the Interceptor's general AUDIO thread

73GMCSprint said:
I don't have any personal experience with them but ELAC in general is very well-regarded.

Before I decided to go with powered monitors ELAC was definitely on my list of possible options.

If you go with them I'm definitely curious to know what you think of them.
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narf said:
Oh no doubt, small German companies with a long and illustrious history aren't known for "cheap". I'm sure you'll get a good product, no clue if it matches your idea of value for money.
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Thanks both, I'm thinking of treating myself around Christmas. I have a PC to build first. The TEACs are good when working perfectly but I need to at least attempt to pinpoint the problems I'm getting. I would consider the price of these ELAC speakers good if they are as good as people say they are, I was willing to pay Klipsch prices, after all.

If it turns out that the amp is at fault I'll take it to Mend It Mark for a thorough service, Mark isn't far from me and has a YouTube channel repairing vintage audio gear. I'll probably take that Sony tape deck I bought too so he can look at replacing the broken head. There was one other thing I was thinking about taking to him but I can't remember what it is now...
 
I’ll believe any of the “better than CD” bullshit when I see the specs. Looks like it uses a normal record player to play it, surely a majority of those are going to be the limit of quality?

Vinyl records have aged well, the resin they’re using as a lacquer had better be good to last as long.
 
Decided to give my Braun A1 a service last week and to see if I could fix the problem with the record input selection. I also took the lids off the tuner, cassette and CD player to check them over and get some photos of the circuit boards.

This is inside the A1, no date markings on the very few chips in here so I don't know exactly when it was made. The issue is with


The issue with the record input selector is down to the mechanism that transfers the rotation of the knob to the sliding of the contacts. It uses a metal band with holes punched in it, which is moved by a gear. It skipped a tooth on that for some reason, the contacts then reach the end of their travel too early and the plastic gears skip a couple of teeth. I fixed it but it went bad again shortly after.

If anyone knows where I can get a replacement Matsushita part, please let me know. There's nothing on eBay at the moment. It's a very easy swap if I have the part.

Inside the T2 tuner. More chips here as this is a digital tuner, dated 1985.


C1 cassette. Few chips again but the motors are labelled 1980. I love this old circuitry, especially when it still works.


Finally the CD3 CD player


Some Sony chips here, all chips dated 1985 again.


As I now knew this fault with the amp was essentially unfixable without a new part, I re-cabled everything so that the IMIX now does all of the switching. I cut out my label cover so I could see the selection lights, as I now needed them. Output labels were stuck to little bits of magnetic material.

 
I finally got my ELAC speakers set up, later than expected. One had a faulty tweeter and had to go back to be fixed. Worth waiting for though.

Ignore all the crap on the desk.


I moved my old speakers down to my storage cubes, just above the new sliding door things I fitted. Now I've always wondered but never bothered to ask - is this a left or right speaker? Does it matter? I've always had the tweeters on the outside, if they even work.
 
It's for your own safety. Every bit of junk has a story, If I told you them all you'd brain yourself on on the nearest wall before I finished. :p
 
I got a banging stereo for me tunes! It’s a Grundig R210 reciever with matching CD player and cassette deck. I probably will never use the cassette player but do what. This was built around the time Grundig was bought out so it wasn’t made in Germany, but Portugal. Still works fine. 🥰

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Not sure how I missed this. The system is a nice quirky design of its time, that remote is a beast too. The train is great but the reflection really makes this picture. :D
 
Matt2000 said:
Not sure how I missed this. The system is a nice quirky design of its time, that remote is a beast too. The train is great but the reflection really makes this picture. :D
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:D

I got batteries for the remote and adjusting volume moves the dial on the receiver. Love that.
 
Some more ELAC love on this thread, I just ordered a pair of UB5s. I've never spent so much on a set of speakers and I feel somewhat guilty for it. I've been debating over this for some time and it really is time to upgrade from the $80 speakers I bought fifteen years ago. These speakers will migrate to the receiver and replace even worse Polks.
 
Because of whatever spring sale shenzhenaudio was having, I ordered one of these for the office (SMSL AD18). I still have a kit for DIY bookshelf speakers somewhere in the basement that I have to build (example pic below, my cabinets will look quite a bit different though), so those will go on the desk to be driven by this little box. Anything else would be overkill, really, and the bluetooth source means I can easily switch between my desktop PC and the work laptop without too much faff. I trust the DAC in there is also a bunch better than the onboard crap in my PC, so I'm quite happy about the digital inputs. No idea how the unit handles headphones (having to pull the plug to get the speakers to work would be annoying), but I have another source for the headphones that I could switch to anyway.

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Vette Boss said:
Make sure you have space for the power brick to keep cool, it's pretty big and annoying.
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Yeah that’s the biggest drawback of those small units… I know it’s cheaper as well, but come on, just stuff the psu in there please! If the unit is so small that the connectors barely fit on the back (sometimes they don’t…), then it’s fine to make the unit just a little bit smaller.
 
eizbaer said:
Yeah that’s the biggest drawback of those small units… I know it’s cheaper as well, but come on, just stuff the psu in there please! If the unit is so small that the connectors barely fit on the back (sometimes they don’t…), then it’s fine to make the unit just a little bit smaller.
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Fosi Audio and maybe others sell similar amps with the psu built-in, but they cost more.
 
73GMCSprint said:
Having a divorced power supply can separate electrical noise from the system too.
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While that is technically true, it’s probably more relevant for the high price audiophile system rather than a little 120€ box that comes with a laptop PSU, right? 😜
 
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