Sned

It's funny how you turn up and stand in defence of TSA. Very similar to when I was verbally attacked by someone with a vested interest in TSA on another audio forum. Took the advice of using a proxy? Steven from TSA was arrogant enough to send an email to the NSW Department of fair trading stating that the amp complied with all applicable Australian standards. One of the basics of electrical standards is the protection against direct contact. Unless he put a magical coating on the amp to stop direct contact.

***BUMP***

Hi All Just trying to identify the attached amp. It was removed from a reel to reel by another party. Hoping to find schematics/service manuals. Thanks

Definitely after the M7 or M8. I think M9 onwards became solid state.

Looking for an Akai M7 or M8 to use as hi-fi. Hoping to get a complete unit or mono blocks working. Thanks for looking.

Tesla I actually contacted Roy as it is a VTA Preamp. He was really helpful, sent me through all the schematics and answered all my questions. I didn't buy the preamp directly from him so it was really appreciated.

As a follow on, if you have built electrical equipment with TSA and you don't feel that it is safe, it would be worth reporting this to the NSW Department of Fair Trading. The potential for someone to get fatally hurt is very high with this type of electrical equipment if it isn't compliant with Australian Standards. Think about any time you have been to a reputable electrical/electronics retailer. When have you ever seen internal wiring on a piece of equipment, no matter which way you turn it. You should require a tool to get access.

LOL. You could lose the test finger in there.

Hey all, bit of a follow up on Tube Sound Audio So in a back flip he has decided that my preamp does comply with Australian Standards even though there is no protection from direct contact underneath. He was even clever enough to put this on a company letter head to the NSW Depeartment of Fair Trading. Let's be perfectly honest, there is no way exposed terminals will ever comply. This is one of the very basic levels of electrical protection. Ensuring that there is no chance of direct contact with live terminals. Ironically he has offered to fit a cover to the bottom of the preamp as a "gesture of good faith". The timber cover would enclose the 2 large heat sinks. With this fitted there would be absolutely no air flow and eventually the components would be destroyed. Let's face it, heat isn't a magical entity that just disappears. This is an extremely dangerous attitude to electrical equipment, especially due to the fact it is aimed at people who don't have electrical/electronics experience. To top it off I was told I was in his workshop for 8 hours apparently i had ample opportunity to assess appropriateness of materials. So from this am I to engineer my own amplifier? Lets be honest, I didn't finish the amplifier in 8 hours and was completed by TSA. Whereabouts does TSA take responsibility for there poor actions? Just to add to the irony, TSA had the preamp for another 3 days before dispatch. In this time he couldn't even make the attenuation pots line up to the laser etching. It also makes me wonder what else he missed in the final check over. In this episode with TSA I have been accused of Making threats but when i asked what the threats were I didn't get a response I have been threatened with legal action for posting my "experience" with TSA The Managing Director has no electrical qualifications and this is evident in the design of this preamp enclosure. Again I emphasise my initial warning about TSA. I would like to finish with what I believe sums up the after sales service you receive from TSA "Perhaps you are suffering what is commonly referred to as buyer’s remorse? I suggest you prescribe yourself a bunch of therapeutic listening time and remind yourself of what a fine amp you’ve made. "

Just a bit of a laugh. To sort the issue of the laser etching not lining up he has offered me his 12 month old preamp as a replacement for my brand new preamp. Ironically, this one doesn't have laser etching and also doesn't comply with Australian standards. I have also been offered a refund which I think I'll take. I have tried to sort out the issues, but when asking basic design questions about how he intended to enclose the under side with out cooking it he got upset and proceded to lecture me about the heat generated by the tubes. Concern was the components underneath. Anyways, pretty disappointed.

