badmojo wrote:

And another one 🤣

What speaker setup are you using on your vintage machine?

Merged all three of the threads because I wanted to see what would happen.

Stiletto wrote:

Merged all three of the threads because I wanted to see what would happen.

It's Frankenstein's monster!

You've been working hard lately Stiletto, thank you for keeping this place tidy 😀

it's a Christmas miracle... in April!

The winter 2007-2008 I bought a not very expensive integrated amplifier to use with my computer. I have other amplifiers but I wanted something that could sit under the 16:10 Samsung LCD i used back then. I bought this amp mostly because it was cheap but also because it got great reviews. The Swedish audio magazines wrote that it was the best cheap Chinese amp they had tested.

I was happy with my amp, it could power my QLN Signature MKII (also Chinese made) I use with my computer without issues. The amp has a switch to configure it for 4 or 8 ohm impedance speakers to limit the current with 4 ohm speakers to hinder the amp from killing it self. My speakers has an impedance of 3-4 ohm but I always had the switch set to 8 ohm as current limitations are for chickens. 😈

One very hot summer day about half a year after I had bought the amp it just died. It diddnt go out with a bang, the sound just dissapered with a "click" without the unit even powering off so it was more like some protection circuit decided that something had gotten to hot. I was not very surprised as my LCD screen on top of the amp blocked the air vents and I had played loud and for an extended period of time in 30+ degrees C heat. What did surprise me a bit was that the amp would not work again once it cooled off, or the preamp circuit seemed to work but not the power amp.

The next day when the amp still diddn't work I disassembled it and poked around with my multi meter, the MOSFETs seemed ok (as in not shorted) but the signal got lost somewhere. I had other things to do so I packed away the amp and thought I could at least use it as preamp as it has PRE OUT jacks. The unit was still under warrenty but I was too lazy to send it back.

Now almost 8 years later I was clearing out the storage where I put the amplifier and thought that I should look into the issue a bit more thoroughly. I removed the hood, connected speakers and poked around with my MM, now the signal diddn't disappear like magic somewhere, there were current flowing through the MOSFETs and the speakers did output some static as I tested the unit using the radio without an antenna. I connected a CD player and the amplifier indeed works just fine!

It must have been a protection circuit that had activated like I first thought, it just needed alot of time to reset it self (probably not the full 8 years though).

The perhaps not 100% accurate specs.

Weight: 6,4 kg
Size (H x W x D): 100 x 434 x 325 mm
Max Power Output: 2 x 216 W (4 ohm), 2 x 116 W (8 ohm)
RMS Power Output (THD<0.1) : 2 x 200 W (4 ohm), 2 x 100 W (8 ohm)
Signal to Noise (A weight): 101 dB
Frequency Response: 20 - 20.000 Hz (-0.1 dB)

The "Proson RV4200 v.2", You know something is really high end when "HIGH-END" is written on the item in question! 😁

Specs like these, RMS Power Output (THD<0.1) : 2 x 200 W (4 ohm), 2 x 100 W (8 ohm) with a coin sized transformer FTW! 🤣

If that coin sized transformer can deliver enough juice the specs seem more or less correct but thats a big IF.

I am using one of these.... (Setting the output to stereo)

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpi … 5&scy=gb&slg=en

Somehow forgot about this thread - some very cool setups there!

Currently my retro pc is hooked up to a small Yamaha Mixer and a pair of Yamaha HS50M monitors:

Skyscraper wrote:

Specs like these, RMS Power Output (THD<0.1) : 2 x 200 W (4 ohm), 2 x 100 W (8 ohm) with a coin sized transformer FTW! 🤣

If that coin sized transformer can deliver enough juice the specs seem more or less correct but thats a big IF.

The DC supply on this unit is switch mode, so it can make due with a smaller transformer than higher end units with linear supplies. Also, 0.1% THD is not that great, especially if it's into 8 ohms. That may be over driving the design somewhat.

gdjacobs wrote:

Skyscraper wrote:

Specs like these, RMS Power Output (THD<0.1) : 2 x 200 W (4 ohm), 2 x 100 W (8 ohm) with a coin sized transformer FTW! 🤣

If that coin sized transformer can deliver enough juice the specs seem more or less correct but thats a big IF.

The DC supply on this unit is switch mode, so it can make due with a smaller transformer than higher end units with linear supplies. Also, 0.1% THD is not that great, especially if it's into 8 ohms. That may be over driving the design somewhat.

I'm used to transformers looking like this! 😉

My ADCOM GFA-6000 can pull 1440W from the mains! 😁

Yea 0.1% THD is not great but that is at the specified max output power of 100/200W RMS if one would believe the spec, I have seen far worse THD ratings at max output power from more reputable brands.

