damselfly is not happy :(

by damselfly 15 Replies latest social entertainment

  • avishai
    avishai

    Sorry that happened. BTW, "The Cult" rules. You probably had it up too loud, you can't listen to that album down low!

  • damselfly
    damselfly

    Yes, it may have been too loud. It had to be to fully appreciate it.

    The amp was second hand to begin with, so for what we paid for it I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. Hopefully new fuses aren't that expensive.

    Dams

  • talesin
    talesin

    If you have a problem finding the fuses, call Hamblen's (Hamblin's?) on Kempt Road, they have been repairing electronics for decades and have a great reputation for being reasonable ... they will advise you what you can do. If you need a replacement amp, I can see if my cousin has any in stock at one of his pawn shops, and I will pretend it's for me to get the BEST DEAL, just email me. IF he has any older ones, I may be able to get one for 30-40 bux, but I'll have to check into it.

    xo

    tal

  • melmac
    melmac

    ...keep on pushin til the dawn, well well well...

    (Sorry, I just couldn´t resist...)

    Hope you fix it soon. You´ve got nice taste in music!

  • mustang
    mustang

    You said "external amp"; I will take that to mean that you are talking about a "component system", where there is a "Receiver" combined with an Amplifier, or perhaps a totally "standalone" amp with lots of inputs.

    Now those inputs are typically what is called "Line Ins" paired with some "Line Outs". These are "standard" audio levels of slightly less than one volt and you chain these "components" (Record Changer, Tape Deck, Reverb, Pre-Amp, various players CD/Cassette/DVD etc.) together with "patch cords" (usually known as male/female RCA connectors).

    Well, I just discovered a neat trick, while attempting to resurrect an old reel-reel ¼" Tape Deck (a Tape Deck DOES NOT have Amplifiers, just the "Transport" and "head amps", while a Tape Player DOES have amplifiers).

    Those really cheap Speaker Monitors (?? not sure if I have these properly named) that go with your Computer System seem to accept LINE LEVELS quite well. It seems they were properly designed to match those levels.

    After attempting to record some TV audio "off the air" and my ONLY reel of tape broke and I didn’t even have ONE EMPTY REEL or extra reel-stops, I gave up the reel-reel scheme.

    I broke down and bought the cheapest "commodity" DVR I could find. When I discovered the built in Tuner (thus emulating the VCR’s), I was in hog-heaven: this was the answer to my questions. (I’m not gonna go so far as to pray about something this mundane; it’s only a technical or money or time/convenience issue, for crying out loud.)

    So, then it occurred to me that the ‘puter sitting beside the TV had a practically unused set of "monitors"; I decided to see if the levels would match and scrounged up an 1/8" stereo to RCA adapter set. I plugged this into the audio (Red & White RCA’s) Line Outs of the A/V (Yellow Video + RED & White Audio jacks) section of the new DVR. Out blared acceptable to good audio!!!

    Wow!!!

    Then it further occurred to me that I could use these for the not so common HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER, as well. (I had stopped by the local "music store" for the adapters; they had 4-Channel Headphone Amps) I grabbed the Headset that came with the IBM ViaVoice DICTATION SOFTWARE and plugged them in.

    Wow again!! I can hear it but no body else can, late at night.

    Then I plugged the Microphone plug into the Laptop. I clicked the Mouse and engaged the Dictation software and words went onto the screen and into the Disk.

    Max-o mondo chain!!! I’m recording off the air, amplifying it, quietly STEALTHILY reproducing the sound into a headset and rereading that into a computer voice program onto a file on disk!!!

    When I worked in a stereo shop, I always used some cheap, small Amplifier for a "bench amp" for testing this or that. I don’t remember what I paid for those "monitors" for the computer, but they are cheap at twice the price. Many times in the past I wished that I had something as handy as they are.

    They would likely do your "job" in a pinch!!!

    Mustang

  • ballistic
    ballistic

    After I replied to this thread, I lost my main bedroom amp (in here) after a thunderstorm. We seem to be having a lot of big thunder storms lately in the south of England.

    It took out an x-box, my main amp and tripped my routers.

    Thankfully, I have the amp back now. I took it apart, examined all the fuses, there appeared to be nothing wrong, put it back together and it worked! You know what>? I think it just needed un-plugging for a few minutes for a trip to reset. DOH!

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