Another receiver...Leak 3200...Some questions

[RDWER123]

Like buses, I've never had a receiver and suddenly I have two in a week.

Unlike the Yamaha (my recent thread), this seems to work fine: the relay clicks when it's switched on, everything lights up like Blackpool and there is sound from the headphone sockets via the radio. I assume the speaker outputs work but don't have any DIN male sockets, if that's the right term, and am having trouble finding any online. Is there a way of connecting speakers to these some other way? Bare wires or something?

The back panel confuses me, links and pre amp/main amp things I don't really get and will probably leave alone. I've looked online, but there's not too much about these. I am assuming, and I know this is very stupid question on this forum, that there are no valves in this that I might want to replace?

[RDWER123]

Sorry, thought I had attached these pictures.

[music-centre]

Just search for DIN Speaker plugs, plenty on Ebay and elsewhere, no valves to worry about in this one, nice looking unit, hope it works well when you get your speakers connected up.
Steve.

[paulsherwin]

This is a transistor design, so there are no valves. The things you can see at the back are output power transistors.

You can temporarily attach speakers using bare wires held in place by sharpened matchsticks or cocktail sticks, though it's obviously not ideal.

Nice looking 70s receiver - I think they were made by Rotel.

[ajgriff]

According to an old forum thread the Leak 3200 is basically a Rotel RX-402 in Leak clothing. That being so the attached owners manual may be of some help. Note that the Rotel version doesn't use speaker DIN plugs. This eBay seller is offering suitable plugs with screw connections so no soldering required:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331395432...Bk9SR8CmhOy_YQ

Alan

[RDWER123]

Oh thank you for the manual! That is terrific. Made my day.

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

You can temporarily attach speakers using bare wires held in place by sharpened matchsticks or cocktail sticks, though it's obviously not ideal.

Just be careful doing this. My son did it with an Armstrong 400 series receiver. It left a tiny thread of wire behind which shorted the speaker terminals and blew the unobtainable germanium output transistors on that channel, trashing the unit. The speaker terminals on the Armstrong are a different pattern and shorting would be a lot easier than the DIN ones but it is worth being careful

[paulsherwin]

Indeed, it's important to avoid any shorts with amps of this era. There's no protection, so any shorts will lead to the output transistors going bang, which is a major repair.

[ajgriff]

Originally Posted by ajgriff

Note that the Rotel version doesn't use speaker DIN plugs.

Correction: There was a Rotel variant with DIN speaker connections. Just read the manual!

Alan

[RDWER123]

Thanks, I'll wait to get some proper DIN speaker plugs because I'm cack-handed at the best of times and if anyone is going to short something fannying about with cocktail sticks it'll be me.

[DMcMahon]

Originally Posted by ajgriff

This eBay seller is offering suitable plugs with screw connections so no soldering required:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331395432...Bk9SR8CmhOy_YQ

Alan

I have used these exact DIN plugs from the same seller, they are good.

One thing to be aware of is that the hole diameter for the speaker cables can be tight/too small for some heavy duty speaker cables, similarly the cable entry shroud may be tight/too small for some heavy duty speaker cables. Same issue would probably apply with similar DIN plugs from other sellers.

David

[Nickthedentist]

... in which case, you'd be better off using "normal" speaker wire.

0.75mm sq. lighting flex is ample for most things.

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by RDWER123

The back panel confuses me, links and pre amp/main amp things I don't really get and will probably leave alone.

The links are so that you can use the unit as either a standalone tuner/preamplifier, or as a standalone power amplifier.

As you don't want to do this, then you don't need to worry about them and just leave them in place.

[PaulR]

I think they may have expected a a graphic equaliser to be inserted here as well as the other uses.

[RDWER123]

I see doing some searches that many of the experts on here do not like DIN speaker plugs. Do they actually degrade the sound quality, or is it jus that they are a bit fragile.

[RDWER123]

Grammar

[RDWER123]

Sorry, don't know what I did there, was trying to add a question mark

[ajgriff]

It's now a long time ago but I used an amplifier with DIN speaker plugs for many years with no issues whatsoever. However if you're a fan (I'm not) of big chunky speaker cables DIN plugs are a problem as already mentioned.

Alan

[DMcMahon]

Personally have never encountered a problem with 2 pin speaker DINs in terms of sound quality or fragility.

David

[John123]

I've only ever had issues with speaker-side (female) DIN plug and socket arrangements, as they tend to fall out quite easily if/ when the speaker is moved, or the cable gets lifted about whilst hoovering, etc.