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$15 Radio Shack Amp that kicks - the Accurian

Thanks, Snade, for that excellent group of pictures and directions.
I did the mod the other day but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. I am leaving the preamp section active. I was quite surprised at the heft of the unit! I have an old vintage receiver that I think needs new caps as the sound is too bassy. I'm going to try using the tape out from that receiver to the Accurian for the audio source and let it be the switching center. There are two sets of speakers I want to try with it, my venerable AR4x loudspeakers, which worked quite well with my 17 watt/channel Dynaco SCA-35 amp, and my Radio Shack Optimus pro 77 speakers. It will be fun to see how it works with them as they both are 8 ohms impedence. I intend to use the Accurian as the sound system for our bedroom flatscreen TV with the Optimus Pro 77 speakers, but want to experiment in the basement first. I see that Radio Shack now lists them as being available online again. There are only two places out here on Long Island that seem to have them in stock, I think one at each dealer. If you're thinking about picking one up, better hurry!

Oh yeah, there is another sleeper. Radio Shack now has the Sherwood RX-4109 receiver back on sale for $80. I picked one up the last time it was on sale around Christmas time, and it really is a sweet unit. The manual specs indicate 100 watts/channel from 20-20,000 hertz. This receiver has a real nice phono stage, which you do not see much at all today. If you are into vinyl, and are looking for a receiver, be sure to check this one out.
 
Tried to order two of them tonight, online they only have one left in stock... so I'm gonna weight to save on shipping.
 
johnda said:
Oh yeah, there is another sleeper. Radio Shack now has the Sherwood RX-4109 receiver back on sale for $80. I picked one up the last time it was on sale around Christmas time, and it really is a sweet unit. The manual specs indicate 100 watts/channel from 20-20,000 hertz. This receiver has a real nice phono stage, which you do not see much at all today. If you are into vinyl, and are looking for a receiver, be sure to check this one out.
Click to expand...

Here are the specs on that Sherwood.


105 Watts RMS per channel with no more than 0.9% THD, from 40 Hz to 20 kHz, 8 ohms

http://www.sherwoodusa.com/prod_rx4109.html
 
Picked 2 up online via USPS/UPS. Total with shipping was 40 for the pair. Not bad, I suppose. I've thrown a lot more money at a lot less product before. Did the board removal and the control panel/pot pass in about 3 minutes, Including soldering. Hardest part was prying the rubber pad feet off!!!! I put it in the office with the KT-6500, Denon 1700, FP II, and Heresy's. Not bad...not bad at all. :thmbsp: No squeal, no significant hiss or cross-talk and a decent sound for 20 smackers. I may drill the holes for venting later, but I'm not sure I'd do the tube add-on.
 
just bought mine online -$22 shipped. Does the mod #2 that bypasses the front panel essentially make the amp a power amp?
 
Alright then, maybe I can biamp my speakers by using the accurian for the bass and the trends ta-10.1 as highs. Lets see how it goes...
 
My first test...

I used the tape out jacks from my Sony STR6055 to the Accurian(preamp section active) and hooked up my AR4x speakers. Wow. The sound was clean with good bass, perhaps a bit bright (all tone controls were at neutral) but I understand the amp needs to burn in a bit before it settles down. To tell the truth, I was amazed at how good it sounded. You could pick up the accurian, if you can still get one, do the basic mod, then find a low cost receiver at a yard sale and just use the tape out jacks, making the receiver the source for FM, turntable, etc. If you have a decent preamp, you could do the second mod eliminating the preamp in the Accurian making it a basic amp.

I am amazed at the nice quality of this $14.95 piece of gear. Have fun hunting!:music:
 
Jim, on that Sherwood, the specs at the Sherwood site are not what the owner's manual shows. I was surprised to read in the owner's manual the following:

"Power output, stereo mode, 8 Ohms, THD .08% 20 Hz-20Khz 2x100W"
"Total harmonic distortion,8 Ohms, 100W, 20 Hz-20Khz .04%"

I don't know why they don't match up with the numbers on the Sherwood web site, but the Sherwood has an excellent sound to my ears in any case.

John:music:
 
Yesterday the Accurian was out of stock, but today it is back in stock. It must be a disease because I just ordered 2 more.
 
johnda said:
Jim, on that Sherwood, the specs at the Sherwood site are not what the owner's manual shows. I was surprised to read in the owner's manual the following:

"Power output, stereo mode, 8 Ohms, THD .08% 20 Hz-20Khz 2x100W"
"Total harmonic distortion,8 Ohms, 100W, 20 Hz-20Khz .04%"

I don't know why they don't match up with the numbers on the Sherwood web site, but the Sherwood has an excellent sound to my ears in any case.

John:music:
Click to expand...

I was intrigued by your post so I looked them up. $80 bucks is pretty good for 100 clean watts. Wonder why different specs? The website specs are certainly nothing to write home about.
 
