Topic: Home audio engineering question...

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
I have my home TV/DVD audio running through an old Bose Wave Radio system - It's beat up and ugly but the sound quality is still great!

My problem is that it only has manual volume control.... And after several years it't really starting to bug me!  So how do I engineer a cheap ( ~ $50 or so... ) remote control system to control the non-amplified, line-in stereo audio signal so I don't have to get up off the couch and walk two steps just to adjust my volume?!?

[manitoba1073]

 get a wife   

[marstone]

get a wife   

oh you know that one doesn't work very well.  Just what everyone needs a remote with a nag feature.

No, the best remote my father ever had, worked reliably for many many years.

Me.  A kid works great.

As for building something, I would look at hacking the knob on the bose to switch it to a remote.  How about the servo off a really cheap R/C toy.  Then just use the R/C remote to move the volume.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

get a wife   

Workin' on it!      She's gettin' tired of telling me to get up & adjust the volume!

get a wife   

oh you know that one doesn't work very well.  Just what everyone needs a remote with a nag feature.

No, the best remote my father ever had, worked reliably for many many years.

Me.  A kid works great.

As for building something, I would look at hacking the knob on the bose to switch it to a remote.  How about the servo off a really cheap R/C toy.  Then just use the R/C remote to move the volume.

I have though about the mechanical servo-solution, but I have to believe that there's a more elegant solution to this...

[marstone]

I have though about the mechanical servo-solution, but I have to believe that there's a more elegant solution to this...

Oh there is.  But so far my searches have come up with nothing that would be in the $50 range.  Bad part seems to be, it costs about as much to build a single remote reciever and control circuit as it is to buy a cheap stereo reciever.  Maybe pick up a real cheap receiver and patch it in between to control volume, but still use the bose for the speaker system.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

Ah, but there's the rub!

A cheap stereo receiver was my first thought, but they're generally not made to work with line-in levels - only amplified signals, or line-in-in and amplified-out.

[marstone]

true, you are in a hard place.  Cost to make a controller is high, but not high anough to get a nice receiver.  Heck save for part of the year and get a new bose.  Will make you less buggy in the long run.

Or keep searching on the electronic boards for a circuit that will do the trick.  I haven't found any that would fit the bill yet.

[Bonk]

Is there no volume control on the DVD/TV? I would think the obvious thing to do would be to set the bose wave system to the maximum volume you would use then control the output level at the DVD. That is how I usually run such setups even when I have a remote for the amp.  Try it, see if your DVD/TV volume affects the line out level.

If not, my next best suggestion is a long stick! 

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
That's actually a good suggestion except that I didn't really provide complete information up front...  My TV is a real nice Sony 35" with a great picture that was given to me for free because the audio & tuning don't work.  No problem, 'cause I can set it to 'video in' and tune it through the cable box, and take audio off the DVD/VCR-thingy - which has no volume control.

No problem except that volume control is on the other side of the room!   

[Don Karnage]

try to get a terminal or look at place where they sell old junk and look for something that will let you control the volume on the tv, wait no its from you're old received r, well then look for a received with a remote control.

[Don Karnage]

ahh its you're tv/vcr that have no control for the volume and channels, well them look for a kinda old tv control channel that have a volume with it, maybe someone on ebay is selling a old tv control box, something from Phillips.

[Bonk]

That's actually a good suggestion except that I didn't really provide complete information up front...  My TV is a real nice Sony 35" with a great picture that was given to me for free because the audio & tuning don't work.  No problem, 'cause I can set it to 'video in' and tune it through the cable box, and take audio off the DVD/VCR-thingy - which has no volume control.

No problem except that volume control is on the other side of the room!   

I still think a long stick would work fine!

But seriously, I think then the solution is to find a reasonable quality cheap line amp with a remote to put between the Bose and the DVD/VCR, as others may have suggested above.

Are you sure there is no remote for the Wave? Did you buy it new or used? I've got an old one semi-disassembled around here somewhere... (a shame, I know).

Something like this would be perfect for you, but its a kit (costing more and needing assembly and probably not great for audio at least in front of a bose...):
http://www.apogeekits.com/preamp.htm

Or you could try one of these babies out:
http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73041
Schweet... only $7995! Wow what a deal! I know, I'm not helping. But I bet that preamp would sound great.

Hmm this is much closer, still a little pricey though:
http://www.hometech.com/audio/preamps.html

Should be able to find a cheap one for $50 somewhere... I found two such items on eBay for ~$15. Search there for "preamp remote" or just "preamp".
Here's two candidates:
Adcom GTP-450 Preamp Tuner w/ remote
CARVER CT-6 SONIC HOLOGRAPHY PREAMP TUNER

Stuff like that, though if you're patient you might be able to find one cheap at a garage sale or flea market or something.


Oh just saw Don's suggestion, good one...

[Don Karnage]

have you try a universal remote control?

you can have some good one at the sony store, wall mart, sears store or any place where they have sony universal remote control?, unless the volume and channel are not working on it?

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

Should be able to find a cheap one for $50 somewhere... I found two such items on eBay for ~$15. Search there for "preamp remote" or just "preamp".
Here's two candidates:
Adcom GTP-450 Preamp Tuner w/ remote
CARVER CT-6 SONIC HOLOGRAPHY PREAMP TUNER

Stuff like that, though if you're patient you might be able to find one cheap at a garage sale or flea market or something.


Oh just saw Don's suggestion, good one...

Thanks for the suggestions, Bonk.  That Carver unit went for $203 and the Adcom is up to $61 with shipping, but I'll keep watching.

[Don Karnage]

i found a converter (i think its what its call) for the tv signal, its from philips and it got volume control, don't know if the remote control is include, the price is 7.99$

philips colour voice 2000, i have not found anything on it but you might find it.

here a picture of what i mean: http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/1992/2014ij8.jpg

its a cable box, was not sure how it was call

its not that one but its the kind of device i was talking, you plug you cable on it and you can control the volume on it and the channels.

[Just plain old Punisher]

I'd just ditch the Bose radio and pick up a decent surround sound speaker system. You can pick em up for around 150 or so.

You're losing a lot of audio seperation anyways when you downsample surround TV to plain old stereo.

[The Bar-Abbas Anomaly]

 
But... But...

[Don Karnage]

But... But...