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Josh Lyman posted:I went to ARC. Adam Beyer into Boris Brejcha into Eric Prydz on Friday was too good for me to pass up. I ran into a group going to ARC during Sunday breakfast and it sounds like it was insanely expensive considering it's a much smaller show. Was it worth it?
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Sep 10, 2023 06:28
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KillHour posted:I ran into a group going to ARC during Sunday breakfast and it sounds like it was insanely expensive considering it's a much smaller show. Was it worth it? Already got my ticket for next year, presale went up to $355. This year had 4 of my top 5 DJs: Eric Prydz, Boris Brejcha, Vintage Culture, and Miss Monique. HI-LO is the other DJ in my top 5 but was playing EZoo, but that festival might be dead after this year.  
Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 08:27 on Sep 10, 2023 |
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Sep 10, 2023 08:18
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Got a pair of Sony SSCS5s to use as my back surrounds and ohhhhhh poo poo Across the Spiderverse sounds sick as gently caress. *nervously looks at the tower speakers and anemic center*
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Sep 13, 2023 05:21
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Can anyone recommend a good RCA audio splitter? I need to be able to route the output of a phono preamp to both a four-channel mixer (that goes to my headphone amp) and the line-in of an external ADC (Schiit Jil) so I can listen to and rip vinyl records at the same time.
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Sep 15, 2023 19:01
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Localized question: Is Seattle some sort of retail audio desert? Or is it more of a general challenge everywhere to find a place that you can see/hear speakers in person before you buy? I’m trying to decide between KEF Q550 or 750s, or if I just want to save some money and go with Polk ES55/60s. Seems like there is no place within 200 miles that has the Polk, and only one place that has KEF Q950s, but no 5/7.
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Sep 16, 2023 17:18
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You’d think with all the 50-70 year old Microsoft and Amazon millionaires there would be a good market in the area. That said in the last few years KEF dropped both the main hifi shops here in SF and is only using Best Buy so they’ve changed their distribution. Their dealer locator has Hawthorne Stereo but most hifi shops would be more focused on the more expensive models.
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Sep 16, 2023 17:42
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Most of the old hifi and A/V shops in the northeast died out long ago too. The independent shops that are left mostly cater to the Herb Reichert/etc $10,000 cable crowd. Fond memories of running around Tweeter, Etc. as a kid huffing the ozone smell of a million receivers while my parents looked at DVD players
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Sep 16, 2023 18:38
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I ended up getting a pair of KEF Q750s. They sound and look amazing. Only downside is I still have a Sony SSCS8 center channel that puts me in the situation where music sounds drastically better in 2.1, but movies still sound better in 3.1. Having a center channel is just such a game changer for movies. I suppose I'll be forced to get a matching center channel KEF.
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Sep 21, 2023 16:42
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Just play music in 2.1? 
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Sep 21, 2023 17:10
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Wibla posted:Just play music in 2.1? Yup, just a pain as the configuration is buried in 6 levels of menus on my receiver.
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Sep 21, 2023 17:20
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Those KEFs are so much better than your center I bet you could get 2.1 movies sounding great.
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Sep 21, 2023 17:26
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qirex posted:Those KEFs are so much better than your center I bet you could get 2.1 movies sounding great. This or really unless you have a VERY weird receiver it should remember your sound mode by input and material type such that you should be able to set it in a non surround mode and never have to touch it again I do put on surround music from time to time when I want to be enveloped by sad bastard electronic music but mostly 2.1 sounds good. Also 2.0 sometimes sounds better to me (turning off audyssey). More content dependent than I would have thought, audyssey.
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Sep 21, 2023 17:34
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Sudden Loud Noise posted:I ended up getting a pair of KEF Q750s. They sound and look amazing. Only downside is I still have a Sony SSCS8 center channel that puts me in the situation where music sounds drastically better in 2.1, but movies still sound better in 3.1. Having a center channel is just such a game changer for movies. I suppose I'll be forced to get a matching center channel KEF. What receiver do you have/what do you use to play music and movies? 99% of music is in stereo, so your receiver should be automatically switching based on the source material.
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Sep 21, 2023 18:08
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I've got an Onkyo TX-SR393. Messing with configurations I've gotten it so regardless of whether I'm playing music through my turntable or AppleTV it will switch to 2.0 for music, but there isn't a way for it to switch to 2.1 without the aforementioned menu diving. I'll be happy with 2.0 for music for now.
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Sep 21, 2023 18:35
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This sounds counterintuitive but set your speakers to "small" and it will use the subwoofer in stereo. You can put the crossover frequency lower since you have towers.
