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Cannibalising Rotel RSX 1550 to make power amplifi

Printed From: Graham Slee Hifi System Components
Category: And the rest
Forum Name: Amplification
Forum Description: Share your interests or views on amplifiers, preamps, etc
URL: https://www.hifisystemcomponents.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4401
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 12:45pm
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Topic: Cannibalising Rotel RSX 1550 to make power amplifi
Posted By: William86
Subject: Cannibalising Rotel RSX 1550 to make power amplifi
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2018 at 10:44am
Hi,
 

I am squeaky new on this forum thanks to Jon for accepting my application.

 
I would like to ask the audience for guidance and advice.
 
I have a spare Rotel RSX 1550 which I want to caniblise to make 1 x power amplifier and 1 x headphone amplifier.
 
It is a class AB amplifier with 5 channels. The idea is to use 4 channels with the exisiting power source for the power amplifier and the 5th channel with a new power source.
 
The reason why I have one is that I had bought this one as spares and repair to fix my existing RSX 1550 which is used as my home theatre work horse.... (The volume knob got broke by my 1 1/2 yo son).
 
What is the feasibility in achieving this and is it a realistic project to undertake?
 
Is there any litriture that I can use to build these 2 amps with, as I do not know my arse from my elbow when it comes to identifying capacitors and etc.

I also have no electronic tools other then the basic tools found in a tool shed incluiding a soldering iron.
 
I am a mechanical and electrical engineer so do understand some concepts of HV and Mechanical plant but on the electronic side of thing wooshhhhh!
 
If there is anything needed to direct your guidance and advice please let me know!
 
Thank, and appreciate all the advice!
 
Many Thanks,

William
 
 
 
 



Replies:
Posted By: BackinBlack
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2018 at 11:10am
Hi William,
A power amp will not necessarily make a good headphone amp and you already have five power amps in the RSX 1550.
It is not a project I would consider worthwhile even with modest electronic knowledge.
Have you considered selling it and using the funds to buy a GSP DAK Novo headphone amp kit? That would serve 2 purposes: 1 gain some electronics assembly knowledge and 2 You'd have an excellent headphone amp.

Happy Building
Ian


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Just listen, if it sounds good to you, enjoy it.


Posted By: William86
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2018 at 11:18am
Hi Ian,

Thank you for your response,
 
What I am attempting to achieve is to split and or cannibalise the RSX 1550 to be a power amplifier to add additional speakers in my home theatre as the existing RSX 1550 only has 5 channels.
 
Rather then buying a new or 2nd hand power amplifier to do this, I was thinking of breaking the spare RSX and building a power amplifier with x channels to cater for additional speakerage...
 
The headphone amplifier would not be from the power amplifier, however i suspect that there would be a few channels/amplifiers or parts remaining to build a head phone amplifier. The only thing I would definantely need is a new power source. However I should be able to recover enough of the existing capacitors and components to be able to put a headphone amp together unless this is not the case.
 
Selling the RSX on ebay will not get me much as I have already used some of the parts to repair my existing RSX which is currrently used to power my home theatre system.
 
Hope that makes it more clearer, besides I have always wanted to attempt to build an amp alas from a donor chassis but still.
 
Thanks,
 
William


Posted By: Graham Slee
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2018 at 8:49pm
Hi William,

I don't think we have the ability to help you do what you require. I could, but I hope you understand that I'm fully employed already designing products for HiFi System Components (plus a whole load of other duties). This is something of a large project you have set yourself.

But you are really welcome as a member here, and we hope you find your membership of value.

You could give diyAudio.com a try. I am not sure what welcome may await you. I daren't venture over there because my opinions may go against the grain...



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That none should be able to buy or sell without a smartphone and the knowledge in how to use apps


Posted By: Fatmangolf
Date Posted: 18 Jan 2018 at 9:11pm
William it sounds like a 5 channel AV amp and probably has one large power supply inside between the 5 amps which may be on the same circuit board like some of the AVR's I've owned over the years. You could keep the amps in the same box and just use cables to feed your extra AV channels to 2 or 3 of the 2nd RX1550 with AV speakers sonnected to those outputs, separately wiring your hifi preamp output to the other two channels and their outputs via a custom cable to your headphones. Apologies if that's what you've done already, if not it may be a good way to check the feasibility before physically modifying the amp.

Update. I downloaded the manual and see it is a seven channel amp with 5 amps inside that can be directly fed by a set of multichannel inputs. I wasn't sure on a quick read if the multi in is automatically run thorugh the DSP for level and distance processing. As you have two of them I think you will be familiar with the manual, the configuration options on offer and ahead of my thinking above.

To move this forward I would unplug the amp from the mains, wait and then unsrew the top panel so you can see what you would be dealing with. I would search online for people who have internally modified or even split RSX 1550's, start with the forum Graham has mentioned.


-------------
Jon

Open mind and ears whilst owning GSP Genera, Accession M, Accession MC, Elevator EXP, Solo ULDE, Proprius amps, Cusat50 cables, Lautus digital cable, Spatia cables and links, and a Majestic DAC.



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