Looking for hifi audio help... plunge into vinyl

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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Jul 20, 2005
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I don't think there's a huge difference in audio quality with the various Bluetooth to RCA devices out there. I have two different ones in two different rooms and couldn't possibly say one is better than the other. The one thing that can be annoying with some of them is how they'll automatically reconnect to your phone even after you manually disconnect. Turning off Bluetooth on your phone isn't a great option if you use it for other devices. Sometimes reviews or Q&As on the products let you know if that's an issue.
 

cgori

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Oct 2, 2004
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A couple of very general questions:

I have a Pioneer SX-990 receiver that is a general-use set up in my kitchen (phono, cds, sox on the radio). I'd like to be able to stream music from my phone through that receiver.

Thoughts about bluetooth audio adapters that could connect via audio cables to one of the open auxiliary inputs on the receiver? I'm more interested in affordability than top-shelf performance.

And, love some recommendations for 1-disk cd players that are reasonably priced.
I had to google the SX-990, I didn't realize it was vintage. As a result, for a bluetooth adapter, you'll need to get something that supports analog out. Looking at https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bluetooth-audio-receiver-for-your-home-stereo-or-speakers/ their first choice is $99. They say the cheaper monoprice one doesn't sound ~good from analog out, unfortunately.

Absent those wirecutter reviews, I would default to something like this logitech one, just because their stuff usually works. It can connect to multiple devices (two phones, or phone and tablet, for example), if that is useful to you.

Single cd players are almost all audiophile-ish now ($400 and up) - this was the most reasonable one I found, still $330. Your best bet for bargain hunting might be to try to find something at goodwill or on craigslist.
 
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DrBlinky

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Jun 18, 2002
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The one thing that can be annoying with some of them is how they'll automatically reconnect to your phone even after you manually disconnect.
Absent those wirecutter reviews, I would default to something like this logitech one, just because their stuff usually works. It can connect to multiple devices (two phones, or phone and tablet, for example), if that is useful to you.
I have the Logitech device linked above. According to Amazon, I bought it back in 2015. It still functions fine and is perfect for me. I'm not an audiophile and simply use it to direct audio from an older tablet (dedicated solely to this task) through my receiver.

The one issue I do have is that it does reconnect even when I've manually disconnected, as noted in @Max Power 's post. Now I just unplug it when not in use.
 

shaggydog2000

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Apr 5, 2007
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I had to google the SX-990, I didn't realize it was vintage. As a result, for a bluetooth adapter, you'll need to get something that supports analog out. Looking at https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-bluetooth-audio-receiver-for-your-home-stereo-or-speakers/ their first choice is $99. They say the cheaper monoprice one doesn't sound ~good from analog out, unfortunately.

Absent those wirecutter reviews, I would default to something like this logitech one, just because their stuff usually works. It can connect to multiple devices (two phones, or phone and tablet, for example), if that is useful to you.

Single cd players are almost all audiophile-ish now ($400 and up) - this was the most reasonable one I found, still $330. Your best bet for bargain hunting might be to try to find something at goodwill or on craigslist.
Dedicated CD Players are expensive, but Blu-ray players are dirt cheap and do the exact same thing, often with the same converter chips. Those players also can come with blutooth audio built in. But a quick google searched turned up ones that only had digital outs. It might take a bit to find one like that with an analog output that the SX-990 would need @Yo La Tengo .
 

The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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Sep 9, 2006
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Dedicated CD Players are expensive, but Blu-ray players are dirt cheap and do the exact same thing, often with the same converter chips. Those players also can come with blutooth audio built in. But a quick google searched turned up ones that only had digital outs. It might take a bit to find one like that with an analog output that the SX-990 would need @Yo La Tengo .
I'm a fan of vintage CD players, such as Technics, from the late 80s/90s using some of the Burr Brown DACs. You can get formerly premium products at great prices, sometimes even at thrift stores, and if these things are not dead by now, they never will be. Usually the only thing that might need remedy is changing a dried out CD tray belt, or oiling the tray mechanism. Some have both RCA and digital output options.

I've found they produce a nice, warm, analogue sound. And they often have the kinds of buttons and display that you might actually want to have.
 

Yo La Tengo

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Nov 21, 2005
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Thanks for the feedback.

