Stereo system rebuild

Tube Radio

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Not many of y'all know that I lost the house my dad and I live in to a tree during the storms in January.

My bedroom stereo survived except for my Pioneer PL-530 record player and one KLH 22A speaker, although the drivers and crossover did survive.

I remounted the speakers in a pair of Auvio 3 way 8" speaker boxes and they sound great once again.

As work is coming to a close on the trailer we got I am starting to think about how I can arrange my stereo system as I will have a whole bedroom for it now given there is extra space off the kitchen for his office.

I'll try and get some pictures tomorrow of the room.

The closet has a built in wire shelf and I tested it yesterday by putting most of my 162 pounds on it and the shelf held up fine.

I have this equipment.

McIntosh C-24 preamp
Lafayette LA-375 amplifier with external power transformer in a box.
Custom built 70Hz 24 db/octave two way active crossover in ammo box.
AKAI EIE USB sound card with its own power supply.
Yamaha YBA-11 bluetooth receiver with FiiO D03K DAC.
BASH 500 watt plate amp.
Some sort of tube FM tuner which for now will be a Magnavox CR-192, although I could get the Scott LT-110 working again and use it provided it pulls in the stations just as good as the Magnavox does.
Ampex 520 MPX decoder if a stereo tuner is not used.

Which will all go on the shelf.

AKAI GX-255 reel to reel
Sansui SR-2050C record player I got for cost of shipping.

Which I am thinking of setting on TV trays in the closet.

RCA 45 player modded for stereo.

Which I gotta find a place for.

A pair of KLH 22A speakers
1 Bucket sub

Which will be at the front of the room.

Also have an RCA K-80 console I will be moving in there as well to free up some space in my 12' X 12' building with the console going between the two speakers.

I plan on using my laptop in the room as well.

Will post some pictures of the room tomorrow hopefully.

Now some questions.

How long of a USB cable can I use to go from the laptop to the sound card without affecting the data?

Is there any way I can mod the C-24 preamp so it's volume control can be controlled remotely or is there a relatively inexpensive external remote volume control of at least 100K impedance that can handle a maximum signal level of 10Vrms. Reason for that is so I don't have to get up every time I need to change the volume.

How should I go about supplying power?

Would it be better to use a good quality power strip or should I use a several gang outlet box and install outlets with one having a switch on it to control everything?

The closet is rather shallow, but everything should fit good.

Concerning the RCA 45 player I'm pretty sure I won't have enough space to put it on its own TV tray so I may try to install a shelf above the Sansui record player and put it on that. Thankfully the McIntosh has two magnetic phono inputs.

The idea to all of this is to keep as much of the system as hidden as possible.

Also what kind of storage solution could I use for my record collection and reel to reel tapes?

I plan on taking the necessary cables and running them over to the wall right by the closet door then down to the floor and run along the wall to the speakers which will look better and not be in the way of anyone accessing the water heater which is accessed through that closet.

I may also install some C9 Christmas lights in the room and need advice on how to secure the lights near the ceiling without any holes if at all possible. If not possible then I can use some small screw in hooks as there's a strip where the top of the wall meets the ceiling that I can screw them into. The power plug for the lights will be connected to the power strip in the closet and I will use a variac to control their brightness which will make it look better with less wires showing.
 
Sounds like a great system! Good luck with all of that, I am sure you will get it handled......................:thumbsup:
 
Now some questions.

1. How long of a USB cable can I use to go from the laptop to the sound card without affecting the data?

2. Is there any way I can mod the C-24 preamp so it's volume control can be controlled remotely or is there a relatively inexpensive external remote volume control of at least 100K impedance that can handle a maximum signal level of 10Vrms. Reason for that is so I don't have to get up every time I need to change the volume.

3. How should I go about supplying power?

Would it be better to use a good quality power strip or should I use a several gang outlet box and install outlets with one having a switch on it to control everything?

The closet is rather shallow, but everything should fit good.

Concerning the RCA 45 player I'm pretty sure I won't have enough space to put it on its own TV tray so I may try to install a shelf above the Sansui record player and put it on that. Thankfully the McIntosh has two magnetic phono inputs.

The idea to all of this is to keep as much of the system as hidden as possible.

4. Also what kind of storage solution could I use for my record collection and reel to reel tapes?

I plan on taking the necessary cables and running them over to the wall right by the closet door then down to the floor and run along the wall to the speakers which will look better and not be in the way of anyone accessing the water heater which is accessed through that closet.

