Grateful Dead

More or less decided to leave the analog system alone.
Likely go to a separate 5.1 A/V receiver dedicated to some new old speakers.
There is great stuff available for next to nothing as folks upgrade their systems.
Have some very reliable vendor/techs I trust too.
Esta todo bien.
Cheers and thanks again

Let me know what gear your trying to integrate and I can look it up and make suggestions if you like?

That discussion helped me figure some things out too.
Vaguely thinking about having the TV sound through the big system.
You are The Man on this subject. Don't need an electrician.
Cheers and thanks!

Hey amigo,
Sorry for being so tardy, been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.
I did look up your amp and it’s an integrated analog only unit. The “integrated”means it’s has both the pre amp section, and the power amp section all in one box. From looking at the back of the unit from a photo of one for sale, it appears it’s analog only. Sorry I just haven’t had time to look up specs etc.
I’m wondering now what make and model tv you have? I’m guessing they were trying to back feed the audio from the tv to your integrated amp. Depending on years and models etc, that could be via an analog out of the tv, or optical, which is a digital connection. Like most things, to maximize profits, analog connections are often going away…

Since your amp is all analog, it does not have a a digital section or DAC (digital to analog converter) so i would think it would have to be the former: your amp cannot connect directly to a digital source, unless it has its own DAC, which is what your CD player is doing. This is why they commented on age of the unit, not because it’s no longer usable!

The tech probably just had to adjust some audio settings in the TV in order to output analog audio back to your amp.
I’m not sure why they didn’t just follow suite with your cable box and Blu-ray player and run analog out of those units and into your amp like your CD player? Perhaps sync/delay issues? Sometimes the audio and video can get slightly out of sync when utilizing different paths depending on electronics?
The switching would be an extra step but the sound would probably be better, (as long as no sync issues) though perhaps your cable or Sat box doesn’t have any analog outs. It’s unfortunately becoming more common to only have an HDMI video output?
A increasingly more common approach to a basic TV set up is to run your sources into the tv via HDMI, and back feed audio via ARC (audio return channel via HDMI) but that requires a tv and receiver or integrated amp that supports it. This is mostly for cost and convenience so you only have to switch TV inputs and have all the video audio on one input channel of your amp. But I could walk you through wiring your video source audio direct to your amp if your interested, and depending on what kind of outputs your sources have: HDMI only or with something else i.e., optical, coax, or analog etc.
To find out, just look at the back of your Cable or Sat box and your Blu-ray player: outputs should be labeled, but if not, you can tell by looking. RCA analog connections are what’s on the back of your integrated amp. If you see some that look like these your all set. If besides HDMI there is only optical or coax, your out of luck (digital coax is usually an orange color, at least in the states? Analog RCA are usually Red for right, and white for left). Many will only have HDMI.

The good news is I don’t see any reason why you need to upgrade your amp if you like it and don’t want to!
Perhaps the next best upgrade you could make if you kept the amp, would be to get an asynchronous DAC.
That way you could utilize all your digital connections on your various digital sources, routing them into the DAC for conversion, with just one analog out of the DAC to your amp. You’d leave the amp on the same input (except turntable which being analog already would still go to directly the amps phono stage (though you could upgrade to a separate one of those also). You would do the switching of sources on the DAC instead of the amp.
But you don’t have to do this, it would just be a nice upgrade as the DAC chip sets in most things are cheap garbage, especially TVs!! Your CD players DAC is probably at least decent?
Right now, it sounds like your video sources are being converted in your tv, no bueno!
The DACs they use in TVs and computers, and most lower cost electronics cost less than a dollar, a good separate DAC can range from a hundred dollars up to a hundred grand, so obviously something made to do a specific job should be an improvement over doing it the cheapest way possible…
Another option if you do think about replacing the amp is to get a new integrated amp with digital inputs, though they might not do HDMI. Some now are utilizing the ARC technology I mentioned above. A good integrated should have a decent DAC so you could use whatever digital output your tv has to back feed from tv to the DAC, or run separate audio from the source to the DAC, and video to the tv, leaving the cheap tv electronics out of the audio chain.

