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New + Old, Same 'Ole Problems

B

bigsleepla

New Member
Hello, been using AudioKarma as a resource for a few months, so hats off this is very informed community.

Just want to ask if someone could please help me with a minor, but annoying issue. I've been using an AK100 as the source for my headphones, and I've been very happy with this arrangement. But recently, I've been eyeing vintage equipment and and felt a "keen pang of lust" I couldn't resist anymore ;) So, in an orgy of buying, I picked up a Yamaha CA-800 and a pair of Stax SR-5 (with a SRD-6 energizer).

Using my AK100 as the source, I've been very happy with the setup. The Yammy sounds sweet, and I have a P-20 turntable that'll I'll add once I get a cartridge, and I'm already scoping a tuner. So far so good! But what kinda sucks is the AK100. I'm using a 3.5MM-to-RCA audio out cable to connect the AK100 to the aux connections in the CA-800 (the AK100 is set to a line out mode, so it's at max volume), but it's a challenge to get the volume to a high level without also increasing the amp hum. The hum is very, very minor, but is there anything I can do to increase the source volume? (The volume knob's cranked to 7.)

BTW, the gentleman I bought the CA-800 from had it connected to a pair NS-1000s--OMG, what an experience! One of three defining sonic moments that fueled/fueling my obsession.

Thank you.
 
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You could try connecting the rca's to a tape input (play). That should require a different setting for the source button which might play cleaner and maybe louder.
 
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bigsleepla said:
Thanks Dave, I'll give it a try tonight. I may have an interest in vintage, but still got a ways to understand it ;)
Click to expand...
Don't forget to change source button or switch too, Check hifiengine you may be able to download manuals if you require. Yup I just went and looked they have the service and owner's manuals for the mkl and mkll Yamaha ca-800. Register free to download pdf :bigok:
 
The two main options for boosting a line level signal that I'm aware of are:

A. Rolls # DA-134 http://www.rolls.com/product.php?pid=DA134 -and- B. MCM # 50-14820 http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/50-14820

There are others no doubt,but these two are the ones that I would consider first. The Rolls DA-134 even has a 3.5mm ~ 1/8" input jack,so you can go that route if you prefer,though with that unit you'll end up with extra outputs vs. the MCM 50-14820 which is just stereo pair RCA ins/outs with a single level control.

HTH

Bret P.
 
They have the service manual and brochure for the ca 800 right here in the database as well and an owner's manual at hifi
 
Welcome to the forum.

Hat tip for the P-20 turntable.
Have another for your selection of a Yamaha CA-800. :thumbsup:

If you don't already have a manual for the P-20, make a free account at vinylengine and download the P-550 manual. They're the same table, just a later renumber.

http://www.vinylengine.com/library/yamaha/p-550.shtml

That P-20 is a really nice one. I sent one to my parents for Christmas this past year.

If it gives you any trouble, let me know. I'll be glad to help get it working properly for you.

Common problems are a slightly sticky tonearm that doesn't float properly - pretty easy fix.

And a jerky tonearm motion when it's returning - another easy fix.

Good luck!
 
Hi Gents, thanks for all the generous tips and suggestions. I downloaded the recommended manuals and they definitely helped :) I finally found some time last night to work on the line issue. The first thing I did was I plugged the amp and energizer into a power strip which brought the hum down tremendously. I also moved the input from Aux to Tape and that brought the hum down where I could comfortably hear the music. I was fiddling around more when I discovered that I actually hadn't plugged in the energizer (it was the printer--noob!). When I did--Holy Mother of God--the music came out blazing! The silence in-between tracks were so quiet it was practically midnight. But when the music played, oh Lord! I stayed up until 3AM playing everything I could get my hands on. It was like I could hear on another plane of existence.

Impressions this way...

A/B test of 16-bit vs. 24-bit versions of Interpol's Lief Erikson

OK, not a completely fair comparison as the 16-bit was streamed from Tidal (on a OnePlus One phone) and the 24-bit was played from my AK100, but there was no question, the 24/96 source crushed the competition. Without any doubt, any person with two ears and a brain (OK, maybe this is rarer than I thought) will be able to hear that the 24-bit possessed a higher fidelity, and that the 16-bit, in comparison, sounded slightly veiled.

However, Tidal wasn't bad. When by itself, it was really good, but just don't compare it with a 24/96 flac. I listened to Dylan's Lay Lady Lay on Tidal (I like to use this track to test headphones) and I could tell that--again--it wasn't the highest fidelity, but definitely a warm and tasty version. The percussion came in beautifully through the right channel, and the delicate guitar strumming came in oh so clearly on the left. Dylan's voice was bright and nasally and wonderful, but never harsh through the Stax. Dylan would have been about 27 when he recorded this track, so I feel like his lyrics spoke to a youthful romanticism that we all--hopefully--felt at one point in our lives.

The other highlights in this session were definitely Interpol's Leif Erikson with its full, super detailed sound; Joy Division's The Sound of Music with its catchy, minimalistic sound, coupled with Ian Curtis's almost detuned vocal (the animal-like screams at the beginning were a nice bonus); and Nirvana's live set of Come as You Are (on Tidal). Note: to anyone who grew up in the 90's, the previously mentioned Nirvana track was pulled from the album series, MTV Unplugged. The track begins with an eerily "live" sounding audience (at least through my setup) that flows right into Kurt Cobain's vocal. The sound was so clear and three dimensional, and because my brain flared memories of my youth in the 90's, this track almost brought tears.

