Bubo

Not sure what you mean by ambient ? Resonance ?

I've picked up 5 similar amps some as low as zero or $14 All have great stereos at the core turn off all the surround options HK, Pioneers, Yamaha, Sony total investment less than $60 YMMV

One of many choices They sell direct so multiply times 3 compared to many other options Owner is the designer and managing director Someone on the board unpacked their 20W Class A Schiit a few days ago $799, check the site but I think this guy is satisfaction guaranteed Owner designer cut his teeth designing for big name amp companies before he went solo. The $699-899 DACs get high praise Contact them and tell them the speakers you want to drive, and see what they say. I sent an e-mail a few years ago and received a response from the owner in about 15 minutes. Power Output: Stereo, 8 Ohms: 20W RMS per channel Stereo, 4 Ohms: 40W RMS per channel Mono, 8 ohms: 80W RMS Frequency Response: 20Hz-20Khz, -0.1db, 3Hz-500KHz, -3dB THD: <0.01%, 20Hz-20KHz, at 20W RMS into 8 ohms IMD: <0.01%, CCIR, at 20W RMS into 8 ohms SNR: >112db, A-weighted, referenced to full output Damping Factor: >100 into 8 ohms, 20-20kHz Gain: 12 (22dB) Input Sensitivity: AKA Rated Output (Vrms)/Rated Gain. Or, 14.3/12. You do the math. Input Impedance: 22k ohms SE, 44k ohms balanced Crosstalk: >95dB, 20-20kHz Inputs: L/R RCA jacks for stereo input, single XLR for mono input Topology: Fully complementary, all-BJT, current feedback, no coupling capacitors or DC servos with Continuity™ constant transconductance output stage Oversight: microprocessor-controlled monitoring and management of critical operational points, including DC offset, with standby mode and relay shut-down for overcurrent, thermal, and other faults Power Supply: 600VA transformer with dual mono main rails, plus boosted, regulated supply to input, voltage gain and driver stages, plus separate, isolated and regulated rails for microprocessor management. Power Consumption: 450W maximum Size: 9” x 13” x 3.875” https://www.schiit.com/products/aegir

Open it up Blow it out with compressed air, outside. Check the DC offset with a multi meter on the speaker terminals, write down the numbers, which should be almost the same. Take notes and photos as you go Inspect all of the components for damage, leaks and hot spots Inspect all of the solder joints carefully, for me this means in sunlight with a magnifying glass I have found cracked and cold solder joints, that when retouched, the system problems disappeared. Inspect the board carefully for hot spots, browning. Inspect the caps for swelling and leakage, if you see any don't power on until replaced. Hose down the inside of the RCA connectors with CRC, clean the outside with std chrome polish from any auto parts store using a clean rag. They can be really gritty. Flush all of the switches and connectors with inexpensive CRC, allow to dry, then flush with Deoxit, repeat with Deoxit 24 hours later. Spread some clean rag or paper towels for the over-spray. Check the wires and power cord for dry rot. Sometimes the old power cords have been bent one too many times and the broken wires cause all kinds of noise. May be a good idea to replace when you restore. Take a thermal image, or without frying yourself put fingers on all of the output transistors at the same time too see if any are hot or hotter than the others. Same for the rest of the transistors. Find the power trimmer varistors, and hose them down like the switches. Don't attempt to move the trimmers. If everything is OK, the CAPS are beyond the Specified life, and should be replaced soon. Also replace the power cord and DC protection switch if it has one, if not consider having one added. DIY sells one, and other on e-bay. Post your inspection results here.....

