I picked up an old Yamaha P2075 pro series power amp for $20 us. It's showing it's age on the exterior, but for $20 who can complain. I haven't tested it yet, but even if it's dead, the case and transformer is worth $20 for building something else. Since this is built with STK paks for the driver section and the output stages, I am going to have to decide it's long term fate.
Peace,
Dave
Peace,
Dave
The last couple of weeks...
I found a couple of "camcorder" cables (4 conductor 3.5mm to triple RCA) for $2 each (less 40% discount) at a dollar store. These happen to be the cables needed to connect up an SB Audigy 2 ZS to the analog inputs of my surround receiver (or to get 5.1 in 3 PCM streams from the 3.5mm digital jack). The cheapest similar cables I'd found locally were $10. This should help stave off the temptation to upgrade to an HDMI receiver and audio/video card for a while for Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.
Another $2 mini-DIN to RCA cable worked to connect the SVideo output of a DVD player to the chroma/luma input on a Commodore 1702 monitor.
While searching for cables for the Audigy at a local computer store, I was offered a Soundblaster "Live! Drive" that works with the venerable(ish) SB Live! cards, $15. It adds front panel S/PDIF in and out (RCA), MIDI, and 1/4" mic/line input and headphone out jacks. Looking at the board (and studying a block diagram I found using Google books), the headphone output uses a separate DAC that taps the S/PDIF output from the SB Live! using a CS8414. This suggests a possibility of modifying a Live! Drive to work as a standalone DAC.
$7.50 for a near-new "Wade Boggs" Louisville Slugger from the Salvation Army... this is doomed to be cut up to make a metal-shaping hammer. Not very audio, but DIY and noisy. See the thread on metal shaping tools at the H.A.M.B.
MTX Thunder 7801 Class D Monoblock, $75 (but as-is), also from Sal-mart. I haven't worked up the courage to test it yet. Hopefully it was donated by police, not a dead amp that someone tossed into the donation bin.
I didn't buy the Paisley Research "Reference Two" speakers at another thrift store. The surrounds were rotten, but a little research shows these have a respectable pedigree. It's tempting to replace the woofers with 8" Peerless drivers (currently in bad speakers of similar vintage), and turn the old woofers into bass shakers. Any Vancouver Islander reading this who wants to adopt some orphaned Canadian speakers, let me know.
An update on some previous treasures. The Black & Decker electric die grinder worked great after I replaced the power cord, and picked up a couple of cheap used metric wrenches to loosen the chuck. The 15" LCD monitor would only stay on for a few seconds. One power supply electrolytic looked suspicious, testing confirmed it was bad, and I had a replacement left over from the last LCD monitor I fixed, and it fixed this one too. Before final reassembly, I drilled a bunch of holes in the covers to improve cooling.
I found a couple of "camcorder" cables (4 conductor 3.5mm to triple RCA) for $2 each (less 40% discount) at a dollar store. These happen to be the cables needed to connect up an SB Audigy 2 ZS to the analog inputs of my surround receiver (or to get 5.1 in 3 PCM streams from the 3.5mm digital jack). The cheapest similar cables I'd found locally were $10. This should help stave off the temptation to upgrade to an HDMI receiver and audio/video card for a while for Blu-ray/HD-DVD playback.
Another $2 mini-DIN to RCA cable worked to connect the SVideo output of a DVD player to the chroma/luma input on a Commodore 1702 monitor.
While searching for cables for the Audigy at a local computer store, I was offered a Soundblaster "Live! Drive" that works with the venerable(ish) SB Live! cards, $15. It adds front panel S/PDIF in and out (RCA), MIDI, and 1/4" mic/line input and headphone out jacks. Looking at the board (and studying a block diagram I found using Google books), the headphone output uses a separate DAC that taps the S/PDIF output from the SB Live! using a CS8414. This suggests a possibility of modifying a Live! Drive to work as a standalone DAC.
$7.50 for a near-new "Wade Boggs" Louisville Slugger from the Salvation Army... this is doomed to be cut up to make a metal-shaping hammer. Not very audio, but DIY and noisy. See the thread on metal shaping tools at the H.A.M.B.
MTX Thunder 7801 Class D Monoblock, $75 (but as-is), also from Sal-mart. I haven't worked up the courage to test it yet. Hopefully it was donated by police, not a dead amp that someone tossed into the donation bin.
I didn't buy the Paisley Research "Reference Two" speakers at another thrift store. The surrounds were rotten, but a little research shows these have a respectable pedigree. It's tempting to replace the woofers with 8" Peerless drivers (currently in bad speakers of similar vintage), and turn the old woofers into bass shakers. Any Vancouver Islander reading this who wants to adopt some orphaned Canadian speakers, let me know.
An update on some previous treasures. The Black & Decker electric die grinder worked great after I replaced the power cord, and picked up a couple of cheap used metric wrenches to loosen the chuck. The 15" LCD monitor would only stay on for a few seconds. One power supply electrolytic looked suspicious, testing confirmed it was bad, and I had a replacement left over from the last LCD monitor I fixed, and it fixed this one too. Before final reassembly, I drilled a bunch of holes in the covers to improve cooling.
