Have Cool Equipment, Need Wiring Help

[Pik95]

So I haven't had a turntable setup since the 80's, and never Really had a good one. We were poor. I have always been into music and great sound. I love music and I am actually very handy.
Now that I have gotten the bug for vinyl again, I have gone a little nuts acquiring vintage equipment. I have had this stuff ready to go for a couple of months, but it's so good I'm scared to wire it wrong. I have been reading up, but it made it even worse. I could really use some help if anyone is out there. Corona has my local places closed.
Ok, so my first task (I think) is to figure out how to properly wire my 4ohm Thiel 2.3cs speakers. My amp is a B&Kst2140 (300W it says). So do I wire the speakers to the amp and not a receiver? The amp has spots for channel one (red and black) and channel three (red black) Do I just use one? Do I do parallel or the other method? Can I hookup a sub separately later? That's issue number one. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Leemix]

What receiver do you have, or pre-amp?
It would be good with a list of what you have and need to connect.

But yes the power amplifier should be connected by the red to the red(+) on the speaker and black to black(-) on speaker. Ch1 for one speaker and ch3 to the other speaker.


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[Leemix]

A sub should be connected to an AVR or a pre-amp and can be done at any time.

Never turn on or connect anything to power until everything is connected(except sub, that can wait depending on what its connecting to)


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[Pik95]

What receiver do you have, or pre-amp?
It would be good with a list of what you have and need to connect.

But yes the power amplifier should be connected by the red to the red(+) on the speaker and black to black(-) on speaker. Ch1 for one speaker and ch3 to the other speaker.


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Sorry, caught a work call. I have a Nakamichi preamp Ca-5, and a Nakamichi tuner st-7 for now. I have a Sansui 8080DB in the shop. I also have a Marantz 2238B that I wouldn't mind using in the mean time, but that's more confusion. I want to hook up my California Audio CL-15 HDCD , my Nakamichi CR-4A tape, and I have two Thorens 160 turntables. I have a bunch of other stuff for future changes, but this is what I'm doing now. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Leemix]

If you use the marantz receiver you connect the speakers directly to that because it has internal amps.

If you want to use the external amp mentioned earlier you use the Ca5 and connect output 1 left and right channels to the corrosponding inputs on the amp (called channel 1 and 3 on that amp) with RCA cables.


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[Pik95]

If you use the marantz receiver you connect the speakers directly to that because it has internal amps.

If you want to use the external amp mentioned earlier you use the Ca5 and connect output 1 left and right channels to the corrosponding inputs on the amp (called channel 1 and 3 on that amp) with RCA cables.


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I was told that the Marantz is not strong enough for my 4ohm Thiels. But I could do it as an Aux or something? The pre amp is just like another output from the amp? That confused me a bit. Thx

Edited to add...is it ok if my speaker wire is just wire, and not banana plugs?

 

[BMXTRIX]

The pre-amp sits PREvious to the AMPlifier. That's why it is called the pre-amp (just to clarify for you if you didn't know)

The job of a pre-amp is typically to handle audio switching and volume adjustment. It may also incorporate some other adjustments internally, speaker balancing, it may feature a output for a subwoofer, and it may have a phone amp built into it.

I haven't taken a look yet, but typically you will pick a single quality pre-amp and then run it into your amplifier. If you are connecting products into other products into other products it typically just confuses the situation.

So, the CA-5 is the central point of your system.

Sources run from their outputs into the CA-5. For example:
Tuner->CA-5
Phono->CA-5
Streaming Music Player (Sonos/Bluesound)->CA-5

Then the CA-5 has a set of outputs which run into the amplifier:
CA-5 (output 1/left/right) -> AMPLIFIER

If you want to hook up a subwoofer, you would need one with stereo inputs and an internal crossover (common for many of them).
CA-5 (output 2/left/right) -> Subwoofer RCA inputs, set your crossover appropriately.

EDIT: Took a look online and got some photos of your gear and it all looks very straightforward (from my point of view), so please just ask and questions will be answered.

The B&K amplifier appears to have been designed to accomodate up to 4 channels of audio, but your design just implements channels 1 & 3, so that's why it is labeled that way. So, 'LEFT' from the CA-5 would go to channel 1 RCA input, and 'RIGHT' from the CA-5 would go to channel 3 RCA input.

Pick up some decent RCA cables, if you haven't already. Monoprice has some decent ones for cheap, or just use what you have already if you have them. RCA cables aren't very expensive (and shouldn't be).

Assuming you have speaker cable as well. If not, feel free to ask before your purchase. If you just intend to try it out and have some inexpensive speaker wires, I'm sure they will do fine. You may wish to pick up some 12 gauge (thick!) speaker cables for your final setup, or you may have some in-wall wiring you want to do, or use of flat speaker cable... let us know, we can assist in direction and selection.

