The official AUDIOPHILE thread.

[stein]

An update on the Sansui tuner:

 

Turns out, the "stereo" light does in fact work, but the tuner is in need of alignment. The dial reads a full number off, 89.1 is 99.1 on the dial. One COULD simply re-position the string for the dial, however, what it's reading is a symptom of needing alignment, as is the "stereo" light not coming on all the time.

 

Good news is, everything works, it's all clean (still have to clean the outside and touch-up the cabinet), and sounds reasonably good.

 

The bad: I don't have the equipment, nor the time, to align a tuner.

 

So I'm calling it good for now.

 

There are a couple good shops here in town, might take it one of them. Should be easy. I feel like I have clean underwear- should be no shame when they get inside. Also, while there is lots of improvement that would come from being aligned good, it's seems a great tuner should I want to do mods.

[zigzag]

I have an old Harman Kardon 730 receiver, 2 ADS L-710 speakers, 2 Cerwin Vega speakers (don't remember the product code), and a Rega Planar 3 turntable in moth balls in a closet somewhere, with an album collection of over 1000 albums (stored at a friend's house), mostly from the late sixties thru the early eighties. Don't know that I'll ever listen to any of them again. I'm using a Bose Lifestyle 5.1 surround sound system now. Not crazy about it, but as I said, hi-fi is now wasted on my old ears.

[Retired]

I had nearly perfect hearing when the U.P. Shops closed down. We were tested every year. When I hired at the BNSF, it was a much louder shop. My hearing test kept dropping every year there. They hired someone from Forth Worth to come in and do sound level tests. We were told in Shot Blast even wearing their best ear protection they had, long term exposer would cause serious hearing loss. I used foam ear plugs as well as ear muffs, and an air hood. One co worker said, it was still louder then when Navy aircraft took off next to him all day. They ruined my hearing and I cannot pick up high pitches or certain sound levels. My hearing aids help but I have a very hard time understanding women's voice levels but men's deeper voices I can understand. My wife at times gets frustrated. There are many times I have to put my ear right next to her mouth. And yes, i won a law suit.

[Digger]

I had nearly perfect hearing when the U.P. Shops closed down. We were tested every year. When I hired at the BNSF, it was a much louder shop. My hearing test kept dropping every year there. They hired someone from Forth Worth to come in and do sound level tests. We were told in Shot Blast even wearing their best ear protection they had, long term exposer would cause serious hearing loss. I used foam ear plugs as well as ear muffs, and an air hood. One co worker said, it was still louder then when Navy aircraft took off next to him all day. They ruined my hearing and I cannot pick up high pitches or certain sound levels. My hearing aids help but I have a very hard time understanding women's voice levels but men's deeper voices I can understand. My wife at times gets frustrated. There are many times I have to put my ear right next to her mouth. And yes, i won a law suit.

 

 

Yes hearing loss is like radiation and you suffer cumulative degradation.

[Aster1]

An update on the Sansui tuner:

 

Turns out, the "stereo" light does in fact work, but the tuner is in need of alignment. The dial reads a full number off, 89.1 is 99.1 on the dial. One COULD simply re-position the string for the dial, however, what it's reading is a symptom of needing alignment, as is the "stereo" light not coming on all the time.

 

 

When I had the Audio salon in the late 70's, this would happen ALL the time with the pointers. Check ALL the stations (freq. vs pointer) and see if they are all off about the same. FM alignment isn't all that often needed from the years I spent doing that stuff back in the day of Analog. Only had to tweak one or two under warranty. If they are all off about the same spacing I'd say the tuner cord that works mechanically connected to the indicator & moves on the dial shaft has gotten off some. Re-position the indicator and I'll bet it's back just fine on all stations. Should just slide on the cord with a 3 point of contact setup. If not, then yes, FM front end alignment is required.

 

Do you have any "tuner wash" spray or the like for the switches & pot's? One squirt will fix them right up.