I'm leaning toward the Auris Blume HD Long Range Bluetooth 5.0 Receiver, based on some reviews. It seems bluetooth sound quality has improved quite a bit. Any thoughts on that option would be much appreciated.

As for a CD player, I think I'm going to get a used one from a local music resale shop. Am I wrong that the technology in a CD player hasn't changed enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars for a new model?
 

Yo La Tengo

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Nov 21, 2005
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I'm a fan of vintage CD players, such as Technics, from the late 80s/90s using some of the Burr Brown DACs. You can get formerly premium products at great prices, sometimes even at thrift stores, and if these things are not dead by now, they never will be. Usually the only thing that might need remedy is changing a dried out CD tray belt, or oiling the tray mechanism. Some have both RCA and digital output options.

I've found they produce a nice, warm, analogue sound. And they often have the kinds of buttons and display that you might actually want to have.
We're speaking the same language here. How can you tell if a CD player has a RCA or a digital output?
 

Yo La Tengo

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57652


Check out how nice the SX-990 looks. This is not a target for the retro receiver crowd, but I just picked this up and it sounds fantastic. The seller had our local hi-fi shop update the speaker outputs and clean/trouble shoot the innards. I'm guessing I'm going to be updating my speakers next...
 

cgori

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We're speaking the same language here. How can you tell if a CD player has a RCA or a digital output?
They (meaning CD players) will ~all have RCA outs, unless it's something hyper-exotic and very expensive. If you look on the back, the RCA are the red/white jacks (Right/Left marked), sometimes "Audio Out" and sometimes "Line Out." The digital will be marked "digital" or "coax" and usually be yellow/orange colored, sometimes black. Then there might be optical digital (sometimes called toslink), usually marked "optical."

Example - NAD C538:

57655

EDIT: I somehow skipped over @shaggydog2000 's comment, now I see what you are asking about. Example of blu-ray back panel (Sony BDP-BX370):

57656

See how it doesn't have the red/white right/left jacks? No audio out. Would be pretty common for a modern blu-ray player.

Aside: one of the reasons a blu-ray player is so cheap these days is that it doesn't have the analog outputs. That sony is "fancy" in that it has the digital out, most of them seem to be HDMI-only which is even cheaper to manufacture.
 
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The_Powa_of_Seiji_Ozawa

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We're speaking the same language here. How can you tell if a CD player has a RCA or a digital output?
RCA out is the traditional ubiquitous yellow and red cables, providing analogue connection. So whatever DAC is onboard the CD player will be processing the signal out.

The digital out will either be a single Coax or optical out. If you output with these, the CD player will just be serving as a transport, leaving the DAC decoding up to whatever receiver it is hooked up to.
 

cgori

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I'm leaning toward the Auris Blume HD Long Range Bluetooth 5.0 Receiver, based on some reviews. It seems bluetooth sound quality has improved quite a bit. Any thoughts on that option would be much appreciated.
Looks fine. The Bluetooth sound quality advantages are ~questionable at best to me, unless you are using Tidal as your streaming service from your phone/device, almost everything will be lower bitrate than the bluetooth connection itself (assuming a semi-modern version of bluetooth and codec).

As far as I know, even BT3.0 is adequate, all the improvements are even higher bit rate (not really important for audio above a certain threshold), connection distance, and power consumption: https://majorhifi.com/the-difference-between-bluetooth-3-0-4-0-4-1-4-2-explained/

As for a CD player, I think I'm going to get a used one from a local music resale shop. Am I wrong that the technology in a CD player hasn't changed enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars for a new model?
Yes, this is ~correct. The only concern with used is "does it work at all" - as long as the drive motor/belts are working and it produces output, you'll be fine.
 
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Yo La Tengo

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Nov 21, 2005
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They (meaning CD players) will ~all have RCA outs, unless it's something hyper-exotic and very expensive. If you look on the back, the RCA are the red/white jacks (Right/Left marked), sometimes "Audio Out" and sometimes "Line Out." The digital will be marked "digital" or "coax" and usually be yellow/orange colored, sometimes black. Then there might be optical digital (sometimes called toslink), usually marked "optical."
Right on. I was worried that the signal coming through the RCA plugs would be an issue, and I had no idea some new machines did not have those outlets. Thanks!
 

shaggydog2000

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Apr 5, 2007
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Thanks for the feedback.

