Need a speaker amp

[Aereldor]

So I've got two old Pioneer CD-60 cabinet speakers, 8 ohms, and I need an amp to power them. Something cheap - $20-50. Catch is I'm in India right now, and the only sites that have stuff are 

 

www.amazon.in

 

www.flipkart.com

 

Any recommendations?

[Pixel5]

honestly given the low budget and that you are in india you probably gotta take whatever you can find on the used market for that price.

[The Flying Sloth]

Nah, you can quite easily get one of those single PCB TI amplifier chips in that price range, they're not great but they do the job well enough

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=fosi+amplifier&crid=X27W3BB0LPN&sprefix=fosi+amp%2Caps%2C277&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_8

Yeah the fosis were my go-to cheap amps in the US but they don't exist in India

[geo3]

2 hours ago, Aereldor said:

Yeah the fosis were my go-to cheap amps in the US but they don't exist in India

They do carry this one: https://www.amazon.in/Fosi-Audio-Bluetooth-Integrated-Amplifier/dp/B07BQC7GNL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=fosi+audio&qid=1612916523&sr=8-1

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, geo3 said:

They do carry this one: https://www.amazon.in/Fosi-Audio-Bluetooth-Integrated-Amplifier/dp/B07BQC7GNL/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=fosi+audio&qid=1612916523&sr=8-1

Nice but also like $300. At this point I'm considering paying $100 for the $30 Lepai 2020ti amp (import fees smh)

[geo3]

Looks like Fosi can ship to India if you order from their site. Might be worth a look. Seems shipping is free if you choose the slow option. 15-30 days.

[Aereldor]

5 minutes ago, geo3 said:

Looks like Fosi can ship to India if you order from their site. Might be worth a look. Seems shipping is free if you choose the slow option. 15-30 days.

I might give it a shot at this point, but stuff tends to get stuck in customs here without a commercial license. There, it can get lost, stolen, or 'destroyed', so it's always a huge gamble. Thanks for the share though

[H713]

At that price, go used. You could at least get something for that price. I don't know what things are like in India, but sometimes you can find older 1990s 2-channel receivers for that sort of price. They won't be anything special, but I've played with a few of those Lepai amps and the distortion and power output was extremely disappointing.

 

Otherwise, a chip amp board based around the TDA7293 or LM3886 would be your best bet. There's going to be a little bit of DIY involved, but nothing too complicated. 

 

 

[Aereldor]

6 hours ago, H713 said:

At that price, go used. You could at least get something for that price. I don't know what things are like in India, but sometimes you can find older 1990s 2-channel receivers for that sort of price. They won't be anything special, but I've played with a few of those Lepai amps and the distortion and power output was extremely disappointing.

 

Otherwise, a chip amp board based around the TDA7293 or LM3886 would be your best bet. There's going to be a little bit of DIY involved, but nothing too complicated. 

 

It's looking like the only option. This is to replace my 1960s pioneer receiver, I already checked around for vintage stuff to no avail. 

[H713]

16 hours ago, Aereldor said:

 

It's looking like the only option. This is to replace my 1960s pioneer receiver, I already checked around for vintage stuff to no avail. 

What's the reason for replacing a 1960s / 1970s Pioneer receiver? Some of them were really pretty good. Specs aren't anything to write home about, but they were built well and I would take one any day over what you could get new for $50.

BTW, some of those older receivers had fantastic tuners in them, while the tuners in most receivers these days are a total afterthought. 

[Aereldor]

5 hours ago, H713 said:

What's the reason for replacing a 1960s / 1970s Pioneer receiver? Some of them were really pretty good. Specs aren't anything to write home about, but they were built well and I would take one any day over what you could get new for $50.

BTW, some of those older receivers had fantastic tuners in them, while the tuners in most receivers these days are a total afterthought. 

It's amazing... It's just broken.

[H713]

On 2/15/2021 at 3:22 AM, Aereldor said:

It's amazing... It's just broken.

Can you describe the fault? There's a decent chance it isn't too complicated a fix, if you're handy with a soldering iron. 

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, H713 said:

Can you describe the fault? There's a decent chance it isn't too complicated a fix, if you're handy with a soldering iron. 

I have two old Pioneer amps, both of them have similar problems.

 

On the newer one, after about an hour, the left channel loses 50% of its volume. Then it'll fix itself. Then about an hour later, the same happens to the right channel. Rinse and repeat. Only speaker channels marked 'B' work on this one. 'A' is completely shot.

 

On the older one, after a while, the right channel will just drop out completely after about 5 minutes. Only speaker channel 'A' works on this one. 'B' is completely shot.

 

 

[H713]

21 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

I have two old Pioneer amps, both of them have similar problems.

 

On the newer one, after about an hour, the left channel loses 50% of its volume. Then it'll fix itself. Then about an hour later, the same happens to the right channel. Rinse and repeat. Only speaker channels marked 'B' work on this one. 'A' is completely shot.

 

On the older one, after a while, the right channel will just drop out completely after about 5 minutes. Only speaker channel 'A' works on this one. 'B' is completely shot.

Thermal issues- those are always fun to troubleshoot. Unfortunately there are quite a few things that can be the problem. Given the age, caps are a likely culprit, though sometimes these things can have transistor problems as well. I want to say the part number is the 2SC458 that gets noisy and intermittent with age, but there are others as well. If you know of a local tech who will still work on this stuff, that may be worthwhile. I don't know how hard it is to find people who will work on older amplifiers in India, or how expensive it would be. I know that in the US, there aren't many people who will work on them, and most who will are engineers who enjoy working on this stuff in their free time.

 

If you want to have a go at fixing it yourself, here's some resources:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTN8got77QeKPFRmTJ0teg

 

Otherwise, your best bet is probably one of those LM3886 / TDA7293 modules, unless you can find something on the used market.

 

[Aereldor]

3 minutes ago, H713 said:

Thermal issues- those are always fun to troubleshoot. Unfortunately there are quite a few things that can be the problem. Given the age, caps are a likely culprit, though sometimes these things can have transistor problems as well. I want to say the part number is the 2SC458 that gets noisy and intermittent with age, but there are others as well. If you know of a local tech who will still work on this stuff, that may be worthwhile. I don't know how hard it is to find people who will work on older amplifiers in India, or how expensive it would be. I know that in the US, there aren't many people who will work on them, and most who will are engineers who enjoy working on this stuff in their free time.

 

If you want to have a go at fixing it yourself, here's some resources:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChTN8got77QeKPFRmTJ0teg

 

Otherwise, your best bet is probably one of those LM3886 / TDA7293 modules, unless you can find something on the used market.

 

Thanks, that was very informative. I don't trust the local technicians to fix this stuff, even in their broken state the amps have sentimental value. But I'll see what I can do!