Groomlakearea51

Tom, you have a PM re: AU-X301 Service manual source.

The trade publication "Live Sound International" has a couple of really good articles in the March issue, I believe you have to sign up for the "e-magazine" option. While it's geared to the live sound professionals and techs, it often has a number of well written (and understandable) articles related to a number of different subjects discussed on the forum. Connections Section, page 30: Discusses Cu ETP copper wire vs Cu OF (oxy-free) manufacturing processes, applications, etc. It's well written, easy to read for average non-tech types. Author is Marco Piromalli; Tech Talk Section, page 36: John Murray's article on "everyone hears differently"; discusses saving your hearing (important to us older Klipsch lovers...), and interesting explanation of the Fletcher-Munson equal loudness contours. Very interesting... especially his comments about the how the use of a certain very popular hallucinogen while listening to loud tunes can cause problems with your hearing later in life.... Also a good article by Bill Whitlock that discusses interface problems. Some very interesting comments about cables and magnetic & electrical fields. It's on page 80. The website is: www.livesoundint.com

The AU-X301 was made in 1987; Most were sold in 87 and some in 1988. Serial number should be in the "50710????" range. The "07" indicates 87, the 10 indicates October, and the other numbers are the serial production sequence. Other stuff. It was one of the final follow on's to the X series, but after the AU-D's and the very "fragile" AU-G's. Problems are not so much with reliability or engineering, it was due to the unrealistically cheap, thin chassi frames and the extensive use of plastics. If you purchase it, make sure the seller packs it with at least 4" of bubble wrap all way round to prevent the flexing and torsional stresses that produce the PCB cracks.... It's well worth $60... If you obtain it, and it does not work ok, you can PM for the list of the really, really good Sansui techs that will fix it and won't charge you an arm, leg or firstborn.... Hope that helps.

joewoodworker (jw) is an excellent source. jw also carries the paperbacked veneer which is much easier to work with than regular "wood on wood" plain veneer. Same as regular, is real wood veneer, BUT will not crack, separate, etc. as easily. It's standard veneer, but with a 10mil non-stranded back that absorbs the glue evenly. It's called Flexpro, and is reasonable. jw has a sample book of flexpro that contains about 30 odd 5" x 5" samples of the entire Flexpro line. Good investment for $10. You can cut strips off the samples and oil, stain, dye, etc. to see what you are going to get. Bookmatched sheets are more expensive, but ensures that you have a number of pieces that are well matched. For smaller projects, the Heatlock glue works very well; One gallon will do at least 60+ square feet, including plenty to practice with. Only suggestion if you've not fooled with veneer before, it's best to read all of the articles on jw's site as well as others before doing it. Practice on some smaller surfaces to get the hang of it. For larger surfaces, it's either contact cement or different type of glue (Flexbond?) that's also on jw's site. You'll need some tools as well, including an edge band trimmer, or a router with a flush trimming blade made for veneer/ laminate. Hope that helps.

vman71 Suggestion on #1; Older SS amps; there were "spring clips", and "screw on" binding posts for the speaker terminals. You can have a competent electronics shop remove the old PCB with those and fabricate a new plate with Dayton or GLS binding posts. I've done this on my old vintage (but super reliable otherwise) SS amps. they now accept GLS banana's, wire, etc. up to 12 gauge. Look pretty too.... #2 - clip off the old ones and put on new ones; go to partsexpress.com

Zymurgy!!

Tempting.... But what happens if we push him over the eBay "psycho" edge?[6]..... At least you're on the east coast!![]

Oh boy!! That's a "doozy" No pictures, but on a pair I'm working on, after removing the old veneer, the plywood had knothole voids all over the place. I'm not sure if the sound is/was affected. But just to make sure... I used a router and a circle jig and just cleaned them all up. Cut some circular pieces/ disks the same size as the new "holes", glued them in, etc. On your's you might try a router and cut a "strip" of plywood to match the new "slot". IMHO, an open "void" is an "accident place" for veneer just looking to cause problems later.

Agree with Lascala1983. The pretty ones! Use the pretty ones that look new!! ........ Just kidding, but that's what my wife said.... You could also make sure that regardless of whatever you "like", the 1" "driver to horn" gasket is not dried out. If it is and the horn does not seat against it, it can "leak" and "color" (pun intended) your evaluation.

