Great deal on a 6 channel amp

by **samgreco** on Sat Oct 28, 2006 6:55 pm

rembetis

Have you been able to test the amp without the pre to verify that the crossover is in the pre? There have been amps for these kind of proprietary designs that have had rudimentary filters (crossovers) built into them.

At $20 +shipping, I suppose it doesn't matter

But I'm thinking about buying 6 (or more?) of them.

by **rembetis** on Sat Oct 28, 2006 7:13 pm

samgreco wrote:Have you been able to test the amp without the pre to verify that the crossover is in the pre?

No, I have not. To do that, I will need to make my own RCA > DIN cable as the 6CH Din is the only input on this thing. I do plan to do this, within a couple weeks, but I have to order some parts. In any case, the manual gives every indication ("flat from DC to beyond 20Hz", "Harmonic Distortion: <.05% @ 10Hz to 20kHZ, 6 x 30W") that the amp is flat, and the low/high passes are in the preamp.

by **sharp_1** on Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:21 pm

Ordered 2 of these amps yesterday...will keep you all posted.

Still wonder if anyone knows is winamp will output in mono...I want to use one channel in mono as a zone???

EDIT: After digging around a bunch on winamp I was able to find a plugin called "Somewhat Mono" now I'm getting excited...looks like my plan is coming together!!!

EDIT: Just started playing with the kx driver...it has a built in mono mixer which can be routed to any channel you want from an instance of winamp. No need for the winamp mono plugin if you don't want.

by **twentyeight7** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 12:18 pm

yes winamp has a simple check box to output mono

Chris

by **sharp_1** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:33 pm

twentyeight7 wrote:yes winamp has a simple check box to output mono

Chris

I am almost embarrassed to ask...where can I find the mono selection, can you point me to it? I haven't been able to find it in the help menu/forums/prefs. Thanks!!!

by **scottw** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:12 pm

sharp_1 wrote:
twentyeight7 wrote:yes winamp has a simple check box to output mono

Chris

I am almost embarrassed to ask...where can I find the mono selection, can you point me to it? I haven't been able to find it in the help menu/forums/prefs. Thanks!!!

Try Preferences (Ctrl-P) > Plug-ins > Input > Double click on "Nullsoft MPEG Audio
Decoder..." > Decoder Tab > "Allow stereo output

Scott

by **sharp_1** on Mon Oct 30, 2006 2:24 pm

Thank you!!

by **scottw** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 1:28 am

Ok just got my amp yesterday and am having some trouble getting it to work, at all.

I got a message from the seller a few days ago saying he ran out of the power cables for the pre-amp, they look just like (if not) a telephone cable. He ordered some and a few days later shipped out the amp. I hooked everything up and the light on the amp came on but the pre-amp would not light and I had no sound. I had it hooked up to my laptop which I know works because I had it hooked up to my TV and heard the music. I was playing with the power cable for the pre-amp and if I took it out and then put it back in it would blink once for a second and then nothing. I was able to hold the cable a certain way, half in half out, and get the power light to come on but still had no sound.
Either way this really did not matter to me because I will not be using the pre-amp.
So first off before I start, let me tell you I am no electronics or audio expert so I am just going by what I know.
I want to use this as a 3 zone amp so I cut the end off of the supplied input cable which looks exactly like an S-video cable. It has what the instructions say, 6 colored wires and one bare/shield wire. So I cut the end off of an old set of RCA's I had and stripped the cover off the red/right one. I twisted all the little strands of the shield part all together and stripped the cover off of the inner wire. I connected the inner wire of the rca to the red wire off the input cable (should be channel 1)of the amp and connected the 2 shields together. I hooked up one old speaker I had to channel 1 of the amp. turned the amp on and started a song and got nothing. The light on the amp is on but no sound. :?:

Now at first I questioned the way I had it hooked up so I bypassed the amp and hooked the bare ends of the rca directly to the speaker and I heard the music.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!

by **sharp_1** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 2:18 am

scottw wrote:I got a message from the seller a few days ago saying he ran out of the power cables for the pre-amp, they look just like (if not) a telephone cable. He ordered some and a few days later shipped out the amp.

Just got mine (2) yesterday also. I saw your post and wanted to test the unit to make sure it worked, my unit failed to operate after initial setup also so I started troubleshooting with the obvious....THE INTERFACE POWER CORD...which looks about as DIY as it can look. So I took a 4 wire phone patch cord and used that instead, tada it WORKS!!! The power indicator light on the interface does not light up but the one on the amp does. My plan is not to use the interface at all but just wanted to test the amp to make sure it powers up and it does.

Good Luck with your project.

by **sharp_1** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:02 am

I was rummaging through my parts bin and noticed that a PS2 to DB9 then using a DB9 modular adaptor from the soundcard to the amp input may just be the answer to the input splicing issue with this 6ch amp.

by **scottw** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:03 am

Thanks Sharp,

This maybe a stupid question but is the input cable a standard S-video cable??

I am just trying to see if the amp itself is working. I popped the case and looked inside but did not want to touch anything. There are a few (3 I think) switches that I am not sure what they do. I am wondering it one of them are in the wrong position but I don't want to touch before I check.

Thanks,
Scott

by **scottw** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:13 am

sharp_1 wrote:So I took a 4 wire phone patch cord and used that instead, tada it WORKS!!! The power indicator light on the interface does not light up but the one on the amp does. My plan is not to use the interface at all but just wanted to test the amp to make sure it powers up and it does.

Good Luck with your project.

I tried that and it still did not work

by **rembetis** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:53 am

The light never came on for my preamp either, but it did work. I am in the process of making a 6 ch RCA > din cable and will report back if I get it working.

Scott, I suppose it's possible your preamp is busted but I would use it to test the amp again. Make sure your speaker cables are fully inserted into those tiny clips and screwed down tight, and that the polarity is correct. You also might want to check the gain knobs/screws on the back of the amp -- they should have been pre-set at the factory but I suppose it's possible they were turned way down.

Sorry to hear you're having such trouble...

by **Marbles_00** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:04 am

Scottw,

Rem, is correct that the gain levels might be set too low. Check those first.

As for the switch settings, maybe add more details of the switch positions, then someone who also has the amp can give you feedback on their switch positions and verify if they are correct.

For the power to the Preamp, I take it that, that is the RJ11 connection between the amp to the preamp? So the amp is supplying +/-15V to the preamp? You could take a multimeter and measure the DC voltage from the amp and verify that it is indeed sourcing +/-15 Volts, first at the amp, then at the end of the RJ11 cable.

Sorry, I can't be more helpful...I'm still waiting for etom56 to re-consider selling to Canada....239 of these amps...sitting there, they haven't moved very much in days. One would think that if you want to offload these, you would open up your market to more customers....no?

by **scottw** on Sat Nov 04, 2006 6:32 am

Thanks marbles,
I am at work now with the amp and don't have a meter here so I will check when I get home.
I attached a pic of the board, sorry it's a my Treo's camera so may not be that good. The switch on the left is switch all the way to the right and the switch on the left is switched up (according to the picture's layout):

I am starting to think the problem may be in the input cable and I will be able to check further once I get home.