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The Dynaco Tube Audio Forum

Dedicated to the restoration and preservation of all original Dynaco tube audio equipment - Customer support for Tubes4hifi VTA tube amp and preamp kits and all Dynakitparts.com products


5 posters

    Hooking up system

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    hawkeye9255


    Posts : 3
    Join date : 2013-09-04

    Hooking up system Empty Hooking up system

    Post by hawkeye9255 Wed Sep 04, 2013 12:34 pm

    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?
    sKiZo
    sKiZo


    Posts : 1530
    Join date : 2013-04-01
    Location : Michigan USA

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    Post by sKiZo Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:39 pm

    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 ...
    sKiZo
    sKiZo


    Posts : 1530
    Join date : 2013-04-01
    Location : Michigan USA

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    Post by sKiZo Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:54 pm

    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.

    Hooking up system Tapeloop-mc2205

    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.
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    DarthBubba


    Posts : 88
    Join date : 2012-05-05

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    Post by DarthBubba Wed Sep 04, 2013 9:59 pm

    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.
    Your friend had unique tastes, to say he least.  Nothing mainstream here.

    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?
    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.

    Best...
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    hawkeye9255


    Posts : 3
    Join date : 2013-09-04

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    Post by hawkeye9255 Thu Sep 05, 2013 2:06 pm

    Having trouble posting pic's to a reply.... any hints?
    Bob Latino
    Bob Latino
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    Posts : 3259
    Join date : 2008-11-26
    Location : Massachusetts

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    Post by Bob Latino Thu Sep 05, 2013 3:53 pm

    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
    sKiZo
    sKiZo


    Posts : 1530
    Join date : 2013-04-01
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    Post by sKiZo Thu Sep 05, 2013 4:12 pm

    Post pics?

    Hooking up system Image016

    Hooking up system 7614cerback1
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    hawkeye9255


    Posts : 3
    Join date : 2013-09-04

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    Post by hawkeye9255 Fri Sep 06, 2013 12:30 pm

    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!
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    ruffian


    Posts : 43
    Join date : 2010-02-26

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    Post by ruffian Tue Sep 10, 2013 11:14 pm

    hawkeye9255 wrote: Is it possible to hook up my old system that has everything on it to these mono amps without blowing something up?
    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.

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