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Sep 21, 2023 19:50
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Recently set up my audio system with two computers and a Roland MIDI synth feeding into three channels of a four-channel mixer, with the mixer output going into my headphone amp. I still need to set up my phono stage, but the fourth channel is XLR instead of RCA. Do I need to use phantom power, or can I just use an XLR to RCA adapter to run the phono preamp straight into the mixer?
Woolie Wool fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Sep 24, 2023 |
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Sep 24, 2023 08:00
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You should be able to use the mixers preamp to boost the input signals.
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Sep 24, 2023 08:45
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Woolie Wool posted:Recently set up my audio system with two computers and a Roland MIDI synth feeding into three channels of a four-channel mixer, with the mixer output going into my headphone amp. I still need to set up my phono stage, but the fourth channel is XLR instead of RCA. Do I need to use phantom power, or can I just use an XLR to RCA adapter to run the phono preamp straight into the mixer? What mixer, and how many inputs are you using for the RCA in? If you want to preserve the stereo information from the turntable, then you need to use two mono inputs and use the pan knob to put one input over to the left and the other to the right, or use a stereo TRS/TRRS input if the mixer has one. Also, *Do not use phantom power* except for mics that need it, you may damage something in the phono preamp if you do.
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Sep 24, 2023 09:40
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Mederlock posted:What mixer, and how many inputs are you using for the RCA in? If you want to preserve the stereo information from the turntable, then you need to use two mono inputs and use the pan knob to put one input over to the left and the other to the right, or use a stereo TRS/TRRS input if the mixer has one. It's a very basic Rolls mixer, the three RCA channels have two inputs (L and R) each, and there are no pan controls, just volume. The RCA inputs definitely preserve stereo information.
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Sep 24, 2023 16:27
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My old Yamaha receiver finally gave up the ghost and had intermittent HDMI-out disconnects so I got a Denon AVR-S570BT as a replacement. I'm running a pretty basic 5.1 with Polk RM8 speakers and a PSW10 sub. The first Denon I got seemed OK but after a day started crashing with a "Speaker Protection Mode" activation pretty consistently. The speakers were working and I didn't change anything from their previous functional set up. I tried some tests and the unit would trip even with the speakers unplugged and it smelled like burning electronics so I RMA'd it and got a replacement. The new unit had the same issue so now I feel like a dumbass. I went and replaced any speaker cables that had any possible connection issues and am hoping that will fix the issue. The other weird behavior I noticed is the speaker calibration procedure produced a white noise static type sound from the speakers as it went through the routine. I'm used to chirps or high pitch whoops so this seemed weird but it said the cal was successful and it initially worked so I didn't think anything of it. Any of this behavior sound like a specific root cause I need to address? e: For reference, the speakers are 8ohm impedence and the receiver says it can handle 6 - 16 so that should be OK. Salvor_Hardin fucked around with this message at 06:39 on Sep 30, 2023 |
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Sep 30, 2023 06:36
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White noise during speaker setup is normal. IDK about the rest of the problems.
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Sep 30, 2023 06:59
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Salvor_Hardin posted:My old Yamaha receiver finally gave up the ghost and had intermittent HDMI-out disconnects so I got a Denon AVR-S570BT as a replacement. I'm running a pretty basic 5.1 with Polk RM8 speakers and a PSW10 sub. I would crack open the speakers and check out the crossovers, see if there's anything obviously fried or like a capacitor with a big bulge. Even better if you have a multimeter, check for resistance across the positive and negative terminals of the crossover and see if it's way out of range
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Sep 30, 2023 07:34
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Is there a dedicated thread for CB Radios? Edit: I have no idea how I posted in this thread. Fat thumbs?
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Sep 30, 2023 12:50
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Fozzy The Bear posted:White noise during speaker setup is normal. IDK about the rest of the problems. OK thanks, that was one of my big concerns Mederlock posted:I would crack open the speakers and check out the crossovers, see if there's anything obviously fried or like a capacitor with a big bulge. Even better if you have a multimeter, check for resistance across the positive and negative terminals of the crossover and see if it's way out of range Cool, I can probably borrow a multimeter from work and take some resistance measurements if it comes down to that. Could also just get new speakers; these are like 11 years old.
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Sep 30, 2023 14:54
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If you like them and something is wrong with them you should look into repair. 11 years is really young for speakers. Edit: the youngest speakers I own are from 2006, oldest are 70s era hand me downs from my dad. aparmenideanmonad fucked around with this message at 00:11 on Oct 1, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2023 00:07
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Salvor_Hardin posted:OK thanks, that was one of my big concerns This might be obvious but make sure the speaker wire isn't shorted to the outside of the case or across the terminals.