I'm leaning toward the Auris Blume HD Long Range Bluetooth 5.0 Receiver, based on some reviews. It seems bluetooth sound quality has improved quite a bit. Any thoughts on that option would be much appreciated.

As for a CD player, I think I'm going to get a used one from a local music resale shop. Am I wrong that the technology in a CD player hasn't changed enough to justify spending hundreds of dollars for a new model?
The numbers for modern Digital to analog conversion are remarkably better than they were in the 80's and 90's. But the difference is not going to be audible at normal listening levels, with normal background noise, and even older models are better than the performance of modern amplifiers and especially speakers and won't be the limiting factor. Unless they are from some boutique audiophile targeted company that intentionally screwed up the design in an attempt to improve the sound. Any mass market CD, dvd, or blu-ray player from the late 80's until now should be audibly identical under normal use.
 

Jungleland

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Anyone in the Boston to Merrimack Valley area have any recs for a good place to get my turntable adjusted? I broke the needle on my current cartridge and am going to order what looks to be a pretty decent Audio Technica one, but I really don't want to risk installing it myself (nor learning the protractor stuff).
 

mjs

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Mar 30, 2020
36
Hope this is an OK thread to post this audio question. I am looking more a solution to rip/store 300+ CDs worth of music that will let me do playback from an iPhone App. Needs to be Sonos compatible. Would prefer a dedicated gizmo, ie, not involving the computer I am typing this message on (MacBook).
Does anyone have experience with Brennan B2?
"The Brennan B2 is a CD Ripper, Hard disk Jukebox and Complete Audio system." https://thebrennan.com/pages/b2-overview
Thanks.
 

cgori

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I don't know that product, but that use case is basically the one I have at home. I ripped all my CDs and stored them on a Synology NAS, stream them primarily to my Sonos devices in the house, but can use the Synology app to get them to the phone if need be.

Something like this: View: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS120j-DiskStation-Diskless-512MB/dp/B07ZKSLVT5
would work, or a fancier one (with more redundancy) would be: View: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS220-Diskless/dp/B087ZCBWFH/
- you need to add 1 (or 2) hard drives to those devices, and then you'd have to use a laptop or other device to rip your CDs and store them on the NAS. After you rip the CDs you add the link/share to Sonos and it "just works" from my experience.

The Brennan is cute but basically you are paying for some UI that you basically aren't using because you'll be using the Sonos - the reality is the UI of almost all of these kind of devices is pretty bad, compared to Sonos. That Brennan also has an amp that you won't be using because of the Sonos. But it might be a nice plug-n-play CD ripping device - the alternatives are things like the Bluesound Vault2i (not cheap - but I can't find a pricetag for the Brennan either).
 

Coachster

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I scrolled right past this and missed it the first time. I AM SO JEALOUS.

Two weeks ago I saw an ad on Craigslist for two pairs of free speakers, some AR7's and a pair of ADS Braun L710a's. The AR's are little 2-way speakers, covered in cheap vinyl (it's 1974, baby!) but after a recap and a refoaming, they sound better than they should. (this is before the Teledyne takeover of AR, so the quality of the parts shows.) In the bedroom they go.

And then there's the L710a's. These are supposed to be terrific speakers (Audiokarma says so!). I get them up to the workroom, and the first thing I notice is that something STINKS. Now, these had been stored in a garage for a while, but I still was surprised to find that when I traced the bad smell to one speaker, and started to remove the insulation, it became apparent that a family of field mice had decided to live in the speaker, leaving many many nuts, a lot of mouse shit and one dead baby field mouse.

This is supposed to be electronic repair, not biology. I was disgusted.

I removed all the insulation, sprayed with bleach, sprayed with Febreeze, sprayed with bleach again. IT STILL STINKS.

So, the project is on hold. I still plan on recapping them, and have been rebuilding the pair of woofers the mice chewed through to get to their condo, but until the odor dissipates, I'm out.
Ugh. That's disappointing.

I don't know if this will work, but ... try tossing some (LOTS of) coffee grounds into the cabinet, changing them every couple of days. See if the smell improves after a week.
An update on the stinky speakers, mainly because I'm at a pause in their rebuild.

