was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

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JR.
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

I just placed a $20 bid on ebay for a broken A/V receiver to use as an empty chassis... Shipping cost is a few times that, but worth it rather than ugly rats nest just for the jacks....

JR

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JR.
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

My hypex modules arrived today... they look too small and too light to be 6 channels of power amp with full power supplies.

It looks like class D is finally delivering on it's promise to be smaller, lighter, cheaper... (where were they a few decades ago?). There are probably cheaper amps out there, but it is not worth me even trying to do better than Bruno Putzey....

===

About one day left on my auction bid to buy a broken A/V receiver so we'll see...

Another project (maybe) coming together. 8-)

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by mediatechnology »

I have an old Denon integrated amp that I gutted the power amp boards out of.
Kept it for the switching, RCAs power supply and nice toroidal iron.
That sort of steers the project to a linear output.

You're inspiring me to revisit that old Denon.
I only need a few watts...

Good luck with your bidding.
I'm curious how the Hypex sound at low power.
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JR.
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

My camera sux at close shots but this is 4x70W of amp w/PS next to a 6" ruler.
4x70w.png
The 2x 30W is slightly smaller but not much, just chop an inch off the left side... that is the amp part apparently.

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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by mediatechnology »

You should have plenty of room in that AV receiver chassis.
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JR.
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

I just ordered a couple cable sets from Hypex... anyone following me down this road, order the cables at the same time as the modules to avoid expensive shipping charges. I wasted over an hour and killed a bunch of brain cells on digikey and only sourced one 2 circuit power connector before giving up.

===
The auction ends tonight and last I checked mine was the only bid... If any of the electronics inside still work that is icing on the cake.

JR

[edit- winner winner chicken dinner... won the auction. Shipping is 3x the unit cost but I can work with that... /edit]
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

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I got my basket case AV receiver, hypex modules, and wiring harness sets from hypex... running short on excuses.

The AV receiver is like 30#+ with big EI transformer, 5 1/4" fan, and big aluminum heat sink inside. I haven't been brave enough to plug it in yet, and may not yet. There is no visible rear panel fuse or circuit breaker. I see two fuses inside, both ohm out showing continuity. no easy fix there.

I am probably going to remove the amp heatsinks et all before even firing it up... There is a surprising amount of PC boards full of large scale ICs.. Ideally some of that front end still works. Since my cheap digital surround decoder kind of sux

This looks like it was serious back in the day with decent amp music power (onkyo or something like that).

JR
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

I just got another piece for the puzzle... an optical to 6 ch 5.1 decoder with master volume control. I have been used three cheap stereo amps and having to rebalance everything to tweak master volume.

I have been dragging my feet on gutting the old unit in hopes I could use it as a front end... now this is sorted.

The broken A/V has more bells and whistles than I can imagine using.
---

The new generation cheap 5.1 decoder has the low sub output issue sorted, earlier version was down 10 dB or so.

No mo excuses....

JR
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

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This sucker is proving harder to get apart than expected... lots of Phillips screw heads stripping out.

It powers up and front display looks fully functional but I wasted a half hour trying to get something from/thru it, before tearing into it. If I had the remote control it might be worth getting that to work, but long gone.

Lots of spare parts to keep this pack rat happy... It looks like copper screws (probably plated?) holding the power transistors to heatsink.

Power transformer out,,, one heavy rock. This was probably a nice unit when new.

Making progress but not as quickly as I would like.

JR
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Re: was HYPEX amps cheap surround system

Post by JR. »

Finally finished deconstruction and ready to connect some dots.

lots of room inside, and a surfeit of good speaker output jacks
DSCF0150.JPG
For now I will terminate the audio amp inputs to RCA and plug directly into the cheap 5.1 decoder (probably the weakest link) and subject to upgrade. I will make some passive attenuators to trim channel balance from my stash of 30+ YO 10k pots.

The market for bare bones 5.1 preamp front ends is pretty slim, but the recent one I just picked up is noticeably better than that old first generation one I was using. The added master volume control feature is useful and they fixed the weak sub output.

I could keep the fancy series output inductors on the old output jack PCB but shouldn't need them so probably not.

It will look better with the cover back on. I may try to repurpose the stripped down old front panel but probably not practical. KISS.

JR

PS: I have a huge pile of salvageable parts to pick through. Humpty will never go back together again, but lots of cool looking stuff. You can see the plastic tub sitting on the floor overflowing.

[edit The big black lumps on the output board are nice 24V relays... only 5 of them, even big dog AV receivers ASSume powered sub woofers /edit]

Disregard the snare drum, that is where I do final QA for drum tuners before I ship them.
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