the most basic introduction to audio?

[Gericht]

I made this account a long time ago but haven't used it since, so this is a late but not unprecedented introduction. In fact it's not really an introduction at all. It's more of a request for information buried within a casual read (just to show I'm committed).

I've built myself a component stereo over the years piece by piece for under $5 canadian (when $1 was worth $0.70 cents USD, which is scary now to say) by: (mostly) being in the right place or the right time, as well as a determined mindset to be in the right place at the right time when I could manage it. So my stereo consists of:

2 thirty year old+, two-and-a-half feet tall, one foot wide speakers in a dark wood casing and the standard black mesh cover. Subs on both and the mids on one are torn, but the sound is somehow still incredible at decent volumes for jazz, classical, beats, radiohead,etc. Neither have RCA connections, so it’s the old school thin wiring all the way.

1 technics SA303 receiver that sometimes cuts out and needs the volume knob tinkered with in a certain way to get it back in. (If only it were that easy in life..)

2 technics belt-driven decks (SL220 for one, and the other is in for repair right now so I'm not sure)

1 yamaha MJ100 mixer, with a fickle cross fader, broken graphic equalizer and no effects or kill switches.

I love her, and she’s my baby, but she obviously needs some patch work done to iron out the kinks. I’ve decided to study audio like I would any other course, but without the essays, professors, tuitions or younger women sitting across from me in class. My short term goal is to do the following:

Rebuild the speakers, updating the circuitry in the process
Have the receiver repaired, cleaned & refurbished
and
(either) replace the equalizer in the mixer
(or) buy a component equalizer

If you have any advice or wisdom to impart, please share or point me in the right direction.

If you skipped all the mumbojumbo above, my question is this: can you tell me of any good tutorials or threads or places online to get a very general, basic introduction? I need information that doesn’t presume or require much knowledge of all things audio.

[Cal Weldon]

Hi and welcome back to the forums.

I think you will get a better response if you ask each of the questions in their appropriate forums rather than all here in the introductions.

Good luck.

[Gericht]

Thanks for the welcome

I will ultimately post them to the appropriate forums at some point, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have one all-encompassing thread going somewhere.

[Conrad Hoffman]

IMO, you've come to the right place. Nobody knows everything, but there always seems to be someone here who can find the right answer to just about anything, on topic or off. If it's only the flexible surrounds of the speakers that are torn, you can repair them with an aftermarket repair kit. A search will turn up several vendors, and I've heard the ones that install with a wood type glue are easier than the ones that use contact cement- you only get one try with those. The rest of the speaker might well be fine, with no repairs or upgrades really needed. My advice is to make a detailed list of everything you need to do, and approach it in a systematic manner. Learn what you have to learn to get one thing done, then move on to the next. Volume pots might be a good place to start, as they can often be fixed by squirting in a bit of contact cleaner. No doubt a post in the electronics forum will return 37 recipes and suggestions for how to proceed

[Gericht]

excellent suggestion for the speakers - these were my dad's back in the day and it would be nice to preserve them as much as possible. Definitely worth a shot- thank you.

When you say to start with the volume pots, to what exactly are you referring? The only definition I can pull up in searches has to do with electric guitars - aha: volume pots = the transistors you plug the wires into? (see how much of a newb I am?)