@StupendousMan gave pretty good advice about trying coffee grounds to change the dead animal smell. I spent 2 weeks dumping my used grounds into the stinking maw, and the smell did indeed change. It still wasn't pleasant enough to be near, because now the cabinets smelled like dead mouse coffee.

OK, on to the next idea. I removed the crossovers from both speakers and put the cabinets on CL for free. Somebody came and got them. No, I didn't mention that you couldn't be in the same room with them. Caveat emptor, I guess.

The L710's originally came without tweeters, one midrange was damaged beyond repair, and two of the four woofers were, inoperable so I went in search of replacement speakers. This amazing guy on Audiokarma offered to send a complete set of speakers from a L810 just for shipping. Cool.

I then went in search of cabinets big enough to hold a 4-speaker system and found a set of Cerwin-Vega R26's, real walnut, not veneer. I cut the speaker patterns out on a piece of 3/4" plywood, fit the board onto the front of the cabinets, and turned my attention to the crossovers.

All the photos and schematics for crossovers for the L710 I found on line didn't look like mine, so I was confused about capacitor replacement. Finally, a guy on Audiokarma from Ghana (yes, that Ghana) sent a schematic of the original crossover from the Braun L710, the original 1970 ones, before ADS started importing Braun parts and building their own cabinets here in the States.

I replaced the caps, bought a bag of insulation on CL, wired the first one up, plugged it in, and it was pretty terrific. Deeper bass and more up-front midrange than the AR2Ax I was playing it with. I was feeling good about the whole ordeal. Then I wired the second one- and no sound from either woofer. I tested the woofers, and they both worked. The problem is in the crossover. (This was the crossover that was in the mouse-infested speaker, so I'm not surprised.)

So here's where we currently are. I can 1.) Buy a used (but newer model) L710 crossover on eBay, although the differences in capacitor variance might cause the two speakers to sound completely different from each other. 2.) Buy a pair of new crossovers from Parts Express. The speakers might not sound as good, but they'll sound the same, or 3.) Try to repair the crossover. It's not the caps, so it has to be soldering or one of the coils.

I wrote this long explanation more as a diary entry for myself, so I can look back and laugh at how little I know. However, if anybody has advice, I'd love to hear it.

Goddamn hobbies taking over my life.....58121
 
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StupendousMan

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Jul 20, 2005
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Hmmm. In your shoes, I might try to build my own completely new crossover to replace the bad one. Use components that match the original specs as closely as you can. As you are putting it together, you can test each component and all the connections. Then, hook it up and listen to the two speakers side-by-side. If they sound similar enough, job done! If not, you might build a _second_ new crossover for the other speaker.

In other words, I'd purchase enough components to build two new crossovers, but start with just one and see how it goes.

For others out there reading this thread, take not: audiokarma.org is a really great resource for all your vintage audio questions!
 

mjs

New Member
Mar 30, 2020
36
I don't know that product, but that use case is basically the one I have at home. I ripped all my CDs and stored them on a Synology NAS, stream them primarily to my Sonos devices in the house, but can use the Synology app to get them to the phone if need be.

Something like this: View: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS120j-DiskStation-Diskless-512MB/dp/B07ZKSLVT5
would work, or a fancier one (with more redundancy) would be: View: https://www.amazon.com/Synology-Bay-DiskStation-DS220-Diskless/dp/B087ZCBWFH/
- you need to add 1 (or 2) hard drives to those devices, and then you'd have to use a laptop or other device to rip your CDs and store them on the NAS. After you rip the CDs you add the link/share to Sonos and it "just works" from my experience.

The Brennan is cute but basically you are paying for some UI that you basically aren't using because you'll be using the Sonos - the reality is the UI of almost all of these kind of devices is pretty bad, compared to Sonos. That Brennan also has an amp that you won't be using because of the Sonos. But it might be a nice plug-n-play CD ripping device - the alternatives are things like the Bluesound Vault2i (not cheap - but I can't find a pricetag for the Brennan either).
Thanks so much for the suggestions.

Your solution is probably more DIY than I can realistically handle. The appeals of the Brennan (as advertised) are that it is largely plug and play, and the price is not crazy ($550 for the B2). Users seem to like it but the UI can be buggy. Will keep researching.
 