The power of music on vintage amps and headphones.
 
bigsleepla said:
I finally found some time last night to work on the line issue. The first thing I did was I plugged the amp and energizer into a power strip which brought the hum down tremendously. I also moved the input from Aux to Tape and that brought the hum down where I could comfortably hear the music. I was fiddling around more when I discovered that I actually hadn't plugged in the energizer (it was the printer--noob!). When I did--Holy Mother of God--the music came out blazing!
Click to expand...
Umm yeah,I can see how that could've been a problem,LOL.

Congrats on getting it all figured out. :thumbsup:

Enjoy :music:

Bret P.
 
bigsleepla said:
Hi Gents, thanks for all the generous tips and suggestions. I downloaded the recommended manuals and they definitely helped :) I finally found some time last night to work on the line issue. The first thing I did was I plugged the amp and energizer into a power strip which brought the hum down tremendously. I also moved the input from Aux to Tape and that brought the hum down where I could comfortably hear the music. When I did--Holy Mother of God--the music came out blazing! The silence in-between tracks were so quiet it was practically midnight.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear it worked out for you. :rockon:
 
Don't know what it is about this hobby, but in the course of two weeks, my wife's gotten repeatedly pissed BIG TIME with me, as I keep buying buying stuff for my recently acquired CA-800--is this going to be normal? OK, that's a rhetorical question ;)

I really don't need a tuner as I usually listen to news as I drive to work, and if I do dial in for music, I almost always stream it. But for some damn reason, I keep looking at tuners for this amp, just so I can add another silver-faced deck to the app, and enjoy the hypnotic glow of lights and moving needles. Who needs a fish tank when you have dancing meters? And sure enough, volia!, some guy's selling his uncle's minty Yamaha CT-810 on Craigslist ($60), an hour away from me. So I conduct the customary fight with my wife, load her and the kids into the SUV and I'm on my way.

After pouring rain and two hours on the road; after getting the kids fed, teeth brushed; the dog walked and fed; I finally get to clean and hook up the tuner. And when I finally envelop my ears around my Stax for the moment of truth--HUM!!!

After all that, I still get the hum! Scratch that, I only get the hum when I use the tuner, aux, and phono inputs. But when I use the tape input, no hum. Only the opposite, great FM lushness, and yes, glowing lights and TWO dancing needles (when I hunt stations anyway).

So hit the owners' manual and I've come to a theory on the hum: ground wire. I think I need to hook a wire from the amp to a ground:

http://sportsbil.com/yamaha/ca-800ii-om.pdf (page 22)

The manual diagrams a ground wire from a turntable, but on my P-20, it only has the RCA plugs and a mysterious 3.5mm plug, can this be the ground? If so, I'm going to need to strip the plug. Or, I'm thinking I can use one of many commercial grounding applications:

http://www.lessemf.com/ground.html

Anyways, thought to update. Back to the rye and music, and surfing the internet for the CT-800 (!) and speakers (gotta grow up and ditch the headphones).

Some pics:

Yamaha Rig I

Yamaha Rig I

Yamaha CA-800
Yamaha CT-810
Stax SRD-6
Stax SR-5
Astell&Kern AK100
Yamaha Rig II

Yamaha Rig II

Yamaha CA-800
Yamaha CT-810
Stax SRD-6
Stax SR-5
Astell&Kern AK100
 
The way I fixed the hum/plug on the P-20 I sent my parents was to cut the plug off at the plug and solder on a spade connector.

That is a coaxial wire, and if I recall correctly it is indeed the outer you need for the ground, but, I did this process exactly one time back in October. I'm 99% positive it's the outer of the coax you need, but for the hell of it, and in a measure twice, cut once mentality, before you clip off the inner core wire, test with the bare outer wire to see if it remedies the hum. If it doesn't, strip off a little tiny tip of the inner core and try it to the ground terminal.

How to change the P-20 plug into a spaded ground wire.
  • Cut the plug off, right at the base of the plug.
  • Strip off about an inch of the insulation and undo the wire mesh on the outside, revealing the inner core wire.
  • Cut the inner core wire as far back as possible.
  • Re twist the outer mesh around the clipped core and out to form a normal looking twisted bare end wire.
  • Slip on a piece of shrink tubing. If you don't have shrink tubing, elecrical-tape will be fine.
  • Solder on the spade, closer to the tip of the wire as to not let the solder seep back and fuse with the inner core wire.
  • Then slide the shrink tubing up snug over the bare wire and connection at the spade, and heat-shrink it down.
  • Connect to amp and enjoy!

Good luck with the process. It's fairly simple. If you have any other trouble with that P-20, let me know. I'll be happy to help out.
 
Hi Rey, thanks for the nice tip--really appreciate it. Yeah, I think I'm going to need a couple of these spaded ground wires. Looking through the manuals for the CA-800 and CT-810, they recommend grounding the tuner and however many phono's you connect. The issue may also be my source: maybe these vintage amps need more power than what's fed from a tiny DAP. The owner did demo his rig (fed by an Olive); it was outputted via the aux and I couldn't discern any hum. Just the opposite. He used a pair of NS-1000's and the were simply amazing. I'm looking through Magnepan's website and reading about their speakers, as well as professional and community reviews; I may jump into the speaker world with a MMGW or MC1. Price and opinions are very, very good :)
 
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