Last edited:
Just picked up a 8" diameter x 13'5 long piece of plastic piping for $15. I know, I know, what is this doing on diyaudio?! I'm thinking of an el pipe-o variation! Was given a couple pieces of 4" dia, around 6 to 8 ft long, and one 3" dia piece, around 6-8 ft long also. Should be fun.
Peace,
Dave
Peace,
Dave
Glad this has been brought back up.
There's some pics of my 6x9s here
Cabinet - My Photo Gallery
Scroll across to see them all. They sound very nice, now that I've put them on an open baffle (the plastic cab was resonating like crazy, and the grill cut the treble).
And...
Eminence Beta 12A, for my guitar extension cab. The efficiency is matched to the one in the combo, and all is well.
I've been eying up some old speakers in the main hall for a while now. 12"+tweeter, used "before my time". They've got a pair, not used for years, good condition. The only problem is that I don't know who to ask if I want to buy them.
They're the ones with the metal dustcap, by Roamers of Rishton, if anyone else recognises them...
Chris
There's some pics of my 6x9s here
Cabinet - My Photo Gallery
Scroll across to see them all. They sound very nice, now that I've put them on an open baffle (the plastic cab was resonating like crazy, and the grill cut the treble).
And...
Eminence Beta 12A, for my guitar extension cab. The efficiency is matched to the one in the combo, and all is well.
I've been eying up some old speakers in the main hall for a while now. 12"+tweeter, used "before my time". They've got a pair, not used for years, good condition. The only problem is that I don't know who to ask if I want to buy them.
They're the ones with the metal dustcap, by Roamers of Rishton, if anyone else recognises them...
Chris
A couple of weeks ago a friend gave us a pair of Altec 604E speakers and crossovers in cabinets. The drivers look new!
I'm thinking of doing up an open baffle system with the 604E's as the main drivers and adding a pair of EV SP15's as the mid bass helpers... Could be interesting with 2 100dB 15" alnico drivers per side that only need to go down to 100Hz. Below 100Hz the cardioid subs that have 2 15" Dayton IB15 drivers each take over.
Nice small system with 8 15" drivers...
I'm thinking of doing up an open baffle system with the 604E's as the main drivers and adding a pair of EV SP15's as the mid bass helpers... Could be interesting with 2 100dB 15" alnico drivers per side that only need to go down to 100Hz. Below 100Hz the cardioid subs that have 2 15" Dayton IB15 drivers each take over.
Nice small system with 8 15" drivers...
That's what the T nuts are for... 4 x 15" +/-17.5mm excursion
event horizon - please play
YouTube - Radiohead - In Rainbows - 15 step
Let me know if you have any house left.
Cal, all those drivers look similar to my bedroom floor at one time, 'cept I had just 1x 15" driver, 1x10" driver, a couple of 8s, and lots of small stuff...
I've nearly finished the extension speaker for my (overkill) guitar amp.
With a bit of luck, you'll hear it over in the 'States. Theoretical 117dB output. Not bad for a teenager.
Edit - there was me thinking 8 M8 T-nuts are enough for a 12" driver. Clearly, I've been over-doing things...
YouTube - Radiohead - In Rainbows - 15 step
Let me know if you have any house left.
Cal, all those drivers look similar to my bedroom floor at one time, 'cept I had just 1x 15" driver, 1x10" driver, a couple of 8s, and lots of small stuff...
I've nearly finished the extension speaker for my (overkill) guitar amp.
With a bit of luck, you'll hear it over in the 'States. Theoretical 117dB output. Not bad for a teenager.
Edit - there was me thinking 8 M8 T-nuts are enough for a 12" driver. Clearly, I've been over-doing things...
Last edited:
Nice score Gary! Pop them on top of the subs you have already and let us know.
You can see a similar rig here:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/165169-big-ob-fun-come-hear-3.html#post2187593
Hi Pano,
I got the speakers and amp/tuner off Craigslist and the Advent boxes from a buddy. The same buddy who came to my rescue when I saw the ad for the drivers but was already 3 beer into my evening and needed someone to drive. The fellow they came from seems like one of us. I asked him to join us here at diyAudio. He has many systems and these are just the things he probably will never use. Like us, he tends to find goodies here there and everywhere and just keeps the drivers. Over the years he has accumulated many and I guess now it's time to downsize a bit. He likes selling these things cheap to see the expression on peoples faces. I'm glad he didn't want to see what I had done to my underwear. Literally cookie jar money for the whole lot.
I got the speakers and amp/tuner off Craigslist and the Advent boxes from a buddy. The same buddy who came to my rescue when I saw the ad for the drivers but was already 3 beer into my evening and needed someone to drive. The fellow they came from seems like one of us. I asked him to join us here at diyAudio. He has many systems and these are just the things he probably will never use. Like us, he tends to find goodies here there and everywhere and just keeps the drivers. Over the years he has accumulated many and I guess now it's time to downsize a bit. He likes selling these things cheap to see the expression on peoples faces. I'm glad he didn't want to see what I had done to my underwear. Literally cookie jar money for the whole lot.