I know, Jim. The web site specs threw me off also, but I have to say that the Sherwood really has excellent sound. I also cannot figure out why the web site specs are not on a par with the owner's manual specs.

Just five minutes ago I was just listening to "Whisperings" on the internet, fed by my imac to the Sherwood driving the Best Buy Insignia 6.5" speakers. The sound was really clean and full bodied.

Don't forget, the Sherwood also has a phono stage which is something you don't see very much these days. I think it's a very nice buy, and I don't own stock in Sherwood. OK, time to hit the sack. See ya Pard!:thmbsp:
 
I just found another interesting use for my new Radio Shack amp. Maybe the rest of AK already knows about this, but I think it's a neat little use for the amp.

I was working on my Yammie CR-400 and noticed the Preamp Out and thought to myself "I bet I could run a sub-woofer with this receiver" and BINGO I was right.

I hooked up some cables going from the Preamp Out to the RS amp inputs and connected my sub-woofer to the RS amp and ran my other speakers off the CR-400 and everything worked fairly well. I adjusted the volume on the RS amp and also could control the amount of bass separately by adjusting on the RS amp. Now I'm going to try this by disconnecting the cable that runs to the front panel and have just an opamp. For me this was quite a revelation.:tongue:
 
Is anyone else trying to buy these amps currently getting a run around?

I ordered two when the website said they were in stock. The next day I get an email that says they are not currently available and my order has been cancelled. So, I put my email in to be notified when they become available. I get an email that says they are now available, so I immediately order two. The next day I get an email that says they are not currently available and my order has been cancelled. So, I put my email in to be notified when they become available. I get an email that says they are now available, so I immediately order two. The next day I get an email that says they are not currently available and my order has been cancelled. So, I put my email in to be notified when they become available. I get an email that says they are now available, so I immediately order two. The next day I get an email that says they are not currently available and my order has been cancelled. So, I put my email in to be notified when they become available. I get an email that says they are now available, so I immediately order two. The next day I get an email that says they are not currently available and my order has been cancelled. You get the idea.

Is there any hope of getting these amps again or has this thread and others like it across the net made it almost impossible to get in in time to get one when they become available?
 
I'd give up on getting these online.
There's clearly a glitch in their system in which their on-hand stock gets 'refreshed' to show the item in stock, and when new orders come in, somebody updates the item to be out of stock.
The customer support people at RS haven't a clue about this, and all they can conclude is that they were in stock when you placed your order, and went out of stock while your order was being processed.
It appears that these have been discontinued, and RS online hasn't been advised. They told me that products are taken out of the online catalog when they are discontinued. Clearly not the case with these.
I was able to find one at a store last week. The last one amongst 40 or 50 stores in a 100 mile radius, so it was thru 'hunt & peck'.
If you find one through zip code search, call the store and ask for the manager. Make sure that the manager can put his hands on it to confirm that it's not a defective return, or they simply don't have it.
If you can get to a store in the same district as the in-stock store, the in-stock store will ship it to that store. Otherwise, you'll need to talk to the "DM" who is the district manager. He's the one who will contact the "DM" in the other district and may or may not authorize a store-to-store ship from one district to another.
 
So when I was able to find this one, the manager asked me if I wanted the wireless speakers that were also on clearance. From $200 or so down to $10/pair.
I said what the heck & had two pairs shipped along w/the receiver/amp. Bigger than I thought. I haven't opened the boxes yet, but these appear to be amplified speakers that are designed to get their signal from the AC plugin (HomePlug) w/out needing the reciever/amp. They do need a Powerline Digital Audio Sender (RS #15-1938) however.
I might use one pair of speakers as the test guinea pigs to wire in some RCA jacks so that I can use them as amped speakers w/an iPod or something...but it's purely speculation as to whether I can do this at this point.
Anybody familiar with these speakers? Can these be rewired to get their signal from RCA inputs?
Also, I'm finding that the HomePlug digital sender that's used to put the signal in the AC lines in the first place appears to be more scarce than the amp. Does anyone know where these senders (RS #15-1938) might be found? I'd like to try this HomePlug system out with my $10 pair of speakers (the other pair that I don't hack up:D)
 
Take another look....

...at this thread. I think there's some content about those speakers being modded also.

Boy I tell you what, I never thought that me flapping my lips about these amps would have such a long lifespan....Glad I grabbed 3 or 4 when I first learned about them....:D

Also, if anyone's looking for some of these, try PM'ing Macaltec. I think he picked up 3 or 4 also, and may still be sitting on them.....:thmbsp:
 
The polkaudio thread I posted a few pages back talks about the speakers some. As for finding the sender you could try the auction site or try to find them under their other name but they would probably be full price. The Accurian stuff is rebadged ST&T.

www.stt.com.tw/product/rx84.html
 
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