This joint needs some more vintage hifi

pumpkinman

Yes it is. The DA-A10
I had it modified slightly. It now has it own power switch, one set of 5 way binding posts (the original speaker terminals really sucked) and a IEC socket. Plus a bunch of caps were replaced. All done by AVnerdguy in MN. I sent it to him and he did a great job. We've been internet buddies now for years.

Super cool/good all around guy

pumpkinman

....and yes it's dusty LOL

soundfreak1

Those are some big caps!

mhardy6647

Those are pretty serious pieces of hardware -- the Mitsubishi components of that era were and to some extent still are sort of neglected relative to bigger names -- but their tuners, tuner-preamps, preamps and power amplifiers were some pretty serious hardware that also sounded (sounds) good.

I suspect that's a good match for the Bostons.

Sorry to out you on the dust, Pumpkinman! ;- )
'twasn't my intent.

ken brydson

soundfreak1 wrote: »

Those are some big caps!

That's what she said...

[Deleted User]

well not hi-fi per se but I just picked up this mixer amp;

mhardy6647

Yeah, and where is that "Neil Young" guy today, huh?

;- )

cnh

I believe that Neil is thinking of joining Tim Leary (already in the other dimension) in his search for Intelligent life because there is NONE on earth? They'll be tapping their feet to PONO tunes soon! lol

[Deleted User]

here it is home. Not sure what I'm going to do w/ it.
I'm ready for the next flash Polka rave! (guess you can't post Polk-a!)

[Deleted User]

I fired it up without. Looks and smells nice!
Helpful masking tape notes.
"don't turn up past 7"
"channel 6 dead"
"Hi Impedence Input only!"

mhardy6647

smells nice?!?

Like smoke? cigarette or --

And that cigarette you're smokin'
Don't scare me half to death
Now, open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath

mama told me not to come...

- Randy Newman

[Deleted User]

You must know if anyone.
It smells vintage like equipment should.
(actually it doesn't smell like smoke at all!)

mhardy6647 wrote: »

smells nice?!?

Like smoke? cigarette or --

And that cigarette you're smokin'
Don't scare me half to death
Now, open up the window, sucker, let me catch my breath

mama told me not to come...

- Randy Newman

mhardy6647

Good point.
I do indeed-- surprised it doesn't have that "morning after night club" aroma, though.

EDIT-- I don't know what you're going to do with it, either! :-P

mhardy6647

oh, oh -- I know what you can do with it! Use it to displace some unwanted air in your basement, as I do with this Peavey mixer ;- )

030 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Polkie2009

That Peavey reminds me of the old Peavey powered mixer we ran for practices in a garage band back in the day. The thing finally crapped out and we took it apart for the gold contacts in it. I think we ran an old Shure VocalMaster after that til we got a Mackie 1604 board.

mhardy6647

This one's just a preamp -- it does work, but... :-P

Polkie2009

Might be just right for a little garage band. All they need is a couple of power amps and speakers.

[Deleted User]

saved from the scrap heap and now working.

mhardy6647

not to change the subject but --another chapter from the loudspeaker reanimation chronicles... it's... FRANKEN-LX5(5)s.

From beyond the grave.

"Boston1350" (I think it was!) was the source of these -- thanks, ol' son!

I finally found a pair of more-or-less appropriate woofers for them that would - more-or-less - fit. Had to break out a few molding/reinforcing ribs in the finely crafted faceplate :-P of these little loudspeakers to get 'em in there... but... they work.

029 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
025 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


Also had to do some in situ inductor repair on one of them. Reminded me of why I didn't go into surgery for fun and profit.

026 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

... but the end result was... OK.

034 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
039 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr
038 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


1996


2001

(from www.radioshackcatalogs.com of course)

pumpkinman

@mhardy6647 What happened to the original woofers.

mhardy6647

They were, apparently, kaput.
I didn't have them.

pumpkinman

Have you listened to them ?? I remember them but have never owned a pair.
Any thoughts you'd like to share ??

mhardy6647

The woofer needs to be padded down some*; right now they sound good (better than the "Stereophile" review of them would lead one to believe) but very rolled off on top. The massmarket Lineaum tweeter made for R/S by Lineaum (with a thicker, sturdier membrane than a "real" Lineaum tweeter) is very insensitive. They are decent sounding tweeters, though.



http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/695ratshack/#jSyTCaj6yfJh3XMf.97
____________

* Of course, that being said, the Stereophile curves (especially the anechoic ones, like that above) look a lot like what I'm hearing, even with the "right" woofer installed (these were the original, "Optimus" branded version, in Stereophile's case).


Speaking of Radio Shack tweeters :-/ I still think the JVC-"inspired" R/S 40-1375 planar tweeter is a very sweet sounding driver. It's pretty sensitive, too.