On the Hughes receiver (there are two types of the HD, one with the green "lights" and the other with the blue.... blue one is the newer version) check the "settings" to see if it's 5.1 enabled. Also, your A/V receiver may require that the DTV receiver be connected to your A/V receiver with an HDMI or optical cable, rather than RCA jacks in order to properly work as 5.1. The Hughes DTV receivers, unfortunately, generally only have one HDMI exit "port" and you pretty much have to use that to send 1080i/p HD video to the TV. You can get a fairly good signal "splitter" switch and use the HDMI cable inputs to both. That could also help solve the problem. The plasma/ LCD TV's should have a 5.1 "enabled" option under their settings. You should turn it on if it's not already. Also, you can try using the "out" jacks on your plasma/lcd TV to the A/V amp. They should be passive, and with good cables, sound should be ok.

On Bob's AA's, there is normally a jumper wire that allows you to use the "A" configuration. It should be evident on the top cap; looks like two "loose" ends with female spade clips cable tied to the two wires that are connected to that cap. If you remove the two wires on that cap, and plug on the the other spade clips, it will be a type "A". Might try that. If unsure ask Bob to walk you through it. Hope that helps.

They are on the way to Bob. Thank's to everyone for their interest.

Great idea! If Mike Lindsey has recommendations from his experiences, or anyone else with the Dual; that would probably help you alot in the decision.

Well... AT is good, but how good are your ears?...... I've had a couple AT's years ago, and I don't recall any problems. I don't want to cause a s'storm in the opinion area. So, just from my experience only.... The M97XE is a very, very good N/C; just bought two of them last year; first new N/C's I bought since 1986. My old M-97HE's finally just wore out and died. Back in the day, I compared the V-15's to the original 97 HE (hyperelliptical), and weighed the costs, etc. There was some S/N ratio differences, but not enough to warrant the extra couple $100. Oh well.... V-15's are great, but are they really worth the money? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your "ears", your wallet, and how good your system is. From the TT viewpoint, I've had Duals, an AR, a boatload of Thorens (115's, 125's, 160's, etc), and finally just gave up a couple years ago; switched from "fine wine to industrial beer" and bought a Technics SL-1200-MIII, which, after all the warranty crap, breakage, repairs, etc., for the Thorens, is the most consistent and reliable (and performing) TT I've ever owned. Who knows. What does Dual ask for in N/C weight for the CS5000? Shure's are generally relatively low mass. I track my 97's at only about 1 - 1.25 gms on all of the TT's and never really had any skippy or strong left/right problems.

Drivers are fine; diaphragms are like new (they were when they left with a pair of H-II's that I did for someone). I have a "bench" 701, and just screwed them back on and checked them again. What happened was the boxes were dropped; inertia rules... box stopped, speakers stopped, drivers kept going.... horns couldn't take it and cracked. I replaced both assemblies (one from Bob Crites, one from stock on hand), but UPS sent the busted horns (and the drivers) back to me (go figure...). So.... Now I have a pair of orphans..... Thus they need new "parents" or a nice adoption home. Dunno? I have no idea what they are worth. Probably about $30-$40 for both; I really don't know. New assemblies from K/Parts are $83, but I only need the plastic.... K/Parts does not have just the plastic, only the complete assemblies. That's why I'm looking for a spare CT-125 that someone may have (for a special weird project I'm working on). Bob Crites has them, but he does not have any used, or "laying around". I'll take $35 (blue light special... this week only...)

Due to an unfortunate accident by UPS, two K-53/701 horns were cracked when they dropped the boxes from about 10 feet (or however...) Drivers are fine, but the horns were cracked, broken, etc., (they paid for it immediately so no UPS "bashing" on this one please....) Anybody out there have a couple of spare plastic 701's? Cosmetics not important, as long as they are otherwise ok. Or.... anyone need a couple of K-53 drivers (minus the horns.....). Will trade for a single CT-125?

There was/is a reggae group in the 80's by that name; obscure; fairly good, I have one album of mixed artist reggae that had a couple songs, but don't know if that's who you are looking for.

A good one with a solid metal chassis (not plastic....) is the TASCAM CD-RW700; Very heavy duty (tested.... kids and teenage daughter proof); Black, 2 x SAE rack units tall; rack mountable, but comes with the "feet". about $299-$320 or so; go to www.tascam.com for specs; they can be had from authorized tascam dealers on ebay that run specials every once in awhile.

