AI
Sunday, May 11, 2003 6:44:09 PM
OT - For all you audiophiles, here's something interesting, http://www.elpj.com/ laser turntables. Sounds cool, but they start at about $10,000.
And as long as we were talking about old equipment, you guys are aware that the capacitors degrade over time. Some of the capacitors were made with wax paper, and the electorlytics have chemical solutions that dry out. They may still work, but the first thing to go is the high end. Came across a guy that refurbishes old Hammond organs, and first thing he does is replace all the old wax capacitors. He says it makes a big difference in the sound. And we're talking in the amplifier sections too, not just the tone generation section. Anything before the early 70's for sure has capacitors they need replacing, even if it appears to still be working ok.
And if we bring up speakers, there's the foam problem. The foam surround on speakers slowly deteriorates, whether used or not (it's an enviromental problem) and only lasts 5-15 yrs. depending on the quality of the foam. Now the speakers will still work if the foam has become "crumbly" and is falling out, but they won't sound as good and you risk damaging the speakers. And the better the quality of the speaker, the more likely it will become damaged. The better quality speakers had tighter tolerances in the voice coils. One of the purposes of the foam surround is to center the voice cone in the voice coil. When the foam crumbles away, it can then start rubbing. Besides the obvious distortion, it can also cause the wires to wear and short or burn out.
If the speakers cost under $100, throw them away when the sound quality is below what you are willing to listen to, and get some new ones. If they were more expensive, doing a search on google for foam surround, will give you any number of places to get kits, looks like $20-30 per two speakers, or places that will do the work for you, $25-40 per each speaker plus shipping. Sure you could buy a replacement speaker to put in the old cabinet, but unless you know speaker design or don't care how it will sound, or can get an exact replacement (too expensive) don't bother.
So yeah, the old stuff can still sound great compared to the new all digital transitor stuff, but it has to be maintained. And anybody with tape recordings or old photographs or slides, that stuff is deteriorating on you. Especially old photographic slides. There is all kinds of stuff like molds and funguses that like to eat the emulsions on them. And Kodak on their orignal color slides messed up and the chemicals were wrong, so anything from .... um, 40's or maybe it was 50's, has long since been ruined. Maybe digital isn't perfect, but as long as it is stored on proper media, and it has to be the proper media, it won't deteriorate.
And as long as we were talking about old equipment, you guys are aware that the capacitors degrade over time. Some of the capacitors were made with wax paper, and the electorlytics have chemical solutions that dry out. They may still work, but the first thing to go is the high end. Came across a guy that refurbishes old Hammond organs, and first thing he does is replace all the old wax capacitors. He says it makes a big difference in the sound. And we're talking in the amplifier sections too, not just the tone generation section. Anything before the early 70's for sure has capacitors they need replacing, even if it appears to still be working ok.
And if we bring up speakers, there's the foam problem. The foam surround on speakers slowly deteriorates, whether used or not (it's an enviromental problem) and only lasts 5-15 yrs. depending on the quality of the foam. Now the speakers will still work if the foam has become "crumbly" and is falling out, but they won't sound as good and you risk damaging the speakers. And the better the quality of the speaker, the more likely it will become damaged. The better quality speakers had tighter tolerances in the voice coils. One of the purposes of the foam surround is to center the voice cone in the voice coil. When the foam crumbles away, it can then start rubbing. Besides the obvious distortion, it can also cause the wires to wear and short or burn out.
If the speakers cost under $100, throw them away when the sound quality is below what you are willing to listen to, and get some new ones. If they were more expensive, doing a search on google for foam surround, will give you any number of places to get kits, looks like $20-30 per two speakers, or places that will do the work for you, $25-40 per each speaker plus shipping. Sure you could buy a replacement speaker to put in the old cabinet, but unless you know speaker design or don't care how it will sound, or can get an exact replacement (too expensive) don't bother.
So yeah, the old stuff can still sound great compared to the new all digital transitor stuff, but it has to be maintained. And anybody with tape recordings or old photographs or slides, that stuff is deteriorating on you. Especially old photographic slides. There is all kinds of stuff like molds and funguses that like to eat the emulsions on them. And Kodak on their orignal color slides messed up and the chemicals were wrong, so anything from .... um, 40's or maybe it was 50's, has long since been ruined. Maybe digital isn't perfect, but as long as it is stored on proper media, and it has to be the proper media, it won't deteriorate.
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