When bad audio is good - a possible site project

Bad audio made good......what do you think?

  • Yes, sounds like an interesting idea

    Votes: 37 72.5%
  • No, it's a waste of time

    Votes: 14 27.5%

  • Total voters
    51
Kamakiri said:
So this idea came to mind maybe a year ago, and I thought this might make for some interesting readin and maybe a fun winter project for a few volunteers.......

We've all talked about bad audio at some point......Panasonic receivers, Yorx speakers, maybe a Lenox Sound turntable......

It takes a good DIY man to make a good piece of gear, but it takes a GREAT DIY man to make a crappy piece of gear good! So here's my idea.

We take a pet project, like a pair of Yorx speakers. We change crossovers, add sound deadening material to them,change them in any way shape or form, but the basic piece must be left as is. The challenge, being, to make them as good as possible. Or, grab a Soundesign receiver, add audiophile grade caps, tweak this or that, etc, while leaving the basic design the same. For no other reason, other than to see if it can be done.

We'd of course take pics along the way, and collaborate to form a plan of attack as to how to make the changes. Then, we'd have all of the gear set up at the Fest.

This would encompass a challenge to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, working within the parameters of the original lousy design.

Why am I proposing this?

1. It's something no other audio site would ever do
2. It would make for interesting reading, no matter how ridiculous you may think it
3. It would test the minds of our members to do a project like this

So, here's the poll, tell me what you think.......

This is how I got into audio, when I was a 14-15 year old kid, I didn't have enough money money to buy good shit, but I had a library card and hamfests full of shit that needed to be mine.

It's interesting, I think i knew more about communications and audio equipment back then vs. now.

Not sure why........... But I could guess.
 
SO, you mean we can't take out the cheap, 2w./ch single chip amps, and add some nice class ab transistor amps, with maybe 10k/75v. caps ??
 
My Toshiba SA-735 receiver would definitely qualify for the title of this thread. Echowars gave me some ideas on things you can do to a cheap receiver that would almost never get done because of the cost, and also because these kinds of upgrading efforts are almost always reserved to better quality gear. So what did I do thus far?

I fully recapped it with Nichicon UPW and Panasonic FC caps. I replaced the mylar caps with polypropylene film caps. I replaced the small ceramic caps on the amplifier board with silver mica caps.

This receiver did not have a adjustment pots for DC offset, so I built a circuit board that would inject a correction voltage to the base of the input transistors. I was thus able to dial the DC offset down from 76V to close to 0.

I then upgraded the Op Amps in the phono stage (NE5532) and the amplifier board (OPA2604). I then cut the connection between the output of the output stage of the OPA2604 to the power amp section of the receiver and soldered pre-out, main-in wires. Drilled holes in the back of the receiver for the pre-out and main-in jacks.

I now use it as a preamp, since the amplifier section of this receiver is really nothing to phone home about. But as a preamp it sounds pretty decent. Only thing is there is a low level hum. I think this could have something to do with the budget quality of the transformer/ power switch. Maybe if this was upgraded some further gains could be made. :scratch2:

Yet we must be aware that we are talking about making a silk purse out of sow's ear, here. It will have many DIY experts shaking their heads. :no: It can be fun no doubt, yet the end results will often confirm just why nobody else is taking on these weird types of projects.

By the way, anyone have any advice for a transformer upgrade?
 

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