Rega/classdaudio/hifimediy?

[Frankenrega]

Hi, I recently dragged an old Rega Elex down from the loft to set up a second system in the spare room and was dismayed to find the right channel seems to be crackling. It does it more on some inputs than others and I only have one source so that’s hooked up to the best of the bunch and with a little bit of fiddling with the input selector the crackle goes temporarily. I haven’t got the first clue how to fix it so I started looking for a cheap replacement and found a huge amount of info about t-amps which I’ve been mulling over since.



I’ve got no experience of diy audio or electronics but I’m willing to learn!


So my first question is would the amp below be a decent upgrade to the sound of the Elex or would I be better off trying to fix the dodgy channel?


Class D Audio CDA-254 Class D Audio Amplifier



The board on its own is pretty much the top of my budget for this project which leads me onto my second question (which I fear maybe bordering on ridiculous but humour me!)
If I did buy the board would it be possible to use the power supply from the Elex and simply control volume level from the source (PC with Emu 0404 card), or even somehow hook up the volume pot from the rega?


I’ve also had a look at the hifimediy products, they’re a bit cheaper so I could afford an amp and power supply but I like the idea of reusing what I can from the Rega if it’s at all possible.
If I went down the hifimediy route I would go for this amp:
Hifimediy|Hifimediy T1 ALPS sta510A 2*100W@8ohm amplifier


So having never heard either of these amps or even knowing if my plan for the classdaudio amp is possible I’m finding it quite hard to make a decision! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

[Frankenrega]

OK, so I’ve come to realise that using the toroidal transformer from the Rega to power the classdaudio board isn’t going to happen. I don’t know what the Rega specs are but as the class d boards are more efficient it’s very unlikely they will be in the correct range, right?


I’ve also come to the conclusion that the classdaudio and hifimediy amps will sound very similar to each other and I’m probably better off going for the cheaper amp with the recommended power supply. Again if anyone has any experience of these amps feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

[pinkmouse]

Have you metered out the PSU rails on the Rega? If not build yourself a Light Bulb Tester and do so. That should be your first step.

[TheDealer]

Originally Posted by Frankenrega

So having never heard either of these amps or even knowing if my plan for the classdaudio amp is possible I’m finding it quite hard to make a decision! Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

I often thought over the purchase of classic amps. Especially the A1 of Musical Fidelity which I really enjoyed in the past. But every amp should suffer in loosing performance of their build in e-Caps within the years. The grade of course depending on the quality the manufacturer used. So I finally gave up the purchase because it would cost me some work to replace some worn out parts.

Rega earned in fact a solid reputation over the years in the audio community but your amp seems to have been left too much time without operation. That´s probably the reason for crackling noise and who knows what comes next ?

The hifimediy amps I can recommend strongly. They are matched to the impedance load of your speakers. You don´t need much diy experience.
Even the power supply is offered by them low cost but very good quality. That´s all.

[Frankenrega]

Thanks to both for your input! Just to let you know I’ve opted for an 80W@8ohm T1 from hifimediy with the recommended PSU. I don’t have the skills to start messing too much and it sounds like these are nice amps so I’ll give one a go!

[mashley_nad]

This may not be your issue, but worth considering ...

The speaker protection relays in the old Rega's seem to fail eventually.

When you switch on there is a delay before speakers come on - if the sound is crackly from the start, try turning up the volume sharply, this sometimes will fix the poor connection.

It's just corrosion of the relay contacts ... and the relays are relatively easy to replace.

Mine behaves exactly like this ... will get around to dealing to the relays eventually!