Post a photo with the cover off probably a large transformer inside

WELCOME TO ILLINOIS $19K 2020 $4K 20 years ago IL looks like the Vietnam boat lift and now California Ferrari Full list pricing: SF90 Stradale Starting MSRP $628,750 488 Starting MSRP $333,750 812 Superfast Starting MSRP $338,750 F8 Starting MSRP $278,030 GTC4Lusso Starting MSRP $263,750 Portofino Base price: US$215,000 Engine: 3.9 liter twin turbo V8 Power: 591 hp @ 7,500 rpm Torque: 561 lb-ft @ 3,000 rpm 0-60 mph: 3.5 sec 0-124 mph: 8.7 sec Top Speed: 199 mph SuperSport 950 S 110 hp Power 69 lb-f Torque 184 kg (405 lb) Dry Weight BASE MSRP(US) $15,395.00

Roll with Decware, and see how it works for your music... If it isn't enough, look at the 20W class A amps

1 inch buckwheat cake, served covered in strawberry slices soaked in Grand Mariner sp (or brand x orange liquor) and brown sugar for a couple hours in the fridge. Maybe some real whip cream. Do not attempt to drive the car after your first serving, and certainly not after your second serving MC

If you have time, money and a soldering iron. You could do Capacitor rolling and give us your feedback Roll two speakers and keep a 3rd as the reference as a Comparison. Some french audio club did this a few years ago, don't recall if they reached anything conclusive but they did drink quite a few bottles of wine over the three day weekend. Maybe they liked the Elna caps. There is a guy in Japan that resells JBL, builds his own huge crossovers using the huge Jentzen caps. Crites and parts express have the inductors and autoformers, and all kinds of resistors. The possibilities are endless If you want to go all out, you can do frequency sweeps and record them on a pc. MC

From what I have read about small business permanent closings, I am holding my breath for 2021. MC

Your biggest task will be wiring The manual and lots of videos on youtube for entry level Sometimes when we sold wide area data networks to customers We would do the systems builds for the nodes and network in a lab or large room or warehouse. Then wire and connect them to plan, and test for weeks with various loads and configs, When we were satisfied, we would update the drawings and instructions, crate it, and install it across a State, Region, Country or the world. Put your receiver up on a box or low table in front of the TV with plenty of room to work behind it, run the wires over the floor to your speakers, if 5.1 probably the 4 corners of the room at ear level sitting, and center in front of the TV, usually a shelf on the TV platform. Connect everything up and follow the installation instructions, and learn as you go. Use it like this for weeks until you are totally comfortable, then place the amp where you want it long term, and run the speaker wires, the biggest part of the job. I ran mine under the LR floor in the basement, it's a big job. Belden twisted pair in wall speaker wires are outstanding, but not beauty contest winners, Lay it all out, connect the two fronts, and use it that way for a few days, then add the sub, then center channel, then rears taking time to experiment with the settings and tuning all the way. Draw everything before you do it, and keep notes. Give yourself a month to learn. Your amp should support 2.0, 2.1, 3.1 and 5.1, use all of them as baby steps. Your system should have a setting for restore defaults, test it early so you know how to reset your system to factory defaults. While the speaker wires are all over the floor, throw some throw rugs over them so no one trips. MC

There is nothing like coming home after a long business trip....

Quirky period art film around the time of the demise of the Austro-Hungarian Empire When I wake laughing in the middle of the night, it's a good sign.....I think. Flag of a almost forgotten Super Power....

My Klipsch RW12D would work with most Integrateds from any decade. Looks like it can be connected via pre amp or via B speakers from the amp A Integrated with two speaker outputs A&B would work Freq cut off Volume Phase EQ https://2d73e25b29782b6d6766-9c8af5cbfef16739445bc76457060528.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/RWRSWmanual_635042116709650000.pdf RW-12d SPECIFICATIONS ENCLOSURE TYPE Bass-reflex via front-firing CornerPort ™ ACTIVE DRIVERS 12" (30.5cm) Cerametallic™ cone, front-firing woofer AMPLIFIER TYPE BASH ® Digital hybrid AMPLIFIER POWER FTC Rated Power: 350 watts continuous @ <2% THD / Dynamic Power*: 825 watts BANDWIDTH 24-120Hz ± –3dB MAXIMUM OUTPUT 116dB @ 30Hz 1/8 space, 1m CONTROLS DCS control and feature set w/ 3 system presets INPUTS L/R Line-level RCA jacks, L/R High-level speaker binding posts OUTPUTS None FINISHES Black Ash wood grain vinyl WEIGHT 49 lbs. (22.2kg) HEIGHT 19.2" (48.8cm) WIDTH 14.6" (37.1cm) DEPTH 21" (53.3cm) VOLTAGE 110/120 VAC 60Hz EXPORT VERSION 220 VAC 50/60Hz For quick and easy adjustment of all functions, the RW-12d features the DCS digital user-interface that includes three equalization modes (flat, depth and punch) and three user- adjustable presets (music, movie and night) to create specific listening preferences.