 

[Pik95]

Both of you guys have been a huge help. I think I understand all of that. The subwoofer part was a little confusing, but I'll reread that later. I have two choices for my subwoofer. I have a Polk PSW10, and a Sunfire Junior. I am leaning towards using the polk down here, as there is more room and it's bigger. Is there any difference which I use? Sound wise? Thanks again.

 

[Pogre]

Both of you guys have been a huge help. I think I understand all of that. The subwoofer part was a little confusing, but I'll reread that later. I have two choices for my subwoofer. I have a Polk PSW10, and a Sunfire Junior. I am leaning towards using the polk down here, as there is more room and it's bigger. Is there any difference which I use? Sound wise? Thanks again.

I wouldn't want the Polk and I don't know much about the Sunfire. I do know that it is worth spending as much as you can on a good subwoofer tho. Yes, there are differences. There are some pretty boomy one note wonders out there and it's worth doing some homework. Especially if your focus is music. SVS, Rythmik and Hsu are good places to start, with Hsu probably being your best bang for buck.

 

[Pik95]

I wouldn't want the Polk and I don't know much about the Sunfire. I do know that it is worth spending as much as you can on a good subwoofer tho. Yes, there are differences. There are some pretty boomy one note wonders out there and it's worth doing some homework. Especially if your focus is music. SVS, Rythmik and Hsu are good places to start, with Hsu probably being your best bang for buck.

Out of curiosity, what is wrong with the Polk? When I grabbed it, it seemed to he one of their better ones. The Carver guy made the Sunfire Juniors. They are smaller, but big reps. I can swap them out after Corona if need be. Thanks

 

[Pogre]

Out of curiosity, what is wrong with the Polk? When I grabbed it, it seemed to he one of their better ones. The Carver guy made the Sunfire Juniors. They are smaller, but big reps. I can swap them out after Corona if need be. Thanks

I misread what you meant there. I thought you were deciding which to buy.

I wouldn't want the Polk because it's on the small side and a little lean on power. Is it terrible? No, but you can find better performers in the form factor. You already own it, so there's no reason not to use it. In fact if they're similar enough 2 subs is always better than one for a smoother bass response.

Let me look up the Sunfire Jr and see how it compares to the polk. If they're close I'd recommend using both.

 

[Pogre]

Is this the Sunfire?

Or even similar. It actually looks like a pretty decent little sub, with emphasis on "little", lol. Still, it looks competently built and the review I scanned over is pretty favorable. I don't how how easy it'd be to blend with the Polk tho. Of the 2 I think I like the Junior.

 

[Pik95]

Yes, that's it. I will probably grab a second Junior at some point.

 

[Pogre]

Yes, that's it. I will probably grab a second Junior at some point.

If you're not in a large room and it's mostly for music on vinyl I think it might do the job for you nicely. I wouldn't expect much in the way of room rattling bass, but for music it should do fine. I like what I've read about it so far and the designer, Bob Carver is a name that rings all kinds of bells in my head. I'm pretty sure he's a well respected engineer/designer.

If you do end up getting a bigger sub down the road blending it with the Jr might be very tricky and require some measuring, eq and know how. A second Jr would be best, or plan to replace.

 

[lovinthehd]

One of the first good subs I experienced was a friend's Sunfire. Might want to check amp reliability issues, remember reading about a significant number of failures and they wouldn't be available any more. Pretty powerful for it's size, tho. Definitely a different league from the Polk PSW10....

 

[Pik95]

I see old Junior's pretty often. They are like $3-$400 used though so I'll wait.

 

[lovinthehd]

I see old Junior's pretty often. They are like $3-$400 used though so I'll wait.

For that much I'd simply get a current sub. If you want small perhaps the RSL Speedwoofer10s.

 

[Pik95]

Ok, I'm gonna attempt to wire this up at some point tonight. Hope this old stuff all works, lol.

And thanks again everyone. I appreciate it.

 

[Pogre]

One of the first good subs I experienced was a friend's Sunfire. Might want to check amp reliability issues, remember reading about a significant number of failures and they wouldn't be available any more. Pretty powerful for it's size, tho. Definitely a different league from the Polk PSW10....

I did a little more reading and it does look like it measures up pretty impressively for a sub its size. Good power for a 7" driver. One reviewer said he measured a full inch of throw and 106 dB at 40 and 31.5 hz. Not too shabby for a li'l guy.

 

[lovinthehd]

I did a little more reading and it does look like it measures up pretty impressively for a sub its size. Good power for a 7" driver. One reviewer said he measured a full inch of throw and 106 dB at 40 and 31.5 hz. Not too shabby for a li'l guy.

My buddy I think had a slightly larger version (don't think there was a Junior yet at that point), think it had an 8 or 9 inch driver....they were long throw, had to be....