Relocating inputs?

Does anyone have any experience moving the ST-70 inputs from the front to the rear? I'm thinking of doing this using insulated RCA plugs, leaving the original input jacks in place on the front panel for looks. The problem is the only suitable space on the rear of the chassis is on either side of the fuse jack and the power cord and I am concerned there may be noise issues associated with having the signal inputs next to the AC mains. I was thinking it may be possible to modify the plates the speaker jacks are connected with to make room for input jacks as another option.

Thanks

Phil

polarflux wrote:Does anyone have any experience moving the ST-70 inputs from the front to the rear? I'm thinking of doing this using insulated RCA plugs, leaving the original input jacks in place on the front panel for looks. The problem is the only suitable space on the rear of the chassis is on either side of the fuse jack and the power cord and I am concerned there may be noise issues associated with having the signal inputs next to the AC mains. I was thinking it may be possible to modify the plates the speaker jacks are connected with to make room for input jacks as another option.

Thanks

Phil

Hi Phil,

Yes - you can do this but now you will have a longer run of wire ... In order to avoid the input wires from picking up noise from the amp's circuitry, I recommend that you use shielded cable.

The other thing to consider is that in moving the input jacks to the rear, you may devalue the amp should you decide to sell it at a later date. Prospective buyers are sometimes suspicious of "upgraded" or "altered" Dynaco amps because are not always sure that the upgrades or alterations were executed properly.

If plugging directly into the front is an issue for you, then you could also consider right angle connectors as seen on Vic's ST-120 below. These allow you to run the interconnects along the front face of the amp.

Bob

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48990852@N08/

I do just that. I considered the same thing, but I found I actually prefer the look of the cables wrapping around to the back. Just me though. In the photos, my cables sweep around, but they are RG-6 and pretty stiff.

Well, I guess I've been talked out of it. I built some new interconnects that are more flexible and they are sort of cool looking, so I'm OK with them protruding from the front. The idea of running fat, shielded wires that might be difficult to work around does not sound that appealing to me. I have RF issues at my home and already experience too much noise in the signal (now mostly gone with the new interconnects), so not worth risking more. Thanks for talking me down.

Bob,

The ST-120 is GREAT so far with the replaced cap-can, Thanks for your help!

Related to this thread, I purchased some high-quality right angle RCA adapters. Is it okay if the outsides touch? I believe that these are both grounded sides of the RCA's of course, but any reason I'd want to keep these grounds isolated from each other? I see in the picture you posted they seem to be touching.

DavidNes wrote:Bob,

The ST-120 is GREAT so far with the replaced cap-can, Thanks for your help!

Related to this thread, I purchased some high-quality right angle RCA adapters. Is it okay if the outsides touch? I believe that these are both grounded sides of the RCA's of course, but any reason I'd want to keep these grounds isolated from each other? I see in the picture you posted they seem to be touching.

They can touch. The outer part of the adapters are the grounds and are common in the amp. If you install larger feet on the amp, you can run the RCA's under the amp and still use the right angle adapters. There will be no ill effects if they touch.
Here is another pic of my amp.



-Vic

I made a new set of RCA cables using Canare Starquad cable and Canare F-09 RCA plugs. The Star quad cable is really flexible and the RCA plugs are short enough that the combo bends nicely out of the way from the front of my amp. My old cables were so stiff that this was a problem. The new cables also reject noise nicely which was really the main reason I built them and they look very nice, too. The basic design for the cable can be found here along with a parts list:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61442

I added techflex and shrink wrap to my versions instead of using using the springy thing that comes with the RCA plugs.