Similar, and most convenient would be a new AVR or Audio Video receiver. These usually have HDMI and analog inputs so you can run all your video sources into it with one HDMI video out to your Telly. You could run your CD digital or analog to it depending on the AVRs capabilities and preferences. You would have to make sure it has the correct phono stage for your turntable, or get a separate phono stage. AVRs, unless super high end, are usually not going to have as good components/electronics as a good integrated amp, or perhaps even a good DAC with your existing amp? Their designed for switching, convenience, a Jack of all trades but master of none if you will.
Also, their more for surround sound etc, and I believe you have 2 channel so it would probably be money better spent on gear tailored more for your needs…but it’s a viable option…

LOL, Yes, I wish I did live down the street, after I tweeked your system, we could go have a pint and play verbal tennis about our favorite bands etc. AND, I have a pre-pro that’d I could sell ya cheap that would probably solve your issues, Dooaahh!

Still not quite sure what they ment about your amp effecting your CDs/player? It makes no sense?
I have seen units that might have some brief latency between the audio and display, but that has nothing to do with what it’s connected to. I’m not sure of any audio gear that depends on everything in the chain “talking” to each other, only HDMI. Though not common there theoretically could be an all HDMI audio chain, but even then I’m not sure there’d be the same “handshake” issues that occur with HDMI video?

Ok, sorry, that’s too much at once I suspect?
Get me more intel and I’ll follow up with you.
- what make/model TV do you have!
- list all your video sources?
- what kind of outputs does your Cable or Sat box, or other video sources have? (Please see above for instructions)
- what is more important to you, maximizing audio, or convenience and ease of operations?

I hope to have at least a little time this WE so if you can get back to me I might be able to figure more out.

Sorry to rest for going on, hey, once a geek…
besides, y’all can perhaps learn something from my tutorials that will help you maximize your GOGD audio nirvana!
Hey, Who wouldn’t want to experience the most of all the plangent aural ecstasy lovingly provided by the likes of Norman and Glasser ; )

So far all of the CDs I've purchased since the 1980s still work fine. I rip all mine and keep them stored. Some discs I bring to play in the car, but never the limited edition ones.

Hey Oro-sorry it's taken me a while to respond to your post. This is where I show my ignorance - more than usual. I don't actually know what kind of cables I've got. When I bought my cd player, a guy from the shop came to set it up for me, and he brought these cables with him.
This cd player, it was 2019 when I got it, is a Rega Saturn - R. The amplifier, which I got about 1997 has "Isobel 50 W solid state integrated amplifier" printed on the top.
I bought the speakers in 1997 too. I can't remember what make they are!
My record player is a pro ject, and I got that about 2018.

So, a very random approach. Both the cd player and the records sound great to me though. The last Dead I played was from the PNW box - 5/17/74. A really sparkling sound-especially that of Jerry and Keith.

I got the idea that my amplifier might not be a bit antiquated when I bought an Oled telly and blu ray player last year. For some reason, I couldn't get the sound to come out of my speakers, despite the fact that it was wired up to do so. Three people came out from the shop - and the last one managed to get it to work. I don't know what he did, but he said that because the amp was made in a way that they no longer make 'em, it couldn't pick up the signal from the tv/blu ray. He tinkered about with it ( getting a it technical here) and hey presto! Sound!

The other thing is, when I listen to a cd - say track 3, the display panel still shows track 2 until a few seconds after track3 has started playing. This engineer who sorted it out told me that the delay was due to the amp being as old and different as it is, and that it took time to pick up the signal from the cd player. I really don't know whether what he said was correct or not.

It's a pity you don't live down the road, really, so you could pop in and have a look. What do you mean "thank God for small mercies"!

