp) has no tone controls.
 
MountainMan79 said:
What is powering the speakers currently?

Edit - adding an EQ between the power source and the music source via a good ol’ pair of RCA cables will allow you to fine tune the sound, assuming your power source (amp) has no tone controls.
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They don't have power cords themselves, so the power to each speaker is coming through the two thin wires which clip into the back of the record player. My (totally uninformed) guess is each speaker gets one side of stereo and the other wire is power, but that's just a guess.
 
agentlossing said:
They don't have power cords themselves, so the power to each speaker is coming through the two thin wires which clip into the back of the record player. My (totally uninformed) guess is each speaker gets one side of stereo and the other wire is power, but that's just a guess.
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That’s a pretty odd setup. Do you have a model number for the record player? Is it some sort of “all in one” record player, maybe with an am/fm radio and a cd player built in too? It’s just unusual to have a record player drive a set of speakers directly. So the player itself has some sort of amplifier built into it. It’s easy to add equalization (tone controls) to a high level RCA signal, but not so much to a low level speaker wire signal, which appears to be what you’re working with.
 
MountainMan79 said:
That’s a pretty odd setup. Do you have a model number for the record player? Is it some sort of “all in one” record player, maybe with an am/fm radio and a cd player built in too? It’s just unusual to have a record player drive a set of speakers directly. So the player itself has some sort of amplifier built into it. It’s easy to add equalization (tone controls) to a high level RCA signal, but not so much to a low level speaker wire signal, which appears to be what you’re working with.
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MountainMan79 said:
Kinda sorta what I thought it would be. It’s got a small built in 3 watt amp, and is driving the speakers directly. I’m not familiar with any good way to equalize a speaker level signal, but maybe someone else here has used something at some point. Wish I had something to offer!
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So, would you surmise that I could replace the speakers with better, powered, shelf speakers?
 
agentlossing said:
So, would you surmise that I could replace the speakers with better, powered, shelf speakers?
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You probably could, so long as the powered speakers accept a speaker level input, and not just an RCA plug. However, it’s a garbage in garbage out scenario. My feeling is that although those speakers may not be great, they’re only as good as the signal they’re getting…which is 3 watts of probably not so great sound. So replacing the speakers may slightly improve the sound, it may also just as easily make the bad sound simply louder and more easily reveal the amplifier’s shortcomings. Probably not worth throwing good money after bad? If you can borrow a set from a friend and try, then sure. Otherwise I’d probably not bother.
 
It might be worth experimenting with speaker placement. Depending on the cabinet design, changing the distance the speaker stands off the wall behind can make a significant difference to what you hear. Same applies to angling the speakers with respect to the wall.

The heaviness you report can happen when you place speakers in a resonant cavity by mistake - bass frequencies will dominate. It's easily done with bookshelf speakers placed on a bookshelf (!) If that's the case, do they sound any better out in the open?

-R
 
alex66 said:
Apart from a few bits ie cartridge everything else is scratch built it sounds good and I like making things. I have made an updated unipivot today, trying an alloy tube for a change.
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Timber is better at damping high frequency vibrations ...
Probably why Grace used oak in some of their top range tone arms.

Mine is a Grace 707 alloy gimbal mounted arm, on a Thorens TD150 turntable. Have a Shure M91e cartridge on it.
 
John King said:
Timber is better at damping high frequency vibrations ...
Probably why Grace used oak in some of their top range tone arms.

Mine is a Grace 707 alloy gimbal mounted arm, on a Thorens TD150 turntable. Have a Shure M91e cartridge on it.
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Vibration damping is why Thorens used black anodizing on their TP62 and similar arms. Apparently the anodizing really kills vibration along the length of the arm shaft.
 
Wow this stuff is pretty amazing and fun. I have to confess that I was a little obsessed when i was younger and did spend quite a bit of money at Len Wallis Audio here in Sydney once upon a time.
Back in '83 when I was a young man, I chose a Thorrens TD 160 Super with a Linn Sondek tonearm for a 21st present from my parents (I still have it!). Mostly I would play a new album once and record it to tape and if I wore the tape out I would rinse and repeat. Back then I had a nice Nakamichi Deck, but the convenience of digital completely owns me now.
I have Sonos throughout the house and a pair of Sonos Amps for my home theater setup. My music library is lossless flac. I still have all of my vinyl that I collected in the 70's and 80's. Switched to CD's pretty much as soon as they came out.
 
OldRex said:
... Back then I had a nice Nakamichi Deck ...
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I recently sold several hi-fi items which were literally just gathering dust. The list was; an amplifier, two pairs of speakers, a CD player and a Nakamichi tape deck. All nice items in their day, and still in good condition. The Nakamichi tape deck was worth all the other items added together.

(If anyone in southern England is thinking about doing the same thing, I can recommend Hi-Fi Hangar in Bordon, Hampshire)

-R
 

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