A while back I picked up an old 70's Sony amp for next to nothing at auction.
My wife had gone out for the morning and my daughter was having her morning nap so I thought "Why not try out that old Sony TA-1066 I have lying around.". So I quickly snuck in to the back room and dug it out. It appeared to be in surprisingly good condition.
"This looks ok, sure its not going to be great but how about I plug it in to my main system for a few weeks and see how it sounds?" I thought.
So I carefully turned everything off at the wall and unplugged my main amp. I only plugged the power in the old TA and turned it on, just to make sure it was not going to blow a fuse or take out the street or something. It turned on fine, its old green light blinked on for the first time in many years. "Good good" I thought. "Better unplug the power again before I plug everything in again, I would not wan't to hurt my speakers" I mused looking at my lovely Alpair 7's in their meter tall transmission line encolsures.
I decided to leave the source unplugged as well, just to see what the noise floor of the little old girl was.
So I wired up my speakers and plugged in the power, made sure the volume was all the way down and gingerly turned on the power. To my surprise it was nice and quiet. It turned up the volume and the faintest of high pitched hums started to come through the speakers. "Good" I thought. Now to test them out! So I turned off the lot, plugged in my trusty old Dual 1019 turntable, turned on the amp again only to hear that slight hum again. So I turned the volume down, and finally pressed the phono button.
"POP"
"Oooh that was very loud" I thought. I hope everything is ok. I carefully placed my favourite Credence Clearewater Revival record, and as that first guitar note rang I heard it, a distinct crackle. Moving close I found it was coming from the right channel. Concerned, "It could just be this old amp, or some just on the record, better check before I go any further"
So I unplugged the old TA and pugged in my trusty Arcam P35(this thing is quiet as a whisper), plugged in my phone just to get up and running quickly and turned on some Nick Cave. As his sonorous voice came from those wonderful speakers, there it was again, a faithfully reproduced crackling. Now every time a deep voice comes on it sounds like a trombone player opening his spit valve and blowing with all his might, or a flatulent cat farting from inside the right channel. My heart sank.
So I have learned an important and painful lesson today: Don't use your Alpair 7's to test old equipment -use those crappy US Audio party towers that you have in the spare room, or even those cheap logitech satelites that you have plugged in to your PC. Anything but your lovely, clear, precise, delicate Alpair 7's.
My wife had gone out for the morning and my daughter was having her morning nap so I thought "Why not try out that old Sony TA-1066 I have lying around.". So I quickly snuck in to the back room and dug it out. It appeared to be in surprisingly good condition.
"This looks ok, sure its not going to be great but how about I plug it in to my main system for a few weeks and see how it sounds?" I thought.
So I carefully turned everything off at the wall and unplugged my main amp. I only plugged the power in the old TA and turned it on, just to make sure it was not going to blow a fuse or take out the street or something. It turned on fine, its old green light blinked on for the first time in many years. "Good good" I thought. "Better unplug the power again before I plug everything in again, I would not wan't to hurt my speakers" I mused looking at my lovely Alpair 7's in their meter tall transmission line encolsures.
I decided to leave the source unplugged as well, just to see what the noise floor of the little old girl was.
So I wired up my speakers and plugged in the power, made sure the volume was all the way down and gingerly turned on the power. To my surprise it was nice and quiet. It turned up the volume and the faintest of high pitched hums started to come through the speakers. "Good" I thought. Now to test them out! So I turned off the lot, plugged in my trusty old Dual 1019 turntable, turned on the amp again only to hear that slight hum again. So I turned the volume down, and finally pressed the phono button.
"POP"
"Oooh that was very loud" I thought. I hope everything is ok. I carefully placed my favourite Credence Clearewater Revival record, and as that first guitar note rang I heard it, a distinct crackle. Moving close I found it was coming from the right channel. Concerned, "It could just be this old amp, or some just on the record, better check before I go any further"
So I unplugged the old TA and pugged in my trusty Arcam P35(this thing is quiet as a whisper), plugged in my phone just to get up and running quickly and turned on some Nick Cave. As his sonorous voice came from those wonderful speakers, there it was again, a faithfully reproduced crackling. Now every time a deep voice comes on it sounds like a trombone player opening his spit valve and blowing with all his might, or a flatulent cat farting from inside the right channel. My heart sank.
So I have learned an important and painful lesson today: Don't use your Alpair 7's to test old equipment -use those crappy US Audio party towers that you have in the spare room, or even those cheap logitech satelites that you have plugged in to your PC. Anything but your lovely, clear, precise, delicate Alpair 7's.
That has happend to me more then a few times but, bless god all - Status
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