40-1375 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

jcaut

Not those exact tweeters, but I had (have; have most of) a pair of Optimus 400 speakers that use what they called a "leaf" super tweeter. It looks a lot like that. I don't have pictures at the moment, but except for the "screen", they're almost identical. Same square magnet....I think they say "7 Ohms". Anyway, they're very good sounding tweeters. I have, in the past, masqueraded as a DIY speaker builder and one time I measured the FR of these tweeters and they were impressively flat from about 4K to beyond the limits of my test setup, on-axis and up to about +/- 30 degrees. Here they are on page 18 of the '85 catalog

radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1985/

cnh

These?


These?

http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1985/h022.html

mhardy6647

jcaut wrote: »

Not those exact tweeters, but I had (have; have most of) a pair of Optimus 400 speakers that use what they called a "leaf" super tweeter. It looks a lot like that. I don't have pictures at the moment, but except for the "screen", they're almost identical. Same square magnet....I think they say "7 Ohms". Anyway, they're very good sounding tweeters. I have, in the past, masqueraded as a DIY speaker builder and one time I measured the FR of these tweeters and they were impressively flat from about 4K to beyond the limits of my test setup, on-axis and up to about +/- 30 degrees. Here they are on page 18 of the '85 catalog

radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1985/

The Optimus 400's tweeter is a notch nicer all around than the one they sold "loose". I once found a single Optimus 400 at my favorite erstwhile local emporium (that'd be the Harvard, MA town dump!); it was a little too far gone to be worth rescuing, but the tweeter did come home with me ;- )

I suspect (?!?!?) that the Optimus 400's tweeter might have been actually made by JVC -- it is much more nicely constructed (and better looking) than the 40-1375, but the latter are still very sweet sounding tweeters. I like 'em a lot.

For my part, I wouldn't mind:

1) having a pair of the Optimus 400 leaf (planar) tweeters (as opposed to just one).
2) hearing a pair of the Optimus 400 someday. By and large, Radio Shack's "monkey coffin" loudspeaker systems were forgettable if not regrettable, but that particular model looked like it coulda been a contenda.

__________________________
sidebar: www.radioshackcatalogs.com has HTML links to the catalogs page by page, too!

Thus:
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/html/1985/h018.html

...and, one may hot-link the page scan's (JPGs URL using IMG tags, thus:



http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com and http://www.alliedcatalogs.com are tremendous resources for... well... for nuts like me, at any rate!

I just wish he'd do one for LRE, too! ;- )

Scan0025 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

cnh

I have recently acquired a pair of those Mach IIs for the basement. And was a little surprised by that "dual radial superhorn", better than expected-not really a horn guy. Unfortunately I don't know what the complete package sounds like because the seller had replaced the mids with an extended range Dayton 5" speaker (I asked him if he had the original mids and if I could have them-which he produced, they need a refoam and have some unusual 1/2" felt damping squares on the back sides of the cone at quarter intervals). And the foam surround which is rotting is a little unique to me-so that's another project. They can certainly play LOUD, and that tweeter images better than expected in that somewhat smallish cab for a 15". The guy had also refoamed the 15" speakers on the wrong side, front vs. back. Not sure how much of a difference that makes. As most of us know, this cab is a little to small for the 15" in it, so it rolls off on the bottom end but since it produces tons of mid-bass and slightly lower tones it gives the illusion of wait for it...HUGE sound! lol It also plays nice at lower volumes, IMO. Not bad at all for background or work music considering. Though I hear the Mach Is are better?

We all need a party speaker in the fold, no?

Concerning the Lineaum speakers above, Mark, how DID you get the front baffle off. I have the LAST incarnation of those speakers and I can't see a way of doing that. I agree that the tweeter is somewhat insensitive, which presented a problem for me because I got these hoping to use them as surrounds in a HT because of the dipole tweeters, but you need brighter sounding tweeters for that, so this kind of defeats the purpose. In the last iteration of the speaker yellow Kevlar-like cones are used to lower the bass frequency response and increase power handling but most say that was a mistake!

mhardy6647

The Mach Twos actually ain't half bad -- far superior to the execrable Mach Ones to my ear. A pair passed through my house a few years back; I was surprised by them, truth be told.

Mach Two on DIY Polkstand by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

2) heh. It's trivially easy, once you know the secret (Randy shared the secret with me)!
When you pull off the grille, note the four rubber sockets that the pegs on the grill fit into. These rubber sockets pull right out -- exposing four fine-thread screws that hold the molded plastic front baffle on :-/

[Deleted User]

I'm dying to know if/how @mhardy6647 beat the timing problem inherent in concentric speaks like the one he designed...

mhardy6647

The late Doug Sax did it for us, a long time ago. MasteringLabs crossovers fix the time/phase alignment "issues" with the original Altec XO.


604Etest by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


source: http://www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?29151-Mastering-Labs-Big-Red-X-over-schematic

Jeff Markwart's also done it for the Duplexes (more recently):
http://home.earthlink.net/~jmarkwart/