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cgori

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Oct 2, 2004
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It will almost certainly be more expensive, but you can also use one of the ripping services to do all of the work. Some of them will sell you the storage device and set it up for you as well. I used readytoplay.com to do the ripping for my collection, they did a good job - but I bought the storage device and set it up myself. Something like musicshifter.com looks reasonable as well. You might check for options local to where you live.

Regardless of whether you do it yourself or you pay for the ripping, it's very nice to have a lossless (FLAC/etc) copy and a lossy (256k or 320k MP3) one - the Sonos will sound great with the FLAC, and the MP3 is nice for on-the-go, saving data/bandwidth/storage. The MP3 copies are tiny compared to the FLAC, so having a double-rip doesn't add much to the necessary storage on the back-end. Most of the work you are paying for in ripping is getting the album/song/artist metadata correctly entered/cataloged.
 

shaggydog2000

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Apr 5, 2007
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An update on the stinky speakers, mainly because I'm at a pause in their rebuild.

@StupendousMan gave pretty good advice about trying coffee grounds to change the dead animal smell. I spent 2 weeks dumping my used grounds into the stinking maw, and the smell did indeed change. It still wasn't pleasant enough to be near, because now the cabinets smelled like dead mouse coffee.

OK, on to the next idea. I removed the crossovers from both speakers and put the cabinets on CL for free. Somebody came and got them. No, I didn't mention that you couldn't be in the same room with them. Caveat emptor, I guess.

The L710's originally came without tweeters, one midrange was damaged beyond repair, and two of the four woofers were, inoperable so I went in search of replacement speakers. This amazing guy on Audiokarma offered to send a complete set of speakers from a L810 just for shipping. Cool.

I then went in search of cabinets big enough to hold a 4-speaker system and found a set of Cerwin-Vega R26's, real walnut, not veneer. I cut the speaker patterns out on a piece of 3/4" plywood, fit the board onto the front of the cabinets, and turned my attention to the crossovers.

All the photos and schematics for crossovers for the L710 I found on line didn't look like mine, so I was confused about capacitor replacement. Finally, a guy on Audiokarma from Ghana (yes, that Ghana) sent a schematic of the original crossover from the Braun L710, the original 1970 ones, before ADS started importing Braun parts and building their own cabinets here in the States.

I replaced the caps, bought a bag of insulation on CL, wired the first one up, plugged it in, and it was pretty terrific. Deeper bass and more up-front midrange than the AR2Ax I was playing it with. I was feeling good about the whole ordeal. Then I wired the second one- and no sound from either woofer. I tested the woofers, and they both worked. The problem is in the crossover. (This was the crossover that was in the mouse-infested speaker, so I'm not surprised.)

So here's where we currently are. I can 1.) Buy a used (but newer model) L710 crossover on eBay, although the differences in capacitor variance might cause the two speakers to sound completely different from each other. 2.) Buy a pair of new crossovers from Parts Express. The speakers might not sound as good, but they'll sound the same, or 3.) Try to repair the crossover. It's not the caps, so it has to be soldering or one of the coils.

I wrote this long explanation more as a diary entry for myself, so I can look back and laugh at how little I know. However, if anybody has advice, I'd love to hear it.

Goddamn hobbies taking over my life.....View attachment 58121
Do you have a multimeter and a schematic of the crossover? You can go step by step through the schematic and all of the connections to see where the disconnect is.
 

pappymojo

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Jul 28, 2010
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Any suggestions for a fun music program that a kid can use to make music on a windows computer? Similar to Garage Band
 

kfoss99

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Jul 15, 2009
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Any suggestions for a fun music program that a kid can use to make music on a windows computer? Similar to Garage Band
Pro Tools is the first that comes to mind. Their webpage looks to have various price ranges.

I used Goldwave to convert LPs to Digital, but I think it is more designed for editing. I think it only costs $15. That may work. I found it relatively easy to use for what I did with it.

Those are both music recording and editing programs, you can't make music in them. I don't know what Garage Band is, so those suggestions may not be what you're looking for.
 

cgori

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One of my friends uses FL Studio - but the entry level version is $99, not exactly cheap. I've never used it but it looks Garage Band-like to me.