I may also install some C9 Christmas lights in the room and need advice on how to secure the lights near the ceiling without any holes if at all possible. If not possible then I can use some small screw in hooks as there's a strip where the top of the wall meets the ceiling that I can screw them into. The power plug for the lights will be connected to the power strip in the closet and I will use a variac to control their brightness which will make it look better with less wires showing.
1. 16 feet is the normal acceptable length. Any longer and you risk dropouts. You can do longer with a USB repeater or powered hub.
2. I saw some external volume controls from a seller on EBay. They cost about $300, but they looked slick. Have no idea if he still sells them.
3. Personally, I use surge protectors. The majority of my gear in the main system is on a Furman Power Conditioner/surge protector and the rest is on a 12-plug Belkin surge protector. Other systems use cheaper Belkin surge protectors (6 plug). I also just turn off components using their switches, not the power strip switches.
4. It depends on how many you have. Ikea has some shelving units many here like for large collections. Peaches record crates are a cool retro way to store records in smaller collections. There's plenty of other options people here like if you do some searching through the site.

Good luck with the setup. Sounds nice!
 
I came across a component sized power conditioner awhile back, never had one and got this one cheap while buying the rack it was still mounted in. If you have nice gear consider having one of these. Mine has outlets at different filtering and power capabilities for analog and digital components, power amps etc. Also delayed relay turn-on for the power amp. Everything is plugged into that so I hit one button. For components not always used, I use the power switch on the component. You've probably got a lot of expenses right now with losing the house and all, so maybe it's not the best time, but obviously you live in storm country, so it might be good to have a power conditioner some day.

Good luck with your system and new house!
 
I live in middle GA.

Normally don't see damage like this.

What I need to do has to be lower cost for now and last long enough to get me through November when I pay off a TSP loan and will take another out to pay off some stuff and give me a little extra money.

I'm not a fan of external volume controls because I like using the device's volume control , but the C-24 volume control is a four gang with two gangs of a higher value than the other two and wouldn't be easy to sub with a motorized volume control.

That would also be modding the McIntosh which I don't really want to do.

I could install the volume control in the tape loop, but that would allow the typical solid state noise the old transistors have to be easily heard so the control will go after the preamp.

Don't think I feel like spending $300 on a volume control right now though, although I'm sure they are very nice.

One time several years ago I seemed to remember seeing a remote volume control that used relays to switch resistors and control the volume. Think it may have had something like 128 volume steps.

More than likely I will probably use a power strip as that would be easier.

I sometimes use device power switches as well, but it is easier using one switch when several devices have to be on at the same time in order to even get sound.

Also I need to add a couple relays between the crossover and amp as the crossover when it is turned off will produce a nasty noise in the speakers given it's power supply discharges its power supply caps quicker than the amp does. For now I use the main/remote speaker switch to put the amp in remote speakers mode before I power the system down.

I would prefer installing the relays in the crossover, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it since I only have +/- 18 Vdc and the relays would need to turn off before the power supply caps are discharged unless perhaps I could use a load across the filter caps to make them discharge quick enough to where the noise isn't made if that is even possible.
 
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I finally got my system somewhat set up.

So far it sounds real good.

I did find that with hip hop and other bass heavy music I approach the 100 watt limit of the sub before the Lafayette amp starts to distort so I plan on building a second bucket sub just like the other one.

Here's some pictures.






 
Sorry that happened, but looks like you're getting to it!
Enjoy the system!

Rome
 
Will do and thanks.

All I have left is this

1. Connect my SansuI record player which will sit on a TV tray in the closet if it will fit.

2. Connect my AKAI GX-255 which will sit on a TV tray in the closet.

3. Connect my JVC 8 track which will sit on a TV tray in the closet if there's room.

4. Find a place for my RCA 45 player which might sit on top of the 8 track.

Complicating things is the water heater access which is in the closet.

Wiring will be run up the wall from the shelf across the ceiling over to the other wall then down the side of the door frame and along the wall at the floor.

Only thing that will be seen in the room are the speakers.

The KLH 22A speakers may go on TV trays.

If I can find the other grill to those cabinets the speakers will look much better.

Also I will be moving an RCA K-80 console into the room in front of the window to free up some space in my 12' X 12' building which will give me the ability to hear my two tube part 15 AM transmitter in the house.

EDIT:

Also need to find room for my mono AKAI Terecorder which I use to play 1/2 track mono tapes.

Initially I thought i wouldn't need any record ability, but with all my sources in one system and the AKAI EIE USB sound having inputs I will duplcate the buffer stage of the active crossover I built and use that on the record out of the McIntosh to feed the input of the sound card and I may also feed the inputs of the GX-255 should I decide to record to reel to reel tape. Doubt I'll feed the 8 track as I don't ever expect to record to it and I'd need a separate mono output for the terecorder.

The big issue is fitting all the sources in the closet (isn't much deeper than a standard TV tray is wide and is a little over 3 TV trays wide) while maintaining easy access to all.

At one point I wanted the sources in the room itself, but I wouldn't be able to have the preamp in the closet as that would mean long phono cables or an external phono preamp. The long phono cables I know aren't good and the preamp idea is silly when the McIntosh has two phono inputs and would require the preamp have two phono inputs or me building a switch to select which phono is being used.
 
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