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Oct 4, 2023 13:45
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I had a bizarre incident last night with my setup and was wondering if anyone would know what the hell is happening as google these days is pretty useless. My wife was watching a baseball game on her ESPN app on her iphone , and all of the sudden without any prompts or input my receiver in another room started playing game’s sound at ridiculous volume. The phone just decided to switch sound output by itself. Is it ghosts? I’m concerned that whatever is happening might just blow out my speakers if it happens again, besides it being weird, annoying and spooky.
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Oct 5, 2023 13:14
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My receiver did something weird and similar to that before. All I could tell is that there was some sort of error. I did a firmware update, and physically unplugged it and then factory reset it and I've not had that happen since
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Oct 5, 2023 14:29
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Hippie Hedgehog posted:IME, the most common reason for a speaker to get blown is not that the amp is overpowered. Sure, that can happen. The amp pushes/pulls the speaker element too far in/out, so it rips it apart. I think that's a pretty rare case though, as you'd normally hear "hm, this is starting to sound like poo poo, I'd better not crank it any louder". A good feedback process. The limit for when a speaker will be damaged by over-extension is what's usually labelled on the back of the speaker. Can someone recommend what I should look for to replace my current receiver to avoid this? It's a Denon AVR-1910, bought used purely on the basis that it was Denon. I know next to nothing about stereos like this, but I'd like to get something that can drive my speakers more safely. From reading the OP, I think my main requirements are pretty simple:
(The Denon has also started doing some weird things on power on lately, so I suspect it may require replacement sooner rather than later anyway - it starts up with "MAIN ZONE OFF" and has to be completely power cycled to resolve. That's why I say "replace" instead of "augment", if that would normally be more correct.)
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Oct 5, 2023 17:45
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Putrid Grin posted:I had a bizarre incident last night with my setup and was wondering if anyone would know what the hell is happening as google these days is pretty useless. My wife was watching a baseball game on her ESPN app on her iphone , and all of the sudden without any prompts or input my receiver in another room started playing game’s sound at ridiculous volume. The phone just decided to switch sound output by itself. What kind of phone, what kind of receiver?
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Oct 5, 2023 19:37
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Krakkles posted:$300 For that price, you won't get better than what you currently have. You will have to hit up the craigslist/facebook market place/whatever used market you have available and even then it probably won't be much better. Even if you were just doing 2.1 listening, you would have to jump up a lot in price more to beat out your current AVR in terms of power per channel. quote:I don't know how much to trust my speakers (Monitor Audio Bronze, two towers and a center channel, blew out the tweeters in the towers and replaced them with some random driver), so I'm not sure how much power I should be looking for. Or how to find it given it's largely marketing You probably won't break your tweeter again unless you consistently listen to something at 60% of your volume dial or whatever you had it set to when you first broke it. If you do listen that loud, then yea you will need more power. If that was just for testing purposes and not your usual listening volume then I wouldn't worry about it. If you do normally listen that loud and are worried about blowing out your tweeter again, turn it down and or sit closer  There are also some SPL calculators you can use to give you an idea of how loud you can go at your amp power and listening distance. But generally going from 90W to like 120W won't make an appreciable difference in how loud something can play, due to how the scaling works. CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Oct 5, 2023 |
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Oct 5, 2023 22:25
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:For that price, you won't get better than what you currently have. You will have to hit up the craigslist/facebook market place/whatever used market you have available and even then it probably won't be much better. That definitely drives me toward "hope this one isn't on the way out", but a) I'm open to suggestions and b) I'll certainly going to plan on upgrading if I get the chance (I.e. this one goes kaput). CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:You probably won't break your tweeter again unless you consistently listen to something at 60% of your volume dial or whatever you had it set to when you first broke it. If you do listen that loud, then yea you will need more power. If that was just for testing purposes and not your usual listening volume then I wouldn't worry about it. This is probably a dumb question, but if I get another set of towers and run them, would that greatly increase the perceived volume at a given volume setting? Would that worsen the power problem (split the available power amongst more channels) or make it better (lower the output level at which I get to my desired volume)? Thank you, and sorry for the complete lack of knowledge here 
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Oct 5, 2023 23:38