One time, I remarked to my daughter that our surround system sounds better than the TOTL theater and surround system we had just listened to at the local top dollar theater. She replied "Dad they have that giant theater they are trying to make sound good for every seat, we just have our little living room to worry about". She was in band and had lessons all the way through school. If you like the way your system sounds, I would leave it alone. Each new speaker is the probability of something going wrong, times all of the probabilities of problems from every other speaker, component and piece furniture either summed or multiplied. It's been a long time since I had stats; in a misguided fit of de-cluttering gave away my stats book. Summed or multiplied, it's a big number. YMMV

MC Working on my first coffee this AM. I would roll with the defaults for a couple of weeks and note what you like, and don't like in the sound quality, peaks etc. Select movies with a good sound track as your REFERENCE track, use it when you make manual adjustments. Select a chapter or two you like, and adjust and test..... More Brilliance from COMPOSER: BASIL POLEDOURIS Apparently this one is out on 4K Movie Makers and theaters have drifted to "way too loud" over the years, and many sound tracks are in this mode. I used the manual adjustment to increase the volume on the Center Channel so it's easy to hear the voices at reasonable volume. My Pioneer has a peak limiter setting I feel forced to use as I am fatiguing from reaching for the volume control during movies. An HK AVR that I picked up for change has a button on the front labeled "night" which attenuates the peaks. The receiver manufacturers know what the issues are, and at least two of the ones I own have built in solutions for over the top peak volumes.

Chris, Thanks for your great write up and many other thoughtful comments and suggestions. My response is to your clear and thoughtful review of the book. Which sent me searching for 4 books I have, one I am looking under the furniture for. Given that electricity, microphones and speakers have been with us a relatively short time. These are my thoughts: The brain compares to what it knows, does it sound Natural. Things that are not natural can be irritating or jump out. The application of psycho-acoustics to trick the brain for low bit rate is perhaps the low-point of the Recording Industry; surpassing millie vannili and gang rap. Greek and Roman theaters the players had to be heard and intelligible, some of the theaters are quite large, many are still considered acoustic marvels, resembling clam shells or a flared horn cross-section. Not sure how they calculated the design or did the math, but they did. The bottom line was selling tickets, then and now. With electricity and amplification, this was a substantial R&D undertaking and attracted a lot of great minds, almost every engineer jumps at the chance to design audio gear today. The mass application that was a money maker was telephones. They had to reproduce uncle Floyd and aunt Betty well enough to be commercially successful. I believe the mass introduction of telephones pre dated amplified sound in theaters, which also had to sell tickets. I'm guessing that a lot of AT&Ts theater sound development came out of the phone engineering work and engineering groups. The test recording for these groups were either exclusively male voice or 99%. So all engineering decisions and trade offs were based on the experience of listening to male voice. This is still with us today. Pure analog mid 1970s systems forward, and higher sampling rate and and better decoders and algorithms may have overcome some or most of the built in engineering bias. PCM and ADPCM were male voice biased along with the entire telephone network. Consequently, as we depart the geometry of the amphitheaters, and introduce something less than quality Movie theater size speaker cabinets and drivers, a series of trade-offs ensues. The math and geometry on the cabinets hasn't changed much since the 1950s. Analog electronics plateaued in the mid 70s and early 80s. Digital is about to do the same. As to Horn loaded vs something else, I believe the horns remain unmatched in speed, accuracy and efficiency. I have not heard a speaker smaller than a Heresy that I would purchase for listening to music. I have listened to a number of direct radiators the same size, but not Lifelike. The magic of the LaScalas, is the ability to faithfully reproduce female voice and piano, the two most demanding that I can think of. And flexible placement. An engineering and or architectural point of view requires substantial knowledge and engineering and real world knowledge base. Some rooms just sound better, we hear this over and over again from musicians. Sting recorded Ten Summoner's Tales in his estate's Kitchen, stoves refrigerators and all. The musicians loved it. Would a model have predicted the musician's joy in this room ? How much engineering, EQ, Phase adjustment, or damping does it take to turn a shoe-box room into an amphitheater or a squeaking mouse speaker into a roaring lion movie theater speaker. As you point out, what problem is the author attempting to address, a design reference book, or a consumer oriented set of guidelines that can be easily applied to our undersized sub optimal spaces. As consumers, I believe we are left with general guidelines like more damping is better, hard surfaces are undesirable, sometimes the long wall is better etc... Again, thank you for your thoughtful and stimulating write up.

