Tweaker Speakers!

[glebert]

I took a chance and grabbed a broken Acoustic BN6210 amp (class D, 600W, 2x10 neo speaker combo) from a local pawn shop yesterday. I figured there was a chance the speakers weren't blown and it was really cheap. There were a couple minor issues to get it powered up and deal with distorted signal to the headphones, but even after that the output was really low and would cut out. Tried an external speaker cab and it worked great. The internal speakers had measured a reasonable 3.7 ohms at the plug, but opened it up to have a look. This is what I found.



So there is a 10" Onkyo 50W speaker (8 ohm) and a Polk Audio 8" speaker (4 ohm). The 8" was fit into the 10" hole using a smashed out 10" basket and a plastic bucket lid. Speakers were connected with the quick connect terminals from smashed out speakers. Why they bothered with the quick connects (which they soldered to the home audio speakers) is beyond me. Obviously the class D amp was shutting down because of the messed up load. I can only guess the quick connects had enough DC resistance to give me the reading I got on my DMM. I have started to appreciate a well designed class D module (and still hate poorly done ones). Replaced the speakers with a couple of 8 ohm 10" high power bass/pro audio speakers I had and it is working fine. I'm wondering if someone bought the amp, took the original speakers, then returned it to the pawn shop and said it was broken. I know this shop has had that stuff happen before.

[xtian]

This story ROCKS. Portland has some creative MacGyvers!

[J M Fahey]

Pawnshop finds are a somewhat safer version of Russian Roulette

[g1]

I'm wondering if someone bought the amp, took the original speakers, then returned it to the pawn shop and said it was broken. I know this shop has had that stuff happen before.

Also possible the pawn shop has an employee 'fix-it guy' that cobbles things together from bits of broken stuff.

[glebert]

Also possible the pawn shop has an employee 'fix-it guy' that cobbles things together from bits of broken stuff.

I think I may have become that guy for them I doubt they would do the cobbling just from a liability standpoint, as this is a part of a chain of shops. I have gotten to know the manager a bit and he sold me this amp for less than 1/10th of their original asking price. Being Class D I was basically thinking there was a good chance it wasn't repairable (in a cost effective manner). Sometimes I win the pawn shop roulette.

[J M Fahey]

Yes.

That said, random unmatched speakers are very common at pawnshops.

All buyer is allowed to is strum a couple chords at low level, or even just touch guitar plug tip for hum, so he knows stuff "works".

In the days of free ads paper magazines, think "recycler" and such, a common scam here was for a guy to advertise some yummy product for which he professed ignorance, at about half market price.

Such as "old guitar, brand seems to be Flender/Gibsom/Pikenflaker" or similar misspellings.

When you go , you find a cheesy car repair shop at some home garage in a nasty part of the City, a greasy overall greasy hands guy who points to a dirty guitar: "itīs that one ... it belongs to Joe, I repaired his car, he NEEDED it but didnīt have money to pick it up so left his dadīs/Uncleīs/Granpaīs old guitar as collateral, he hasnīt appeared for 6 Months so I sell it just for the car repair price and let him be d*mned"

You quickly examine it under poor light (a fly shit covered 25W bulb), of course thereīs no way of testing it, you are in a hurry to close this fantastic bargain and leave, so..."

You return 2 days after to complain, thereīs an old lady sweeping the floor , the garage is empty of course, no tools, no broken car, nothing, and the Lady says: "oh, I rented my empty garage to a nice guy who needed it for 2 days to repair his car, heve never seen him before or since"

"oh, now that you mention it, I saw some 10 people leave the garage with a guitar in hand, I found that funny"

[Valvehead]

Found a rare gem of a deal recently ---

A couple months ago , i saw a Fractal Axe Fx preamp on FB marketplace--it was a local pawn shop. I went down there first thing in the morning. At the time i knew almost nothing as far as navigating thru the Axe Fx.
So i scrolled around in it and only got sound with a bypass button in.
I told they guy, I dont know much about these , but i "think" it works ..might just need set up. Will ya take $300 cash? He did.

I spent the next few days learning how to build models/ channels in it and it works great--im shocked at how good it sounds
being a " computer" !

[J M Fahey]

You were lucky