Radio Shack Accurian Receiver, quality of amp? (pics inside)

tschanrm · 14th August 2006, 03:16 AM

I bought this Accurian Powerline home amplifier from Radio Shack today. You are supposed to use it to transmit and receieve audio through your powerline. They clearenced it from $150 to $20, so I couldn't pass up the offer to listen to it. Anyway, when I got home I opened it up and noticed it is a rebadged ST&T iMicro 84. I removed the powerline receiver, and took pictures of the amp section. The toroid is 28v-0-28v, 2A. Anyone care to comment on the quality of this amp design?

singa · 14th August 2006, 03:54 AM

Nice little amp, at 28V rails maybe 30w/channel with relays too but I don't think they are for speakers output. The TIP42Cs (power transistor) seem to be push to maximum mayde replacing with MJ15031 and it's complement will give better performance.

edl · 14th August 2006, 02:52 PM

A BJT amp with 6800uF puffers and an 56V-CT mains trafo is able to produce 100W-RMS on 4ohm and 60W-RMS on 8ohm. But these output transistors wont survive a 4ohm speaker.
So that amp I think gives 60W on 8ohm, maybe 80W on 6ohm.

destroyer X · 14th August 2006, 05:14 PM

As i have a bunch of those transistors shown in your nice images.

Very good images.

regards,

Carlos

destroyer X · 14th August 2006, 05:15 PM

Technical problems but good angle, good choice of angle to make the shot.

One more Artist in our communitty....good!

Having schematic or link to it, send informs please, to:

nanabrother@yahoo.com

regards,

Carlos

routhun · 14th August 2006, 07:07 PM

Internal layout is clean compared to other mass produced ones, even PCB looks decent and has torroid transformer too. I may get this one today. But it looks that this one is a good candidate for tweaking.

tschanrm · 15th August 2006, 07:09 AM

Sorry Carlos, I don't have a schematic, as this is a mass produced component. Maybe you could try e-mailing St&t (www.stt.com.tw), the maker of this amp. Some listening observations:

There is no center marking on the bass/treble knobs, and also no center detent on the pots. This makes it hard to tell if the bass and treble are flat. You can solve this by completely bypasing the front knobs and just using this as a straight amp.

There is a slight ground hum, and I'm trying to figure out why that is. For $20, this makes a perfect garage stereo/ outside amp. I agree, this amp could be easily modified to sound better.

AIA · 12th October 2006, 04:21 PM

Is there a way to convert this amp from receiving signals through the powercord to receiving signals through 'normal' inputs?

kec · 12th October 2006, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Is there a way to convert this amp from receiving signals through the powercord to receiving signals through 'normal' inputs?

See this ... Input Mod

-Ken

BillH · 12th October 2006, 10:56 PM

Hi, all.

tschanrm, thanks for the tip. I just bought the last one for US$20 from the local RS store. It's either going to be connected to my computer or TV, I haven't decided yet. Here's a link to the ST&T spec sheet (.pdf file).

kec, thanks for the link to the mod. It's time to void the warranty.

14th August 2006, 03:16 AM	#1
tschanrm diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Wisconsin	Radio Shack Accurian Receiver, quality of amp? (pics inside) I bought this Accurian Powerline home amplifier from Radio Shack today. You are supposed to use it to transmit and receieve audio through your powerline. They clearenced it from $150 to $20, so I couldn't pass up the offer to listen to it. Anyway, when I got home I opened it up and noticed it is a rebadged ST&T iMicro 84. I removed the powerline receiver, and took pictures of the amp section. The toroid is 28v-0-28v, 2A. Anyone care to comment on the quality of this amp design?

14th August 2006, 07:07 PM	#6
routhun diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Sunnyvale	Nice internal layout Internal layout is clean compared to other mass produced ones, even PCB looks decent and has torroid transformer too. I may get this one today. But it looks that this one is a good candidate for tweaking. __________________ routhun

12th October 2006, 04:21 PM	#8
AIA diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: CO	Accuriam Hotwire Is there a way to convert this amp from receiving signals through the powercord to receiving signals through 'normal' inputs?

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14th August 2006, 03:54 AM	#2
singa diyAudio Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: near	Nice little amp, at 28V rails maybe 30w/channel with relays too but I don't think they are for speakers output. The TIP42Cs (power transistor) seem to be push to maximum mayde replacing with MJ15031 and it's complement will give better performance.

14th August 2006, 02:52 PM	#3
edl diyAudio Member Join Date: Oct 2004	A BJT amp with 6800uF puffers and an 56V-CT mains trafo is able to produce 100W-RMS on 4ohm and 60W-RMS on 8ohm. But these output transistors wont survive a 4ohm speaker. So that amp I think gives 60W on 8ohm, maybe 80W on 6ohm.

15th August 2006, 07:09 AM	#7
tschanrm diyAudio Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Wisconsin	Sorry Carlos, I don't have a schematic, as this is a mass produced component. Maybe you could try e-mailing St&t (www.stt.com.tw), the maker of this amp. Some listening observations: There is no center marking on the bass/treble knobs, and also no center detent on the pots. This makes it hard to tell if the bass and treble are flat. You can solve this by completely bypasing the front knobs and just using this as a straight amp. There is a slight ground hum, and I'm trying to figure out why that is. For $20, this makes a perfect garage stereo/ outside amp. I agree, this amp could be easily modified to sound better.

12th October 2006, 10:56 PM	#10
BillH diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Wisconsin	Hi, all. tschanrm, thanks for the tip. I just bought the last one for US$20 from the local RS store. It's either going to be connected to my computer or TV, I haven't decided yet. Here's a link to the ST&T spec sheet (.pdf file). kec, thanks for the link to the mod. It's time to void the warranty.

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