Amp shuffle

Well, a long overdue rack reorganization finally happened last night. Karl was kind enough to drop in and help me move my equipment around. This all started back last summer when I realized that my gear was too tightly spaced in the rack, causing the amps to run a bit hot. This was due to the overly short interconnect cables (18″ cables are not long enough).

Step 1 – Build some cables. I referenced the Jon Risch website on cables. So based on this I picked up some Belden 89259 from Take Five Audio and some locking RCA connectors from Parts Connexion (WBT style knock-offs).

Step 2 – Procrastinate for about 5 months, then finally solder together some 1m cables.

Step 3 – Shuffle the components in the rack.

Getting past the second step was the hardest part. Both online stores were great to deal with, and I’ll buy from them again. The cheap locking RCAs I might pass on next time – some of the threads on the screw down barrels were not very accurate, making some connectors difficult to tighten. Locking RCAs are a great idea – even a strong tug won’t make them slip off.

While I was at it, I also put together some 3.5mm mono plug cables to chain my pre-amp/processor to my amps so that I could use the 12v trigger. This is pretty slick as I can now effectively remote on/off my power amps (well, not the sub amp but it doesn’t have a trigger input).

After we were done, we watched Hero.  Along with the noise in the image, I’ve been noticing that my convergence has a wobble to it.  During a movie, the convergence will go slightly out of alignment, then back to perfectly fine.  Mostly this isn’t noticible, but you see it on credits or sub-titles more easily.  I asked on the AVSForum and it seems that it may be my HVPS getting hot (or worse).  So after the movie, I pulled the case open and felt the HVPS case – it was pretty hot, so maybe some improved cooling will help resolve this.