I always rip them to my server immediately out of the package, then put them back and on the shelf.
I used to also make a CD back up copy, but I’ve not been lately.
As far as I can recall, I’ve only had problems with the music only Boxilla.
I had a Hellava time ripping some of those discs. I think I eventually got them all, but some took hours to rip.
Considering what that box cost, it was a stressful unpleasant experience.

DR: your amp shouldn’t be a problem. Sounds perhaps like a sales pitch?
A good analog amplifier can last decades, and should have nothing to do with discs being troublesome.
Speakers and amplifiers if well built, do not need to be upgraded unless you don’t like how they sound, or obviously if they break.
All an amplifier does is take the final, processed signal if you will, which is always eventually analog, and which is very low level, and amplifies it so it can drive the speakers. It just takes a very low level signal, and makes it loud, that’s all.
Now this is a separate amplifier I’m speaking of, if you have an “all in one”, or receiver, those have a pre amp and often a digital processor, along with an amplifier, all in one box.
If so, they might be talking about the front end or pre amp/processing section, but the amplifier is still just an amp like described above, it’s just lives in the same box.
I’m curious what kind of cable or connection you have with your CD player?
Actually, I’m curious about your whole set up…

My older DaPs are physically peeling. For me it's the discs, not the player(s). YMMV

Lesson: Check and Rip your discs immediately. -edit- And....Do NOT store them in a hot car...Slaps Head (thank God I followed my own ripping advice) :-) :-) :-)¯

Interesting messages about hi fi maintenance. I am a real luddite when it come to technology. One of my friends recently suggested I try switching it off and on at the mains. That's about my level, I'm afraid.

Apart from one cd from a 1976 Daves Picks, all mine have played well. And the ones in boxes.The ones that don't play so well are ones I have had for a while, and they always seem to play on my very cheap portable player if not my hi fi. So it seems that it's the hi fi that is at fault.
The worst experience has been a T.Rex box set. A lot of people complained about these discs on Amazon, but mine played alright. That was last year. This year none of them will play.

My front room can be a bit dusty - I have an open, and unused fireplace not too far from my hi fi. I keep it well dusted and have even taken to putting an old tee shirt on the system to keep the gremlins out. I think for me that could be a problem - that and the age and mismatch of my amplifier with the new stuff. I said earlier it was 20 years old-nearer 27, when I think about it .

Not only this - I now need a new stylus. The last time I got one, the guy from the shop came to my house to attach it. His assistant came first, and he couldn't do it - so the owner of the shop came out and fitted it. Don't know how I am going to get the darn thing in place on my own. It was never a problem in the 70'-80's.

My Onkyo 6-disc changer started having drop outs in random spots. I would rewind and play again and the drop out was not there. So I think it was an electronics issue and not dust. Replaced the Onkyo with a Cambridge Audio and the CD’s played fine and even sounded better.

I have CD’s from a variety of bands where the CD’s play fine on both the Onkyo and the Cambridge Audio players, but a good copy cannot be made to a hard drive. Redoing it with the same burner, or doing it on another computer with a different burner, still gives a copy with skips, but the skips are in different locations.
This was the case with Road Trips Fall 77 + bonus disc (which I only got a few years ago). I had to copy the discs 5 times using 3 different computers and burners in order to get a single version on a music player that didn’t have skips.

The only defective CD I ever got from Rhino was CD3 of 6-17-76, which Rhino acknowledged was defective and sent out defective replacements, then again sent out replacements which were fixed.

If you store your CD’s in a hot car you should expect that they will eventually start to degrade. And the slot opening of car CD players can scuff up the disc. When I previously had a car with a CD player I made CD-R copies of my CD’s and stored the CD-R’s in the car.

I put copies of all my GD releases on a music player and don’t continue spinning the CD’s once a good copy is on the music player. The GD releases are then stored in crates, protected from dust and dog drool.