A friend of mine past away leaving me with his stereo system. 1) set of antique sounds usa model 108 mono amps 2) Van Alstine super PAS 4isl preamp 3) A custom set of Icon Lumen speakers 4) set of design acoustics PSSW subwoofers. What I didn't see was how everything went together. He had everything hooked up to it Dvd, cd, tv, cass deck,etc. I have the amps and speakers hooked up but, my question is that how does every thing else tie in. The preamp seems to control the sound volume. Is it possible to hook up my old system that has everything on it to these mono amps without blowing something up?
5 posters
Hooking up system
sKiZo- Posts : 1530
Join date : 2013-04-01
Location : Michigan USA
- Post n°2
Re: Hooking up system
Start with the easy stuff ... get everything when you want it, and plug it in.
Next up is the speakers. Did you get wire with those? Main thing is to make sure you match the impedance. That should be marked on the back of the speaker boxes - 4, 8, or 16 ohm usually. The taps on the back of the amplifiers should also be marked. Also, most wires will have either a white line, plus signs, or a raised ridge to denote which one goes to red or black on the connectors. The marked one is red or positive, the smooth wire is negative or black.
Hook your preamp OUT to your amplifier IN.
Hook your turntable to the phono inputs. I didn't see a turntable listed in your post, but the Van Alstine is supposed to have a killer phono stage and you'll want to enjoy that. Right channel is red.
From here, it gets a bit more flexible. You can hook any one of your other source components (CD, etc) to any one of the LINE INPUT jacks. Right channel is once again red. Hook them up one at a time, flip the switch to that input, and test each one as you go.
Nice stuff ... have fun with it, and don't forget to give your friend a heaven sent "thumbs up" after every session ...
Next up is the speakers. Did you get wire with those? Main thing is to make sure you match the impedance. That should be marked on the back of the speaker boxes - 4, 8, or 16 ohm usually. The taps on the back of the amplifiers should also be marked. Also, most wires will have either a white line, plus signs, or a raised ridge to denote which one goes to red or black on the connectors. The marked one is red or positive, the smooth wire is negative or black.
Hook your preamp OUT to your amplifier IN.
Hook your turntable to the phono inputs. I didn't see a turntable listed in your post, but the Van Alstine is supposed to have a killer phono stage and you'll want to enjoy that. Right channel is red.
From here, it gets a bit more flexible. You can hook any one of your other source components (CD, etc) to any one of the LINE INPUT jacks. Right channel is once again red. Hook them up one at a time, flip the switch to that input, and test each one as you go.
Nice stuff ... have fun with it, and don't forget to give your friend a heaven sent "thumbs up" after every session ...
sKiZo- Posts : 1530
Join date : 2013-04-01
Location : Michigan USA
- Post n°3
Re: Hooking up system
Part two ...
If you do decide to use your existing system to drive the amps, you didna mention what you've got, but that's usually easy enough. Not familiar with the amps ... do those have volume controls?
I currently drive a McIntosh MC2205 amp off a tape loop on my Sansui quad. Basically cabled from the tape out on the Sui to one tap of a "Y" connector, then another cable returning to the Sui to complete the loop. The "Y" connector is then plugged into the back of the amp.
I used hard "Y"s, but the cabled types work just as well.
If the amps don't have volume controls, then you use your receiver to control the system volume. MOST of them do control the level from the tape loops, but not all ... one way to find out. If your receiver volume control doesn't work for the external amps, just add the preamp to the loop. I'd think that would be the better way to go anyway as that allows you to tweak the signal level to the amps and match it to your system for better sound quality.
If you do decide to use your existing system to drive the amps, you didna mention what you've got, but that's usually easy enough. Not familiar with the amps ... do those have volume controls?
I currently drive a McIntosh MC2205 amp off a tape loop on my Sansui quad. Basically cabled from the tape out on the Sui to one tap of a "Y" connector, then another cable returning to the Sui to complete the loop. The "Y" connector is then plugged into the back of the amp.
I used hard "Y"s, but the cabled types work just as well.
If the amps don't have volume controls, then you use your receiver to control the system volume. MOST of them do control the level from the tape loops, but not all ... one way to find out. If your receiver volume control doesn't work for the external amps, just add the preamp to the loop. I'd think that would be the better way to go anyway as that allows you to tweak the signal level to the amps and match it to your system for better sound quality.
DarthBubba- Posts : 88
Join date : 2012-05-05
- Post n°4
Re: Hooking up system
Your friend had unique tastes, to say he least. Nothing mainstream here.hawkeye9255 wrote:A friend of mine past away leaving me with his stereo system. 1) set of antique sounds usa model 108 mono amps 2) Van Alstine super PAS 4isl preamp 3) A custom set of Icon Lumen speakers 4) set of design acoustics PSSW subwoofers.
I think some clear, close-up pictures of the back sides of all the equipment would be a good place to start. That way we could give you the exact names of which connectors to, erm, connect.hawkeye9255 wrote:What I didn't see was how everything went together. He had everything hooked up to it Dvd, cd, tv, cass deck,etc. I have the amps and speakers hooked up but, my question is that how does every thing else tie in. The preamp seems to control the sound volume. Is it possible to hook up my old system that has everything on it to these mono amps without blowing something up?
Best...
hawkeye9255- Posts : 3
Join date : 2013-09-04
- Post n°5
Re: Hooking up system
Having trouble posting pic's to a reply.... any hints?
Bob Latino- Admin
- Posts : 3259
Join date : 2008-11-26
Location : Massachusetts
- Post n°6
Re: Hooking up system
Check out the sticky post at the link below on how to post a photo on the Dynaco Tube Audio Forum.
How to post a photo on the Dynaco Tube Audio Forum
Bob
How to post a photo on the Dynaco Tube Audio Forum
Bob
sKiZo- Posts : 1530
Join date : 2013-04-01
Location : Michigan USA
- Post n°7
Re: Hooking up system
Post pics?
hawkeye9255- Posts : 3
Join date : 2013-09-04
- Post n°8
Re: Hooking up system
Thanks for the help everyone. I'll be in touch with maybe some pic's and results. Right now just going to stumble thru it LOL. Again thanks!
ruffian- Posts : 43
Join date : 2010-02-26
- Post n°9
Re: Hooking up system
This portion of your question can be accomplished two different ways depending on your equipment: 1) If your existing system has a tape out, patch that to any of the line inputs on the preamp. Your existing system at that point becomes a source to the new one. Volume control is on the preamp. 2) If your existing system (I assume is a receiver) has clips between the pre and power sections you can remove them and attach the pre outs to your monoblocks. In this case your receiver will do volume control duty, and any of your late friends sources can also be attached to your receiver, assuming it has available inputs.hawkeye9255 wrote: Is it possible to hook up my old system that has everything on it to these mono amps without blowing something up?
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