Looking for genius with electronic connections

Can I check what sound equipment you have?  Do you have amp, cd/record/tape player and stereo speakers? Or do you have something else?

Hi, Jo – the equipment referred to is illustrated here:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8683867/Connections.gif

The only thing you don't see is the headphone-out for the amp, which is on the front. These are the four items I want to work together. The amp is linked to two speakers for stereo sound (not surround sound).

In addition I have a radio tuner, cassette tape player and VHS tape player, all of which are pretty much retired.

Say it ain't so, Roger!!! No mention of it must mean you've also retired the 8 track tape player?? Oh, lawdy, lawdy!!

I can manage a reel-to-reel of Abbey Road if that makes you feel better, Ted.

Excellent! "...Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl..." Won't be able to get that out of my head all day, but feeling better already, Roger. Thanks!

3.5mm jack to 2-phono lead received and this seems to work well, Dave - running from TV headphone output to amplifier auxiliary in.

The whole entertainment set-up is not as I would like. To get the blu-ray working after using the TV, the blu-ray needs the input changed on both the TV and the amplifier, and the volume control changes to the knob on the amplifier. I've yet to notice the volume control on the blu-ray remote having any effect. Overall, there has to be a better way.

If I know Roger he's probably got a wire recorder in there somewhere as well! He likes to cover all the possibilities!


Seriously though you can only do what you can do Roger. I had a setup similar to yours at one stage, and I dismantled it because of the sound problems. I could get sound OK, but as every CD or DVD is has different sound levels you ended up having to adjust the volume manually every time.


Now I put up with the not-too-bad built in speakers on the Panasonic plasma TV we have at the moment.


What "they" really want you to do of course is to have an integrated system from one manufacturer. TV, sound, blu-ray, pvr etc. etc. In that case most of them appear to be able to "talk" to each other to get the best settings, use one remote.etc. The problem being that most of those setups are neither the best for features or cost.


If you want a separate sound system then the only completely satisfactory solution will probably be to get a sound system with hdmi input.

Yes, I'm afraid this is correct.

My original stack of four units is losing its utility. It's about equally as long since I listened to a cassette tape or watched a VHS tape. And the radio hasn't seen action for a very long time, either. But it's a good amp...with good (Mission) speakers.

There must have been more equipment binned as "obsolete" in the past ten years, than there was in the hundred years before. Computers and their "peripherals" are outdated almost before they're installed and used, and as the line between computers and AV equipment becomes ever less distinct then they too are becoming the same.


I guess there was some chap a hundred years or so ago though who felt the same about his cylinder phonograph being superceded by a disc gramaphone.

I resemble that last comment Dave.

We all thought that our Vinyl records and associated gear would last us a lifetime Ted. Still have mine except for the speakers which went rotten due to bad storage. Funny thing I read the other day that sales of vinyl records were up 15% last year.


Meanwhile as a confirmed Luddite I'm going to buy myself a Polyphon.  Should be reasonably future proof as long as I can get old pennies!


 

Wonderful idea Dave....as long as you're certain you'll always love music of that, uh, era. A little sad frankly to wonder about the etymology/musicology of a refrain titled anything close to: "Little Alabama Coon". Particularly when understanding that whatever titles created from whatever era this title was almost certainly originally conjured up were very likely to have been oblique or direct references to some messy historical troubles that would be - at the very least - not so politically correct these days. But since ignoring - or worse, trying to change - history only complicates the future, I promise if I ever visit the southwest of England, I hope I'll be invited to dance with the locals to the plectra of the period...

Only if you bring your own (old) penny!


Roger will lend you one!

Deal!

I can certainly lend you a penny for 'em, Ted. What are they?