 

Also, is there a Mono/Stereo switch in that FM circuit? If so, clean that baby too. May help with the intermittent stereo light.

 

Aster

[Riffster]

FLAC...

 

just sayin'...

 

They use a lot of compression though, terrible dynamic range on a lot of the FLACs I have seen.

[surfpup]

They use a lot of compression though, terrible dynamic range on a lot of the FLACs I have seen.

 

I find it way closer to AIFF than mp3 (even at its highest bitrates). I want a FLAC player for my car with a big hard drive. That way I can have the convenience of mp3... playlists, no switching of CDs, etc. and better fidelity (though not ultimate by any means).

[stein]

When I had the Audio salon in the late 70's, this would happen ALL the time with the pointers. Check ALL the stations (freq. vs pointer) and see if they are all off about the same. FM alignment isn't all that often needed from the years I spent doing that stuff back in the day of Analog. Only had to tweak one or two under warranty. If they are all off about the same spacing I'd say the tuner cord that works mechanically connected to the indicator & moves on the dial shaft has gotten off some. Re-position the indicator and I'll bet it's back just fine on all stations. Should just slide on the cord with a 3 point of contact setup. If not, then yes, FM front end alignment is required.

 

Do you have any "tuner wash" spray or the like for the switches & pot's? One squirt will fix them right up.

 

Also, is there a Mono/Stereo switch in that FM circuit? If so, clean that baby too. May help with the intermittent stereo light.

 

Aster

Yes indeed...cleaned ALL the switches and pot. It's, you know, the thing to do.

 

I was going to just move the cord, but when you add it all up, it's in need of alignment. Leaving it as it is while likely make it easier for a guy when he aligns it.

 

There is a switch that does mono, auto, and stereo. With this tuner, the stereo indicator light doesn't come on with the switch, it actually comes on when the tuner is reading a "stereo" signal, indicating "stereo" is available. I think the fact that I am hearing a stereo signal, and can switch to mono and stereo and hear a difference, but yet the stereo light doesn't come on when receiving the station, I think that's another symptom of needing alignment.

 

It just ACTS kinda off, know what I mean? It sounds OK, actually pretty good.

 

Besides, I gotta get to work on the NAD. Then I need to fix the NAK cassette deck, cause the transport stopped working. Then maybe fix the Theta DATA II transport (needs a new laser).

[Aster1]

I find it way closer to AIFF than mp3 (even at its highest bitrates). I want a FLAC player for my car with a big hard drive. That way I can have the convenience of mp3... playlists, no switching of CDs, etc. and better fidelity (though not ultimate by any means).

 

Better have a "solid state" hard drive!! Unless you have one of the older full size Caddies I think the HD head will crash the disk.

 

Aster

[stein]

Time for a resurrection and update.

 

I'll spare the details how I found out, but it turns out the Denon tuner WAS the culprit for the hum. RCA's had come undone from the circuit board. Was a time when I wouldn't have got the soldering Iron hot unless I had "audiophile" grade RCA's, hook-up wire and power cords on hand for an "upgrade", and I thought about it, but I just went ahead and fixed it.

 

Upstairs and downstairs, there are tunes.

 

Upstairs: Denon TU-800 tuner, NAD 3020 integrated amp, little bitty Mission bookshelf speakers on the mantle.

 

Downstairs: Sansui TU-777 tuner, CD player: Toshiba laserdisk player as a transport with a toslink connection into a Theta DA converter, a NAK cassette deck as a pre-amp, into a pair of Parasound HCA-1000A amps into Signet 310 towers.

 

The upstairs system sounds BETTER than the downstairs one. I think by a good margin. It shouldn't. Not only is it using "better" components, and it cost maybe 4 times as much, the set-up with speakers against the wall breaks all the rules, while downstairs the speakers are more properly placed.

 

There is a point, a "lesson" to this: Getting good sound is often chance, or effort, or both. A mix of this and that. Sometimes, a "cheaper" system can sound better. That there, can bring hope to those that don't have tons of cash to get a truly great sounding system.