AU-717 Question

[hrbballman]

I'm looking to upgrade cables running from my au-717 to my speakers. Do the banana plugs fit into the speaker outs on the au-717. I don't have any laying around to try it so I thought I would ask before just buying the cables. Thanks!

 

[Hyperion]

I'm looking to upgrade cables running from my au-717 to my speakers. Do the banana plugs fit into the speaker outs on the au-717. I don't have any laying around to try it so I thought I would ask before just buying the cables. Thanks!

Banana plugs ? - no

Wire ends, or narrow spades, or pins only (unless you have had a speaker terminals upgrade).

 

[hrbballman]

Thanks. Any suggestions on decent wire? I'm running shielded 20 or 22 gauge right now. Do I even need to worry about upgrading. Is 20 gauge to big?

 

[hrbballman]

Here is the wire I was considering: http://signalcable.com/ultraspeaker.html

 

[Hyperion]

Thanks. Any suggestions on decent wire? I'm running shielded 20 or 22 gauge right now. Do I even need to worry about upgrading. Is 20 gauge to big?

You should not need to use shielded wire, too big, is when you can no longer get the wire into the speaker terminals on the amp 20 gauge sounds ok.

Edit: the cables at that link are Ok - make sure you specify 'wire ends' at one end (for the amp) - I am assuming that your speakers can take the banana plugs at the other end?

 

[hrbballman]

The speakers are sansui's and actually have the exact same terminals as the au-717. so if the au-717 doesnt take the BFA banana ends then the speakers won't. I've just recently heard about bi-wiring. Is that something I should consider? I have no idea how it works though. would it make the system sound better?

 

[Hyperion]

The speaker connectors on the AU-717 are not highly regarded (hence my question about "speaker terminals upgrade") - thus, if those connectors are present on the speakers as well - you will need wire ends for both ends of the cables and no terminals at all.

Here you will get into 'diminishing returns' territory - spending a lot of money on cables may not be worthwhile if the terminals at each end won't do this investment justice. Ideally you should have quality binding posts at the amp and speaker ends - so you can utilise cables with bananas (for example) at both ends.

You could bi-wire - but this will mean 2 sets of cables connected at the amp end - 1 set (for each channel) going to the low frequency speakers - and 1 set connected to the upper frequency speakers. By this means the idea is that you separate the high & low frequency signals - thus supposedly giving you greater clarity.

Bi-wiring depends on the speakers themselves having separate connectors for the lower and upper frequency speaker drivers - if this is not the case (i.e. only one pair of terminals per speaker) - then you can't bi-wire.

 

[qpagoda]

The speakers are sansui's and actually have the exact same terminals as the au-717. so if the au-717 doesnt take the BFA banana ends then the speakers won't. I've just recently heard about bi-wiring. Is that something I should consider? I have no idea how it works though. would it make the system sound better?

hrbballman,

I have Sansui SP-1700's that probably have the same connectors as yours. Since the terminals on the speakers aren't exactly top of the line, it may be hard to get a good return on your speaker wire investment when you're paying $50 -80 per channel for your speaker wire. In my opinion, that's overkill. For what it's worth, I use lamp cord on my 1700's. I probably could get marginally better sound with much more expensive speaker cables, but I don't think the 1700's justify the investment. YMMV.

 

[hrbballman]

I have the sansui SP-L700 speakers. They have one speaker terminal but then they also have posts for bi-amping. Is it possible to bi-wire the speakers off of the bi-amping posts? Here is what the back of the speakers look like: http://www.sansui.us/images/Speakers/SP_Later/SPL800_3.jpg

any thoughts? also, Is it worth it to upgrade the terminals on the back of the au-717 and the SP-L700's? any links to threads that have already covered this topic?

 

[Hyperion]

I have the sansui SP-L700 speakers. They have one speaker terminal but then they also have posts for bi-amping. Is it possible to bi-wire the speakers off of the bi-amping posts? Here is what the back of the speakers look like: http://www.sansui.us/images/Speakers/SP_Later/SPL800_3.jpg

I think so :scratch2:

any thoughts? also, Is it worth it to upgrade the terminals on the back of the au-717 and the SP-L700's? any links to threads that have already covered this topic?

Good idea to upgrade the AU-717 terminals as it is faily simple - the pic of the speakers suggests (to me) not much advantage from upgrading the terminals on the speakers themselves.

 

[hrbballman]

Thanks. I have come up with a few more questions while setting all of this up. This will be a long explanation so please bear with me. I'm trying to figure out how I should connect my computer to the au-717. Either way the turntable is going to run through the phono stage on the au-717. which should I do? Option 1: Run lossless on computer through DAC through tube headphone amp/pre-amp into auxiliary port on AU-717. or Option 2: Run lossless on computer to DAC to Auxiliary on AU-717 then run tube headphone amp out of pre-out on the au-717. For the second option what do i need to move the switch to on the "pre-out/power amp in" section? Also, Do jumpers on the pre-amp section benefit the AU-717 or is that done internally already? Thanks for all of the help.

 

[hrbballman]

bump

 

[scottrt]

Why do you need the headphone amp? Was is the output of your DAC... isn't it line level? Just try hooking your DAC into the auxiliary input.

 

[hrbballman]

I need the headphone amp to power my beyer DT880 600ohm and my HD650's. The Au717's headphone out sounds great with lower impedence headphones, however, the DT880 and the HD650 are too power hungry. The output of the dac is line-level. If I run the DAC right into the AU-717 and I run the headphone amp out of the Pre-out do I have to switch the switch below the inputs/outputs? would I keep it on "connected" or switch it to either "direct coupled," "separated," or "capacitor coupled." Also, the reason I was considering running the DAC through the tube headphone amp is to "warm" the digital signal of the music coming from my computer. Thanks

 

[hrbballman]

Also, does anyone have a copy of the manual and brochure that they could email or PM me? It would be greatly appreciated