2020-10-10

Tracer "4Life 400" PC power supply

 Cheap PC power supply from 2007.

Not a lot of cables, this seems like a plus for me.
Passive PFC choke on top cover.
UC3843A




WT751002 S - power supply supervisor

7905






Sony RM-883 remote controller






Measured idle current consumption: ~0.05uA.

2020-09-18

Modecom MC-XS1A PC speakers

 Bottom of the barrel PC speakers. Bought as set of speakers + optical mouse + mouse pad for something like $5.



These speakers have plastic baskets - I've never seen that except except for miniature tablet/phone speakers.

PCB markings: HY 266, 2010.08.21.
These speakers are not stereo. Single 8002B audio amplifier is used.
Audio quality is obviously very low - worse (or even much worse) than from most built-in laptop speakers.


2020-05-28

KOSS Spark Plug earphones

Inexpensive (bought for about $12, although now identical model seems to cost more) earphones from Koss. Some love them, some hate them - sound quality is good in general, although there may be too much bass depending on preferences. They are relatively big for earphones and this kind of design is not too ergonomic. My biggest issue with them is degrading foam - this is "memory" foam that is supposed to fit in ear when squeezed. It should retain sqeezed form for a few seconds, but with time it looses this "memory" property and starts behaving like plain rubbery foam. It probably would take few months, but after time you won't be able to fit them in ear canal at all. Second issue: this plastic is brittle (or gets brittle with time?) - one of my earphones cracked after being dropped on hard floor, so I had to glue it with 2-component resin.
Two identical in size foam sets were included in my package. Additional ones are somehow expensive - I'm seeing them at $12 (+ shipping cost as you won't find them at local shop) for 6 pairs at the moment.
These earphones were covered with lifetime warranty, although there is processing fee that makes it not viable economically (processing fee is basically same as earphones cost).
 Plastic tubes under foams:
 Old trick to restore these earphones is using hearing protection foams like these, 3M model 1100 to replace original foams. They are available in every drug store for $0.25 a pair (or less, about $0.10 a pair if buying in bulk).

 Cut foam to match tube length, make hole for the tube

Overall, sound isolation is not necessary better than for earphones with silicone seal, but from my use foam has less tendency to slip out of the ear after time and can sit in place for hours.

2020-05-21

Aiwa SX-WNSZ52 speakers

Speaker set from NSX-SZ52 Aiwa system - popular class all-in-one with 3 CD changer and double cassette deck with full logic control. From what I can find, priced in $25-$40 range at the moment as used.
Height: ~32cm, weight ~5kg.
Dust cover on woofer is missing on this photo.


 Front plastic cover is glued to black plastic frame that is holding mid-band speaker - glue is applied on 6 plastic pegs. This is some kind of elastic, rubber-like glue. With some luck front could be removed without damages, although glue is still pretty strong - opening it I've damaged chipboard with screwdriver in few places at the edges and broken one of the pegs.


 Twitter is just a piezo speaker.


 8A-NS8-604-01 midrange speaker, 8 Ohms

 8Z-NS7-602-01 woofer, 6 Ohms

 As speaker set is labeled as "BUILT-IN POWERED SUBWOOFER" I though that it might have built-in amplifier at least for low band speaker, but speaker are just wired directly. I had to open it anyway as I've got it as junk with cables cut off point-blank at the back.