Altec Lansing 641 - Page 10

Cablemonkey is a scholar and a gentleman. I took some pics and he pointed out exactly what to do. Here's hoping I can save someone else the hassle of finding all this information. Thanks again!



anon at darknet dot dreamhosters dot com

Awesome job with the update, finally had my sub give up on me but with the pictures and step by step I feel like I would be safe to attempt the fix. I might try to order the blown fuse just out of temptation though before making the full jump.

Doesn't matter as what it does is simply "close the switch" instead of that little mosfet doing that. It can actually be a wire link too. I just had one in and i used a 4.7 ohm resistor as that's what i had lying around. Works fine.

Hi Mike,

the amplification section in the 641 is clean, and very powerful. You won't lose anything by running right off the speakers out on the unit.
I highly suggest bookshelf speakers up front, as the original satellites provided are quite weak in voice reproduction. I put Paradigm Titans up front, and all 4 original speakers on the rear. With a decent bookshelf up front, you will blow away pretty much anything you have ever heard, or at the very least you can say it is very satisfying and quite adequate. It will shake the house, and you definitely can't turn it up, it has more volume than you can use.

Look into those Titans if you want to reproduce every little sound, regardless of volume. Very satisfying to listen to even when you need to keep it quiet, and will take any beating you give them with amazing clarity and authority. You'll have to get them secondhand for around $75-100. There's a new version and an old version, I have the old. Many audiophiles claim these will nearly match $2000-3000 speakers.

In any case congratulations on your find. Supposedly there is a defect or a weak link with the sub failures. There are instructions for not having it fail.

What I remember reading is this: Always turn off the sub when not in use. Turn it off from the remote first, and then the back of the unit. Then always turn it on from the back of the unit, and then the remote. By always having it off when not in use, you can supposedly go pretty much infinitely without failure.

Cheers

Francois

P.S. just a thought, you COULD try running the fronts off the TV I guess... that might be decent.

Hi Mike,

Yes,
I did double wire the speaks on the rears.

here is the actual speaks I am referring to

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_6_3/paradigm-titan-speakers.html

Why don't you email me directly, and we can keep this thread clean.

Let me know what you are hooking up to( Pics of outputs if you can find for your TV and PS3) and we can figure out how to give you 4.1 sound if possible.

fgovro@shaw.ca

Hi Hiran,

I am not an electronics expert, but the first thing that comes to mind is a blown woofer. Hard to imagine with this particular system, but still possible. If you are able to disconnect one woofer, and then test the sound, and then the other woofer, you may be able to isolate the issue. If not, I will defer to one of the electronic elites on this forum. Hopefully CableMonkey is getting these updates, and possibly has some insight on the electronics side of things. I am more of a mechanic.

Having said that, if you have one blown woofer, you can get by with one until you buy a pair of replacements, or buy a dead 641 and use it for parts.

Free broken 641 to anyone near Seattle (or anyone willing to pay shipping)

I just bought it used. Everything looked good but when I hooked it up the power light came on but there was no sound. I think this is because it doesn't have a controller. I didn't know it needed one when I bought it