Maybe the best $100 system ever?

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lloyd bruney

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #80 on: 24 Apr 2014, 11:22 pm »
Hey, Wired for Sound, I have gone through the same thing you have. I ordered the 6N3 preamp from aliexpress, and it arrived with a 240 volt transformer. Never again! I ordered a 110 transformer from Ebay and the picture was the same as Poultrygeist's, with blue wires. It arrived with the same colored wires, red and black, as the one you have pictured here. If you figure out how to wire this damn thing up, please post a diagram of how you did it because I am over two months out waiting to hear my beautiful sounding preamp. Thanks! Lloyd Bruney

wired4sound

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #81 on: 25 Apr 2014, 12:41 am »
I just (today) received the same transformer you have. The wiring is as follows: the two red wires that are alone are 120V primary input. On the secondary side (5 wires), the two thin red are 150V output, and the thin black wire between these two red is grd. . The thicker black wires are the 6.3V outputs.
Mine is playing right now for the first time, driving an un-modded blue board. It's my first foray into valves since I was a pup :lol:

Hey Lacro, thanks! I would have to buy a meter otherwise. Come to think of it, I may have to get one if I want to deeper into DIY.

BTW, how do you like the sound? Did the 6N3 tamed the highs of the blue board? I am hoping the preamp will add a tube sound to 3116.

wired4sound

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #82 on: 25 Apr 2014, 12:43 am »
Hey, Wired for Sound, I have gone through the same thing you have. I ordered the 6N3 preamp from aliexpress, and it arrived with a 240 volt transformer. Never again! I ordered a 110 transformer from Ebay and the picture was the same as Poultrygeist's, with blue wires. It arrived with the same colored wires, red and black, as the one you have pictured here. If you figure out how to wire this damn thing up, please post a diagram of how you did it because I am over two months out waiting to hear my beautiful sounding preamp. Thanks! Lloyd Bruney

I ordered mine from EBay and hoping to have it by early next week.

Read Lacro's previus post and I think he had the wires figured out!

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #83 on: 25 Apr 2014, 02:02 am »
I read that Parts Express would replace any of their defective Dayton B652's. I called them earlier this week and they checked my order history and confirmed that I had a pair with the defective tweeters.

Today I received a new pair and didn't have to return the old pair or pay shipping. What a great company to do business with!

Listening to the new B652's for just a few minutes tells me the tweeter issues are resolved. Now to add a better cap and some more damping.

They're currently on sale for $35 and they really do sound better than my Pioneer B22's.

lacro

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #84 on: 26 Apr 2014, 03:19 pm »
Hey Lacro, thanks! I would have to buy a meter otherwise. Come to think of it, I may have to get one if I want to deeper into DIY.

BTW, how do you like the sound? Did the 6N3 tamed the highs of the blue board? I am hoping the preamp will add a tube sound to 3116.

How do I like the sound you ask? Well....I had no idea a tube preamp could improve the SQ so much, way, way, way beyond my expectations :thumb: And.. yes it has tamed the harsh highs of the stock blue board. I guess I will have to try some those Russian tubes, even thought the Chinese ones sound great to my ears. I think your going to like 6N3 :D

lacro

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #85 on: 26 Apr 2014, 03:42 pm »
All that said, I'm still building three of the little cheap and cheerful TPA3116 amps and plan to combine at least one of them with a 3-tube 6N3 preamp.  I love to build things, I'm always on the lookout for a bargain (as you can probably tell) and I also like the small form factor and power efficient design of these little Class D chip amps.  Plus, after all the glowing reviews, I just have to hear one for myself!

Nice cheap and cheerful set-up. Pieces like you found don't show up at my local Goodwill type stores :cry: One item in your photo is quite cheerful, but I don't think it was so cheap...It's your "sweet" looking chair. Would you tell me more about it please? A pair of those would be nice in my Man Cave :thumb:

BTW/ definitely give the blue board/3-tube 6n3 preamp a go.. I think you will like the sound.

Lacro

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #86 on: 1 May 2014, 12:26 am »
The "improved" Dayton B652 is a jaw dropper. It needs very little to run with the big boys.

Opened it up and decided that it had plenty of damping so I only added a audio grade 6.8 uF cap as shown in the link below. This is the capacitor that was recommended by a PE tech and it instantly improved depth and clarity.

I once had some Aerial Acoustic Model 5's which are still in the family as I gave them to my son-in-law. To my ears the B652's sound better.


 http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dmpc-68-68uf-250v-polypropylene-capacitor--027-424

Mortsnets

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #87 on: 2 May 2014, 05:57 am »
Thanks for the heads-up on the speakers.  I ordered a pair through Amazon and was very dissapointed that they sounded nothing like the great reviews.  I just sent an email to Parts Express customer service.

krikor

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #88 on: 2 May 2014, 12:58 pm »
Thanks for the heads-up on the speakers.  I ordered a pair through Amazon and was very dissapointed that they sounded nothing like the great reviews.  I just sent an email to Parts Express customer service.

Thanks as well. I contacted PE yesterday and was informed that the defective batch was sold between September of 2012 and June of 2013. I'll have to see if I can borrow them from my nephew for whom they were purchased. I never did any real listening to them, just plugged them in to an old receiver to make sure they worked then sent them off. I know I've read some contrarian views as to the sound quality, so it would be interesting to give them a run through myself.