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Krakkles posted:Hypothetically - how much, and what should I be looking at? For 2.1? You could try a dac with a Fosi Audio V3 amp which can do 160W per channel, or up to 300W with the right power brick. Depending on the dac(and the inputs you need/want), you could swing that for 300bux. For 3.1 or higher? Haha time to pay up. Lots of power for multi channel sound gets stupid expensive. One of the less expensive AVRs with pre-outs is the Denon X3800H and that comes in at 1.6k USD. Maybe you can find something used that has pre-outs for some or all the channels, and even then you would need a separate amplifier so there's another cost to factor in. Depending on how old this used AVR is, it may not have the right inputs(hdmi, etc) that you use. Also note that even if an AVR has zone2 pre-outs, those can't be hooked up to a separate amp. Krakkles posted:I absolutely appreciate those suggestions, but they don't really work - it's in a garage that I frequently do work outside of, so closer isn't really an option, and while I don't normally turn it up quite that loud, but I like to be able to, if I'm working further away. I would assume that yes your power issues would be worse, especially near the limit, as most AVRs have a higher rated power limit for 2.1 compared to multiple/all channels driven. As for how much volume you would gain from running two sets of towers simultaneously? Best case scenario would be +3db(not much) but my only point of reference for this is from subwoofers. No idea how it would sound like either. Might be some weird cancellation or comb filtering going on, like a giant soundbar. Or maybe it will sound fine. Hopefully someone here has messed around with this and can give their experience. Comedy option: strap your towers on some car dollies and wheel them closer to you when you are outside
CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK fucked around with this message at 01:15 on Oct 6, 2023 |
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Oct 6, 2023 00:45
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Get a receiver that has zone 2 out and mount some outdoor speakers to the outside of your garage.
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Oct 6, 2023 01:21
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KillHour posted:Get a receiver that has zone 2 out and mount some outdoor speakers to the outside of your garage.
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Oct 6, 2023 03:01
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Mederlock posted:There's actually a huge domestic hifi scene in China that makes great products for the money, it might be worth looking into that. Skip out on all the expensive source devices and amps and such, but the speakers can be great. Here's one with an English facing site, I'm sure they have a Chinese facing side of their business as well. There are lots of others too but by virtue of not understanding the language I can't help you there. This is awesome, thanks. I figured there'd be something like this, but I didn't know anything about it or where to find out more. And thats dangerous when buying Chinese equipment. I've found a lot of things where there are some good Chinese brands but they're caught up in a sea of Chinese brands that are the worse things you could possibly ever buy and will break in ways you never would have expected.
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Oct 6, 2023 03:35
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If you don't need the latest audio features, just get a ~15 year, old top of the line receiver. For example, I have a Pioneer Elite SC-37, you should be able to get one for $200-300. 140 watts per channel, and with bi-amping, I can still go up to 5.1. The Monitor Audio Bronze tower speakers I looked at on their website support bi-amping.
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Oct 6, 2023 06:55
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Josh Lyman posted:I bought a used Hsu STF-2 subwoofer 3 years ago and it’s been great. It’s hooked up to the sub out on an old Sony 5.1 receiver. I think it died over the weekend while I was out of town. But then this morning, it was exhibiting the buzzing sound again even though I had turned it off into standby mode. Now that we're approaching holiday sales, I figure I should finally pull the trigger on a replacement. Based on thread recommendations when I first posted about this in August, for my medium size living room primarily listening to electronic music and some movies, the RSL Speedwoofer seems to be the best option under $500. However, would this Hsu VTF-2 MK5 be a better choice? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/607844504591223/ Spec wise the Hsu seems to be better, going down to 16Hz with 1 port open compared to 22Hz for the Speedwoofer, but I doubt any of the music I listen to is mixed to go that low, same for movies. Importantly, I would have no warranty. Does RSL ever run sales? Josh Lyman fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Oct 12, 2023 |
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Oct 12, 2023 17:40
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Josh Lyman posted:I was rearranging my living room a couple days ago and on a lark, I decided to plug the STF-2 in again and it worked! It was so lovely to get bass extension that had been missing from my music for a couple months. I was so happy to avoid spending $400-500... You sure it’s not like a grounding issue?
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Oct 12, 2023 17:49
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idk how technically inclined you are, but you may want to try contacting Hsu and see if they will sell you a replacement amp for your current subwoofer. Should be as simple as unscrewing the old plate amp on the back of the sub, disconnecting the positive and negative wires, connecting them to the new plate amp and screwing that one back on. Josh Lyman posted:Does RSL ever run sales? They do for their speakers or bundles with speakers and a sub. I don't think their subs go on sale. But RSL also sells refurb / B stock subwoofers with warranties.
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Oct 12, 2023 18:48
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