Purchased mine in the early 80s and despite a lot of searching and auditions Have not found anything I like better.

.5 Watts is really loud 2 Watts is screaming McIntosh Tube MC-30s are loved by many (30W) monoblocks Class B Cut sheet gave the specs at .5 Watts, which were stellar. 1956 Reference First Watt and Clones are prized for solid state Class A Schiit just came out with a promising 20W Class A The speaker designer , Paul Klipsch thought 20 Watts was plenty Normal listening volume on my 200 Watt McIntosh amp is 1/100th of a watt......typically peaking at 1/20th. https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/mcintosh/mc30.shtml https://www.thetubestore.com/lib/thetubestore/schematics/McIntosh/McIntosh-MC30-Owner-Manual-Schematic.pdf

For a Few Dollars More Order replacement crossovers from Crites and install them, also horn gaskets check the wires for dry rot 12GA speaker wire is fine for replacement Be sure not to cross the wires MC

Life of the Capacitors by the Manufacturers is between 20-30 years Yes it is time to replace them. If you or a friend knows how to solder, there are lots of options to source the caps. Gaskets on the threaded horn drivers are probably dry rotted and should be replaced Also check the wiring for day rot, I had to replace wires. Wipe on some watco natural oil, if you haven't done it already. MC

Agree, move the BT to another amp and see if the problem follows, first How is the receiver connected to the HK ? RCA ? Try Toslink with glass if both support it. Solid state usually fails quickly, or lasts a long tome Could be a bad capacitor from the factory a lot of products use ultra cheapo Chinese caps

I think you will like the EMO Like all that I mentioned, it's an AB Amp using a switcher power supply, which Emo has put a lot of work into. Enjoy

USB is a robust data com protocol with crc-arq The DAC, frequently integrated into the Surround receiver, stand alone or part of a newer stereo receiver or integrated amp Is the Critical Component You can use any player with USB it won't effect sound quality. Toslink over glass is probably OK but no CRC ARQ so errors can get by. It does offer optical isolation so no ground loop hum. YES, use your old Bluray or DVD player with USB, toslink as a second option. If the Bluray player is connected to the TV via HDMI, then you have to connect the player to the DAC via Toslink, if you are also connecting the TV to the DAC that too has to be via Toslink. YMMV

Too bad Emo got out of the DAC business, they were the Industry innovator with the XDA 1 I think you will like the emo. Food for thought I picked up a Pioneer VSX 4900S 1991 surround amp the other day for $14 It was the TOTL stereo receiver for pioneer that year with the surround grafted on I'm using it with Heresys By chance I have a collection of these from various Mfgs that were the Statement product of their year HK, Yammys, Pioneer, Sony . Some have great tuner sections, room EQ correction on the newer ones Some I paid zero for. For a couple of hundred bucks and some patience, you can get a good variety each has a personality. If you want to experience a lot of different statement receivers look in the 1990-2005 Just turn off all of the surround features, hit the direct button if they have one I might pick up an HK and another Yamaha after Christmas if the seller still has them, $60 for both YMMV