Hi all Just a bit of a warning about a guy in the Blue Mountains going by the name of Tube Sound Audio. He sells himself as being very high quality. I went to his "Amp Camp" to build his SP14. Please don't get me wrong, he did alot of things correct, but there are a couple of major issues I would like people to be aware of. Firstly his quality control. The whole reason I went to his amp camp was for the finish which i explained to him before hand. I could have ordered the VTA SP14 kit from the US which would have been a lot cheaper but not the timber finish. I'm a licenced electrician by trade and Senior Electrical Site Engineer for a large company. As you can see below, the laser etching for the volume pots don't line up by a fair bit. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to finish the pre amp and this wasn't obvious until it was posted to me after the camp and the knobs were attached. His time estimation of 1 day was a bit lean. A quote from an email. "In the case of your SP14 this also included dual handmade mono stepped ladder attenuators constructed on beautiful Japanese switches using very fine tolerance resistors." was part of a baffle with bull email he sent rather than ring me. The attenuators are using fine tolerance resistors, BUT he decided to use Jaycar resistors (the packet was still sitting on the bench) to modify the attenuators characteristics. Will have to work out what he has done now. My biggest concern though is the electrical safety side of things. There is no bottom attached to the chassis, leaving 240V AC supply and the stepped up side of the transformer exposed, which i haven't checked the voltage yet. When asked about the IP2X of the chassis he cut me off on the phone and hung up. There is a high potential to kill someone. Even if you have RCD's there are a lot situations where they won't protect you. I have asked him on the phone and in writing about the safety of the preamp which he blatantly avoided. And to show his attitude towards his customers he signed off his email as following. "Perhaps you are suffering what is commonly referred to as buyer’s remorse? I suggest you prescribe yourself a bunch of therapeutic listening time and remind yourself of what a fine amp you’ve made. Cheer up!" Got to love condescending. I don't believe he has any electrical qualifications at all. He has no understanding of the Australian Electrical Standards or Certification for electrical equipment but the NSW department of fair trading. IMHO he is woodworker who can put together amp kits from the US. As he is the OEM I have requested a copy of the Certificate of suitability from the NSW Department of Fair Trading for the preamp. This should be interesting. For your safety, please DO NOT go to Amp Camp. I believe he preys on people who have no idea about electrical equipment and likes to use BIG fluffy audio jargon. Buy the kit from VTA. At least you know the chassis is complete and you get support from them.

Hey all Again thanks for all the help. Ordered some new tweeters and capacitors. Turned out one of the capacitors on the tweeter had failed as well as a failed tweeter on the other. Capacitors shouldn't look like this.

Thanks Clayton. That's good to know. Will save me going round in circles. I'm away for work for the next week unfortunately. I'll try to order a pair of SB Acoustics this week.

Hey everyone. Thankyou all for your posts. I'll let you know how I go.

Clayton Thanks mate. That's a huge help. I'm going to do a bit more research. 1 tweeter is definitely dead as it is open circuit. The other is 6.5ohms which I believe is good. What I have noticed is that it is nearly a dead short across the positive and negative of the tweeter cables on both speakers and both tweeters were definitely dead. My suspicion is that there is dead caps as well. If I'm correct is this a common cause of tweeter failure? Again thanks for such quick responses.

Darryl, That's a bit embarrassing for me. I forgot to check the basics. Neither of the tweeters are working. Thank you. Is this a common thing with Aaron speakers? Is it the speakers die? Again, thank you for reading.

Hey all, looking for a bit of advice please. I have a set of Aaron ATS-3's connected to a Marantz SR7500. I bought the speakers second hand and are aethestically spotless and don't believe have been messed with. The set also comprised of CC-120 centre and SUB-120. What I have found though is the ATS-3's sound very flat an have only realised the CC-120 centre had been covering for the ATS-3's. The speakers are approximately 15 years old. I have attached a set of marantz LS810's to the same channels and these sound great. Due to the age would the best place to start be new caps? If so would I be best to get OEM Aaron or is there better replacements? I'm not out to spend a fortune but would like to get them sounding a lot better. Thanks for reading.

Get everyone. Thanks for all the posts. I've got a lot to digest.

Hey All Hoping someone can direct me towards some decent background theory on valve amps. Especially in regards to valve operation and selection/compatability between power amp and line preamp. I'm an electrician by trade so I have a basic understanding of electrical theory. Thanks in advance

Hi All Just joined. Always enjoyed music and looking to improve my setup and also my ear. Really interested in valves and jazz records. Electrician by trade and now a control systems engineer.