Triceratops; you have a PM

Since you keep asking about Sansui.... AU-919's; they were pretty much the final word in Sansui's pro series until replaced by the X-1; Very respectable 0.008 THD, IMD; 115 rated WPC/RMS (although mine seem to have settled in at 121 watts). The sales pitch in Germany was the parking lot of the Berlin Audio Club with free beer. They hooked up a pair of their monster 5 ways, cranked them up to max and just let them run full blast for over an hour, then took orders from us wealthy soldiers.... But then again, after Pink Floyd Meddle and a few brews, maybe anything would sound good. The sales rep hooked them up to a pair of demo BB Klipschorns they had dragged downstairs to the courtyard one day and that's how I got hooked on Klipsch. He got in trouble for not using Sansui speakers with the amps, oh well.... Interesting: NO loudness switch (the Sansui engineers were very confident...) I've got a bunch of them and use them on K'horns, LS's, CW's, H's, etc. Don't use any tone controls, no bass, no treble, no mid; tone switch has been on defeat so long it's dusty; just runnem' straight flat and they will rattle the neighbor's dog's chain. The bass is there with no doubt whatsoever... They are an attractive black and usually have the rack handles (more decorative than functional). They are around, and you can find them for between ~$375 - $525. As with any "vintage", unless you get something from a forum member... It's likely they will need a tune-up, oil changed, etc. I use Warren Bendler or Tim Schwartz (I'm SS repairs impaired...). Stay away from the children of the lesser Sansui gods (717's, etc.) they are usually trashed from 30+ years of abuse. Just a thought....

Huhm, I recall this topic comes up every once in a while, and was "dissected" not too long ago... In any event, I've both types in K'horns and LS's. On one pair of K-400 K'horns, there was a ringing or "tinniness", sort of a resonance fairly high up. I had read everything last year, and tried the paint method, and even used "rhino liner". Worked ok, but something just did not sound right. Now they sounded "funny"... I had obtained a pair of old ca. early 70's spare 400's recently. They are not too terribly occupied with anything important...., So, I pulled the "offending" 400 (and the other one) out and compared them. The older pair was the same, the casting was a little rougher, and the flange had been visibly sanded flat at the factory. The newer one (the offender...) was more shiny, painted flange, BUT the flange showed uneven wear marks on the paint, but not on the whole flange surface. Huhm.... Swapped out the 400's, replaced the 55 driver to horn gaskets, installed, and it went away.... Went out to the workshop and flat edge checked the "bad boys"; they were not perfect "flat" on the flange mounting face. Belt sander.... Reinstalled, ringing completely gone, cant tell the difference between the 400's and 401's (identical amps, crossovers are all Bob's)..... That being said, when I reinstalled the "rehabilitated", horns, I did them vertical, and carefully cross-tightened (like cylinder heads...) the screws, little bit at a time to make sure that they were drawn flush evenly, then reinstalled the rear brace. Interestingly, that rear brace then did not match up quite correctly, may off about 1/32". Huhm... It's a thought. Maybe its just a matter of "blueprinting" the horns to the board faces more so than having to resort to rope caulking, or using special dampening paint. Another easy way to effectively dampen them would be to use a flange gasket of 1/16" neoprene rubber (like used for very large pipe gaskets, sold by the yard!!). I did that on my LS's several years ago to eliminate some bass reverberations that seemed to be running through the 400's, and used a small piece between the floor of the top bin and the metal support brace. Huhm... Just some thoughts...

There's that stain on the one that looks suspicious; it appears to come through the front. May not be "fixable". Not too bad otherwise if someone needs a pair of H-II grills to later re-fabric.

While legitimate, per UPS, the potential for a bad/ forged check is way too great. IMHO (and we deal with these problems at my agency...), we always tell the victims (and after it happens, they are certainly victims...) never sell something to anyone unless it's "covered" by some type of fallback. MAS' idea about escrow.com is very good. If it's ebay, the Paypal system, while sometimes problematic and pricey, does cover the seller and buyer in most instances. Personally, insist on a US Postal Money order "in hand" before shipping, and when you receive it head to the Post Office and have them verify it's not a forgery.

VHBD! [^] Outstanding work and advice on acoustics on the Forum; []

Don't forget to hug and kiss the trees, do a documentary (concentrate on that whole nudity thing, especially...) and get an Oscar....