MCM_Fan

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #89 on: 2 May 2014, 06:56 pm »
Nice cheap and cheerful set-up. Pieces like you found don't show up at my local Goodwill type stores :cry: One item in your photo is quite cheerful, but I don't think it was so cheap...It's your "sweet" looking chair. Would you tell me more about it please? A pair of those would be nice in my Man Cave :thumb:

It's actually a chair and ottoman.  I bought them at Dania back in January, 2011.  They are VERY comfortable. I tried to find a better photo online, but could not find a single image of this particular chair or ottoman.  The model was the Dania Bogart chair.  Turns out Dania was sued by the estate of Humphrey Bogart for using his name without license.  I had no idea until I did a google search on Dania Bogart this morning.  So, they had to discontinue their Bogart line.  Too bad, the chair is very comfortable and very nice looking.  Everyone who has sat in mine has commented on how comfortable it is and I have gotten several comments on the appearance.  They were reasonably priced when new ($399.00 for the chair and $159.00 for the ottoman).  I got mine for $299.00 and $99.00 on closeout.  Wish I would have bought a second pair at that price, or better still, the matching couch and loveseat.

The ONLY things I could find online was a PDF of an old Dania catalog here:

http://www.daniafurniture.com/files/catalog/dania_catalog_01_13_10.pdf

You need to scroll down to page 32 for a photo of the couch in white and the chair in brown.

And this blog entry and photo of the couch in white:

"If you’re fortunate enough to live in a part of the country where Craigslist finds are to die for, congratulations.  For the rest of us whose Craigslist version of “vintage” loosely translates to “80s,” you’ll have better luck finding art-deco -ish pieces elsewhere on the internet.

Cue Dania.  Most of their selection is highly square-mod upper-end IKEA-looking stuff.

Save for the Bogart line.

Couch, loveseat, and “mini” club chairs combine to make one very swank tooshie touchdown zone.  The “ivory” is blazing whitewhitewhite, the red is just right, and the dark brown looks every sense of the word (though in the showroom it looked black thanks to fluorescent lighting…).

Pretty affordable (depending upon budgetary constraints, naturally) and very high quality.  Definitely recommend any of the pieces."



Ironically, I just saw one of the Dania Bogart chairs in brown at a local Goodwill two weeks ago.  I didn't really need it, and I definitely prefer the red color, but knowing that they are no longer in production and hard to find, I wish I would have bought it.

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #90 on: 2 May 2014, 10:46 pm »
Thanks as well. I contacted PE yesterday and was informed that the defective batch was sold between September of 2012 and June of 2013. I'll have to see if I can borrow them from my nephew for whom they were purchased. I never did any real listening to them, just plugged them in to an old receiver to make sure they worked then sent them off. I know I've read some contrarian views as to the sound quality, so it would be interesting to give them a run through myself.

You can look them up in your PE purchase history and see when you bought them.

Mortsnets

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #91 on: 10 May 2014, 03:50 am »
My replacement speakers arrived.  The sound is much improved: from dead and lifeless with no imaging to amazing for the price!  Great service from Parts Express.  I'm running them as computer speakers with a  TPA3110D2 amp.

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #92 on: 10 May 2014, 09:05 am »
My wife complained of too many speakers in one room so the B652's now rest atop the Frugal Horns. Looks like one tall skinny speaker instead of two.

I alternate amps on the two speakers between a Dared 2a3c and the TPA3116. During our hot summer months the 3116 will get most of the playing time.

It's tempting to view the 3116 as an excellent computer speaker amp and while it's a great choice for that it's good enough to be a main system amp.




Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #93 on: 10 May 2014, 09:16 am »
Here's a reply by Dayton Audio regarding the bad tweeter that has been corrected in their latest model.

http://www.cnet.com/pictures/best-tech-under-50/3/

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #94 on: 10 May 2014, 09:54 am »
Here's the $9.00 Sure TPA3110 from Parts Express in it's new box enclosure which came from Michael's. Bought a couple more boxes like this one already painted on close out for 99 cents.

This 3110 power amp sounds as good as the 3116 but has less power. Not enough power for the Pioneer B22 and somewhat questionable for the Dayton's but a fine choice for 90db and higher speakers.




opa1

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #95 on: 11 May 2014, 11:01 pm »
TPA3116/6N3. PG tuned me into these. Sound great! Going to order some of those Daytons too.








Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #96 on: 11 May 2014, 11:26 pm »
Great job opa 1

BoJonJovi

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #97 on: 8 Jun 2014, 03:01 pm »
I got the Dayton and really like them. I have been watching the Andrew Lloyd Jones bookshelves for a while and Amazon has them for $65 today. I could not resist and pulled the trigger.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008NCD2LG/ref=pe_54710_119258250_em_1p_0_ti

Poultrygeist

Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #98 on: 8 Jun 2014, 04:40 pm »
That's a great price on the Pioneer's.

I'd be interested in your opinion as to which speakers you prefer.

I like the fact that the Daytons are sealed while the Pioneers are rear ported which makes placement a challenge.

Haven't stuffed a sock in the Pioneer's ports yet but I may.

lacro

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Re: Maybe the best $100 system ever?
« Reply #99 on: 8 Jun 2014, 09:00 pm »
That's a great price on the Pioneer's.

I'd be interested in your opinion as to which speakers you prefer.

I like the fact that the Daytons are sealed while the Pioneers are rear ported which makes placement a challenge.

Haven't stuffed a sock in the Pioneer's ports yet but I may.

 I tried a stack of 6" long straws in the ports. It helped SQ, especially bass with the Pioneers close to a wall.