A big mistake
September 30, 2004
I made a big mistake buying some equipment that I really
don't want or need and I'd like to get rid of it. What's the best way to sell off the
stuff without losing tons of money? Thank you for a good website.
J.P.
You could try advertising the equipment in your local
newspaper; if it's not too expensive you might have better luck there than anywhere else
because you'll have less competition. Second, there are sites like eBay and Audiogon.
You'll find lots of buyers, but there are lots of sellers, too, so you'll have to price it
right to attract some attention. Lastly, you could take it to a pawn shop if you really
need to sell it, but you'll lose a lot of what you invested by going that route.
Is balanced better?
September 28, 2004
I have read with interest discussions about balanced cables
and balanced components. Are they really better by design? What has been your experience
with them? I notice not too much affordable equipment has them.
Daryl
You'll find designers that endorse balanced electronic
design and ones that see it as unnecessary and expensive to implement. I have personally
owned and enjoyed both balanced and unbalanced gear, so generalizations about which is
best aren't warranted in my experience. A component does not have to be a balanced design
to have facilities for balanced XLR (balanced) cables, however. I can say that on a few
occasions I've squelched an annoying system hum by switching to XLR cables.
Porch speakers
September 24, 2004
I’m putting in speakers on the underside of my
wraparound porch. They won’t be directly exposed to the elements but will have to
deal with temperature and humidity. Do I need to be looking at an outdoor/marine speaker?
If so, can you make a recommendation?
Mike
Boy is your letter right on time! Next month we'll have
a review of Athena Technologies' first outdoor speaker. We've raved about their speakers
in the past -- but those were indoor models. Check back in on October 15th to see what we
think of the outdoor models.
Magic box for sub?
September 22, 2004
Thanks for your site and thanks for listening. Here is the
glitch: I have a passive subwoofer (Brendle BSS, 300W at 8 ohms) that I would like to
connect to a Pioneer VSX-C300 surround amp. Unfortunately, the output on the amp is for an
active sub. Mine is passive. Is there any (cheap) magic box I could insert between the amp
and the sub to make it work? Thanks a lot for your help.
Alain
What you need is a separate amplifier to drive the
subwoofer. I assume the power rating you quote in your question is the power-handling
capacity of the subwoofer, and if so, just about any decent solid-state amplifier should
work. What you would do is use the preamp outputs on the Pioneer to send the subwoofer
amplifier a full-range signal. If your subwoofer has a passive crossover built into it
you'll be set. If not, that raises another issue -- what will you do for a crossover? I'd
suggest, before buying a separate sub amp and an electronic crossover, you price a good
powered subwoofer. You might just come out cheaper and end up with better sound.
Unfortunately, your situation is one of those "can't get there from here"
scenarios.
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