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$15 Radio Shack Amp that kicks - the Accurian

They charged me shipping on mine!!! I will have to find out the reason.
It is set up in the bed room and is sounding better everyday.
 
John L said:
I missed this aparently. Is it within this thread already? Where does it appear? And what does the Second Modification really do?
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This is the first time in this thread.

It gets rid of all the crap on the front except the power switch.

No vol/bal/bass/treble and dumps an op-amp.

The gain goes down, so if you drive it with a MP3 player, you might not be able to get enough out of it. Using a 'puter or TV or preamp, it is perfectly fine.

The effect on 'cleaning up' this amps shortcomings is simply amazing.

I told a local fella he should try this out as an add on to his Bose radio.
I brought over my Mirage speakers and hooked this into his line outs on his radio. (On one of the units I had left the vol/bal/bass/treble intact on.)
He ordered one before I left his place. ;)

People who have read some threads about these see the negatives about them and think they will have a cheesy sound. I tried to tell this guy that they are being compared to some pretty good gear and besides missing the low lows, the things are pretty decent.
 
MrGee said:
I tried to tell this guy that they are being compared to some pretty good gear and besides missing the low lows, the things are pretty decent.
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I have hooked up the Accurian amp to a pair of New Large Advents and my Oppo DV970-HD and the numerous sub-30 Hz sounds on Keiko Matsui's The Ring come through pretty well. There doesn't sound like there is any significant lack of bass on Sade's Stronger Than Pride or Marcus Miller's The Sun Don't Lie either.
 
I have been running this amp on my desktop system for a week now and really like the clarity. I am still running the front end as I need the balance control. One of my speakers is up close to the file cabinet and that causes reflections and make that side stronger so I have to balance it out. About two days ago I started getting a buzzing sound from both speakers. Has any one else had that happen? Do you think it will go away if I take out the front end? Cheers.
 
Just a quick update. I had originally bought one a year or so ago when they first went on clearance. It had been setup in my workshop and running 5 to 6 hours a day for a little over a year. Well, a couple of months ago, it quit working, just stopped. At the time, I was very busy so, I just replaced it with a spare amp. Yesterday, I had some extra time so, I decided to look at the bad amp. It turns out to be a blown fuse. Just replaced it with another 4 amp fuse and it's playing beautifully again.:music:

Thanks,
Eric
 
:scratch2:I got mine today i had to pay shipping and after looking at the back of it I see line out and speaker out were do i put audio in?
 
jusgr8 said:
:yes:oop's never mind I read the mod instructions and now I know.
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I had read the mod instructions about 2 weeks before I got my two Accurians, and had forgotten that the line out becomes the line in. Scratched my head for a few minutes until I plugged a cd player into the former line outs, and voila!:D
 
MrGee said:
Try the second modification where the front board is bypassed.

Hook the three wires on the main amp plug all the way to the right direct to the rear RCA jacks.
Locate the input wires on the main board. (on the front of the board, towards the right side while looking at the amp from the front) They should be L G R. They are on the right side of the group of wires.
accurianmodrcaplugrw8.jpg

Yellow to white
Black to green
Red to blue
POOF! No more front board and about 35% cleaner amp! The difference is VERY noticeable.
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While I'm very interested in your mod, I would like a better picture (if available)? Are you splitting the wrap and sending the three from the board to the rear? Or are you disconnecting the three from front and attaching them to the board? Pictures should explain it all. Thanks!
 
djnagle said:
About two days ago I started getting a buzzing sound from both speakers. Has any one else had that happen? Do you think it will go away if I take out the front end? Cheers.
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I ordered 2. One had a loud buzz coming from the left speaker. The other had a low hum in both speakers that then turned into a loud buzz from the right speaker. I returned them to the store last weekend and had 2 more shipped out to me this week. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet though.

If one of these has the buzzing problem I may bypass the front board to see if that helps because touching the front plate caused the buzzing to get worse especially if the top was off. Touching the heatsink on the back made the buzzing go away. I plan on using one for my bedroom television so I could use the volume control on the cable box.
 
Back in stock.

They went out of stock some time Saturday after I returned mine to the store. I was worried that I wasn't going to get them because the order numbers they gave me never worked.
 
Heres something about the buzz from polkaudio. post 193. He also talks about the mods he did in post 190.

www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51953&page=7

Absolutely! The main AC power switch being right next to the preamp board was causing an audible 60hz buzz. Moving the switch eliminated that buzz completely.

Another option would be to somehow insulate the preamp board (or the AC lines/switch), but that seemed like it would be more work.

Having that switch and those main power lines running right next to the pre- board was a very poor design choice.

Some people don't notice the buzz, but in my use as an amp for near-field speakers (sitting less than 3 feet from each speaker), the buzz was very distracting.
Click to expand...

If you read into the next page there is some more info on the buzzing.
 
I hooked one of my new ones up and it started off with no hum. After about 2-3 minutes it started. If I stopped the music I could here humming coming from both speakers. I opened it back up and moved the power switch to the rear of the left side as in the polk audio thread I linked to earlier. See pic. It's been playing for about 30 minutes and so far no hum. I used a plastic button off of a cheap broken keyboard that belonged to my son. I had to drill it out to fit the switch.

There are definitely some grounding issues with this amp. As I posted before about the ones I took back when I touched the front face plate, especially with the top off, it caused a loud buzzing and touching the heatsink made both the buzzing and humming go away. It's the same on the new one I got. Also, removing the knobs and touching the shafts causes a lot of noise. As I saw posted in the polk audio thread the grounds for the pots were cut at the factory for some reason. I'd take a picture of it but I've already put the amp back together. I'm going to see what I can do about that. One person mentioned adding a new plug with a ground and hooking that to the heatsink. I may try that later.

Edit: Pic won't load for some reason

Edit 2: Adjusting the treble knob causes hum. I have to turn it almost completely down to get it to go away.
 
I've never had a problem with any buzz on my fairly efficient speakers (98dB or so).
 
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