+3 Sound Issues
I know this has been covered before, but was there ever (or as close to) a definitive answer to the +3's distorted sound and what can be done to the board to rectify it.
If so does anyone have a component list and a piccy of board once they've finished. I've never done electronics, but if there's only diagrams I do know someone who can follow it
cheers
If so does anyone have a component list and a piccy of board once they've finished. I've never done electronics, but if there's only diagrams I do know someone who can follow it
cheers
Post edited by BiNMaN on
Comments
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=24347&highlight=sound
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/forums/showpost.php?p=332483&postcount=13
took a couple of snap shots one from my +3 and one from my +2 over the same area, both boards are identical except the +2 has no drive interface.
I'd post em if I could just work out how to upload em
http://www.speccy.org/foro/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=961
You may not understand the Spanish, but the drawings should hopefully give you an idea. The message by mcleod_ideafix shows how to get sound to the SCART lead (and should not contain the distortion).
The other option is to study the +3 schematics for the version where Amstrad did it right, and put that output circuit on a small daughterboard, and cut the tracks to the faulty circuit.
You can also bodge it acceptably - search for threads in this forum, there's three or four effective "bodge" ideas.
The +2a that has hardwiring is an issue one, I have a +2b that I've just had a look in and it's a 1990 issue 4. The board is different again, which was clear even to me as soon as I opened it.
I'm struggling to learn one language at once at the moment :-) I still have an awful long way to go with Spanish, I find myself agonising for ages with WordReference in another tab trying to make sure what I'm writing actually makes sense and is at least vaguely grammatically correct! Human languages are tough, a hundred times harder than any computer language. I really struggle when trying to actually speak it...but eventually, I am determined to speak it well... I'm absolutely convinced of two things though, (a) you're never too old to learn a language (what you may lose in quick learning ability when you're an adult is more than offset by increased discipline and the fact you have a much higher mental capacity as an adult), and (b) British people are somehow useless at languages - that's a total cop-out. British people are useless at languages because of the hegemony of English, but overwhelmingly because languages are taught completely wrongly in many English speaking countries and taught in ways that make it a chore. (I learned more Spanish in a month than I did of French in over 7 years of school French... I think that says something about language teaching in this country...)
It helps that there are interesting things to read, like ZX Magazine and Microhobby of course :-)
Actually, the next Spectranet video that I'll put on YouTube, I'll do a Spanish version so you can all laugh at my bad accent :-)
Regards,
Shaun.
Because the distortion is generated by the spectrum itself because of a design flaw, remedied in later editions it would still sound poor no matter what.
Bought a scart socket from http://www.dataserve-retro.co.uk/index1.html and a couple of drive belts for my +3. Had an excellent section on servicing +3 drives. The sound was still poor due to the flaw but the display is so clear. My drives now read every disk I put in them Imust have had some of them for nearly 18 years.