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Taking an amplifier off an old CRT

My old monitor has two mounted loundspeakers that I fell in love with. Even though the monitor is no longer usable, I would like to continue to use the speakers next to my new monitor. The speakers themselves are detachable, but they require the amplifying unit that is part of the monitor. It would be difficult for me to obtain a cheap and simple amplifier to power this set, so I think it might be a good idea to take the original amplifier off the monitor. I haven't looked inside yet (I have yet to ask a technician to discharge the CRT before anything else), but I want to know if it would be a wise thing to try. Do these integrated amplifiers tend to be isolated from the main CRT circuitry, only sharing the power cord with it?

Reply to
da_a_78
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Without knowing the model of the unit, most of these type monitors, you can remove the whole audio amplifier section, & use it, but you may have to make up a power supply, to run it! Rono.

Reply to
Rono

It depends on the monitor. The amp could be a completely separate board that only requires a single low voltage power supply that you could get from a 'wall wart' adapter. If you're unlucky it could be part of the main board and almost impossible to run without the rest of the monitor. If your plan fails, there are small, inexpensive amplifiers that would do the job.

Discharging the CRT is something you can easily and safely do yourself. Do a google groups search for instructions. All you will need is a long screwdriver and a piece of wire. The CRT can hold a painful, but not dangerous charge. Andy Cuffe

snipped-for-privacy@psu.edu

Reply to
Andy Cuffe

That's good to know. The model is Packard Bell 2160, a 15" CRT monitor made in 1998.

The transformer ought to be somewhere inside :-)

Thanks, Rono

Reply to
da_a_78

OK, thanks Andy. First, I'll try to get this amplifier. If I fail, I'll look around for another.

Reply to
da_a_78

Have you tried any other decent PC speakers? My dad had a PB monitor like that, the speakers were decent for being part of such a cheap POS monitor but they were nothing to write home about. A good $30-$80 set of PC speakers will blow them away.

Reply to
James Sweet

Yes, I tried other speakers, but couldn't find a decent alternative. Cheap speakers actually do a jood job in my opinion, but the ones I've seen feature a constant low-frequency "hum", probably as a result of "efficient" design, that I'd rather live without. I generally aim for a high-quality set of speakers for music playback. Just a plain 2.0 set. Do you have a specific model in mind?

Reply to
da_a_78

My plan didn't work out too well. As Andy suspected, the amplifier turned out to be too integrated into the main circuitry. It wouldn't be worth the hassle to get it out of there.

Reply to
da_a_78

On 5 Sep 2005 13:11:01 -0700, da_a snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com put finger to keyboard and composed:

A fretsaw should isolate the amplifier's real estate. There can't be too many external traces - signal in, speaker out, volume pot, power in. The datasheet for the power amp (eg TDAxxxx) will most probably have an application circuit.

-- Franc Zabkar

Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

Reply to
Franc Zabkar

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