The Proson RV-4200 does sound extremly clean even at really high volume but the build quality and some components seems somewhat shoddy though. After the amp magicly started working again I have searched around on Swedish* forums and it seems alot of other people experienced the exact same issue I had. Protection circuits sometimes never resets after they have been activated. Im glad I did not bin my amp as the issue seemed to have solved it self with time.

*These were mostly sold in Sweden even if the same platform probably was sold in other countries under different names as they were made by some Chinese OEM.

In the UK the name seems to be Pulse. The linked unit below looks exactly like my Proson RV-4200s little brother the RV-2050. They were at least not sold out of white VANs! 😀

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pulse-SR150-Stereo- … ToAAOSwZtJW9Fdh

VS

http://www.proson.se/index.php3?pageid=169&color=black

MMaximus wrote:

Somehow forgot about this thread - some very cool setups there!

Currently my retro pc is hooked up to a small Yamaha Mixer and a pair of Yamaha HS50M monitors:

That looks lovely 😀

I have these Creative speakers:

For my test bench setups I use these:

And I also have a bunch of these little speakers 😁 Great because they don't need power. I use them for benchmarking, just so I can hear that the sound is working. They cost like a dollar per unit.

On my retro rig i'm using one Philips SHP2000, its cheap but has a good bass, lightweight,do not distort the audio on high levels.
But i have plans to upgrade this in a near future

Using a pair of Gateway 2000 Altec Lansing ACS41 desktop speakers on my DOS retro PC. Can't find any specs on them, but they are pretty decent sounding.

My speakers currently are a Sony STR-DH500 multichannel AV receiver, four Minimus 11 front and rear satellite speakers, and one Minimus 7 for the center satellite, with the audio out from the laptop coming from the S/PDIF out on my newly-acquired FiiO E10K headphone amp/DAC.

Headphones, also a recent acquisition, are Sony MDR-V6s that currently wear Brainwavz sheepskin leather memory foam earpads.

I know it's technically not vintage, but that's my computer audio out setup.

I use these Harman Kardon HK195s on my retro computers

And these Altec Lansing ACS495s on my main desktop

I use 2.0 speakers for both vintage and modern machines, all mixed by a small vintage Boss BX-4 mixer, while speakers are KRK V8.

Mixed are my laptop's internal Realtek audio, Compaq Presario CDS 762's embedded ESS-688, and Turtle Beach Multisound Classic installed into the same Compaq.

Right now my P1 Rig is using the Logitech S120 speakers that I commonly use on my main driver which was decommissioned for a week due to motherboard/case mishaps, these are pretty much the only speakers I'll use nowadays because they have a built-in power cord rather than the stupid phone-charger brick that blocks outlets on power strips.

On most testbench setups I use Sony VAIO VGP-SP3 speakers that I've sourced at a Value Village for $7.99, like the Logitech ones they have a built-in power cord so they serve as my backup speakers in case my logitech ones ever die out, sorry I don't have a decent picture on hand to show you but a simple google image search can pull one up.

I have matching harmon/kardon speakers on my Dell Dimension setup for 9x-era gaming, they look just like the ones pictured below but in black.

Just got a pair of NOS Roland MA-8, I tried them briefly with the SoundBlaster 2.0 on my turbo XT and they seem to sound quite good so far 😀

MMaximus wrote:

Just got a pair of NOS Roland MA-8, I tried them briefly with the SoundBlaster 2.0 on my turbo XT and they seem to sound quite good so far 😀

Those look very cool - always wanted a pair. And NOS! Nice one.

Were they designed to be multimedia speakers?

I never really used speakers with my systems, but I do have a set of 70's AKG k240 sextet I use every now and then. IR ealy don't need sound on my systems as I'm more in to benching and overclocking then playing games and what not.

By the way Skyscraper my AV says the images you linked are hosted on malicious domain.

badmojo wrote:

Those look very cool - always wanted a pair. And NOS! Nice one.

Were they designed to be multimedia speakers?

Thanks. I think these were marketed as monitors but they're probably multimedia speakers more than anything else. You can surely find better speakers nowadays but in the '90s I suppose these were among the best PC speakers you could buy.

Interestingly Roland stopped making them years ago but they still seem to be manufactured by Behringer:

Very nice - speakers are fun! I was using these AudioEngines for a while with my retro machine but decided they were too modern - nice speakers tho, my wife uses them now for music and they fill the room really well.

Jade Falcon wrote:

I never really used speakers with my systems, but I do have a set of 70's AKG k240 sextet I use every now and then. IR ealy don't need sound on my systems as I'm more in to benching and overclocking then playing games and what not.

I have a bunch of 70s, 80s and 90s headphones, including some electrostatics and planar magnetics. They all tend to sound pretty good, not too much progress in basic headphone tech since then. Had the sextett at some point, also the sister versions k241 and k250. But really I prefer the convenience of $5 earbuds + eq.