Audio Phoolery on the cheap (Morally Bankrupt!!!11) - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:14:01 pm
content: It takes something special these days to get me to pick up kerbside junk, but spotting a 'modern' audio system with what appeared to be some valves featured in the front of the amp, got me to stop and look.Really? They are using three small valves in a modern theater-type system? How?I threw the main amp and main speakers in the back of the car, leaving the several small surround-sound speakers.That was a couple of weeks ago. And now tonight for your entertainment, the disassembly.Actually the speakers didn't look too bad. Maybe I'd use them in my workshop? Then I opened them. Nope, these are trash. Check out the quality tweeters, the high-tech crossover network, the fine soldering and heavy gauge wires. (Not.)So they went to the land of screwdriver mayhem first. I think 'Marc Vincent' also owns a hot-melt glue factory.OK, so what are those valves then?It was due to the cheap-arse hot-melt glue having failed to retain the plastic cover that I'd spotted them as I drove by. Do they...? I plugged it in.Ahh... I love the warm glow of valves.... the warm blue glow... the... WTF?This is where I began to comprehend the level of cheap-crapness audio phoolery I was dealing with here. Those valves do not have any actual filament glow... That would explain why there are three of them. Not like two, or four. Because they are merely decorative. Which in this context makes them something like a religious icon, a symbol of 'audio goodness'. Something like 'monocrystaline copper cables', or 'precision audio enhancement crystals', and other such highly scientific innovations for separating money from ignorant fools.You do have to wonder why they chose blue LEDs though. Wouldn't orange have been more believable?OK, so let's see exactly what they have done. Though I have a pretty good idea already, seeing is believing.Wow, they didn't even solder them in. Apart from holding the entire assembly together with hot-melt, the valves are held in the PCB by bending some of the pins over.I wonder if Marc Vincent co actually bought cheap Asian functional valves, or if these were a bulk purchase of rejects?QuoteThat's quite a high density of oxymorons there.

author: Delta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:16:06 pm
content: Brilliant! I'm sure Dave's done a teardown on one of those...

author: poorchava
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:17:43 pm
content: It's a white van scam hardware. Dave found identical one in the dumpster. Search EEVBlog channel for white van scam.Wys?ane z mojego HTC One M8s przy u?yciu Tapatalka

author: bktemp
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:18:29 pm
content: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/eevblog-671-white-van-speaker-scam-teardown/

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:30:10 pm
content: How HEAVY are the drivers (specifically the "woofers")They LOOK like they have a substantial magnet and "motor" section.The tweeters also don't necessarilly LOOK horrible.And the power transformer is nothing to sneeze at.Granted the rest of it (and especially the "firebottles") are pure junk primarily designed to LOOK impressive to the uninformed.IIRC, that unit that Dave did a tear-down video about had inert weights attached to the drivers to make it FEEL heavy.

author: elex_enthusiast
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 02:39:43 pm
content: haha.. Coincidentally I also do have relevant story previously. See this:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/repair/el-cheapo-amp-scam!!!!/?topicseenWhite van scam was really quite a good business lately..

author: SteveLy
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 03:39:53 pm
content: LOL, so funny! Dave did teardown on the same bodge-job cabinet with the same fake LED illuminated valves. Obviously white van man is still in business.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 03:50:00 pm
content: Quote from: bktemp on October 06, 2015, 02:18:29 pmHa ha ha! Funny that Dave found one too. It's identical to my find. Which was tossed only a few blocks away from my home. Kind of suggests there must have been a lot of those pieces of shit sold.I kept on a little tearing it down to components, just because it's so interesting to see *everything* done so cheaply.Originally another reason I grabbed the thing, was the number of banana screw posts on it. Surely they'd be useful?But no... These guys managed to make even banana posts too crap to be usable. The metal body is not machined, plated brass, it's that cheap diecast metal. Unscrewing the retaining nuts, some of the screw shafts sheared off. Something I never thought I'd see. Oh and those 'brass washers'? Are steel, plated with something brass-like. You'd have thought it would be cheaper to actually make them from brass, but apparently not.The heatsink... I've never seen one with the back plate barely thicker than the fins.That 'nice toroidal transformer' - I was a bit pleased about finding that, until I noticed the same thing Dave did - isolation between primary and secondaries is close to suicide rated. I guess it didn't fail yet, maybe I should trust it? Hmmm... no, I don't think so.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 08:01:32 pm
content: i am not a valve expert (my expertise is limited to percussive 'maintenance' using an assortment of hammers so i can enjoy the sound they make when hit) but afaik : if a valve emits a blue glow it means gas got in it and it is basically shot ... so illuminating valves with blue led's would be totally wrong. yellow led ,ok.

author: linux-works
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 06, 2015, 08:27:16 pm
content: I think the blue trend is from the nixie clock kits that you see on fleabay.for some stupid reason, sellers are littering tube kits with blue leds and having you mount them under the socket so it shines into the tube.nixies that have a blue color from inside are usually on their way out or there is a chip problem. its never a good thing; and so maybe the cheap nixies are bluing-out (so to speak) and the sellers are just doubling down on that look.I cant think of any other reason why there is a current (lol) trend in making tubes look blue.