Retro Radio Redux - Part 2

Following up to my earlier posts (MRR RSM RRR-1 RRR-1.5) I had promised a video of the unit in action. I finally managed to upload the same. Enjoy!!

Most people think that it just sits there and does nothing - then I fire it up!!!!!

Sorry!! No Video

Apologies. I promised to post a video showing my Retro Squeezebox in action and the camera just would not cooperate. Will post as soon as I have it.

Retro Radio Redux - Part 1.5

It's done. It's complete. It's amazing.

I plan on posting a video tomorrow of the unit in action.

I played uncompressed .wav files though the unit and it sounds simply amazing.

Remember that the speakers are old Creative FourPointSurrounds that I've had since 2002, so it could always be better. My original plan was to shoehorn my Rotel RC-931 integrated amplifier along with my Acoustic Energy speakers into the unit.

I took the path of least resistance in order to get the unit up and running. More mods will follow.

Media Center Build - Part 1

Building a Music Server has been one of the projects that I've wanted to do for the longest time. However, I needed that the Server not look like a computer as I wanted it to reside with my current Audio Components.

HTPC cases are all the rage right now, but the prices fall nowhere within my budget. Which is in the same range as President Bush's popularity. Zero.

I needed this built - and soon. I'm almost finished with the Turntable Monitor and the Squeezebox Mod. Both of these rely of having somewhere to read the information off.

I lucked out at the ReStore when I happened upon a very nicely maintained receiver from the Seventies. It looked about the right size to hold a PC Power Supply and a Motherboard with any daughter cards if and when required.

Turns out that the unit was a Luxman. Anyways, I plugged it in and it did not work. Could it have been repaired?? I plead the 5th on that.

I've so far gutted the unit, removed all of the PCB's desoldered the front panel controls from their PCB's as these will screw back onto the front panel as dummy units. The only things that will work on the front panel are of course the lights, which will light up the tuning dial, the Power button and reset button. The FM Stereo indicator will light up as the PC power indicator and the FM Signal Meter will act as the Hard Disk Drive activity indicator.

On the inside, I do not need anything powerful and will be installing one of my older machines running a scaled down version of Windows XP.

More on that soon.

Retro Radio Redux - Part 1

This is just me being totally impatient. The Radio is nowhere near complete, but all cosmetics are in place. After finding out that the cheapest roll of window tint was CAD 17.00, I decided to beg as a cheaper option.

Turns out that beggars are on to a good thing. The first two shops said that they were not in the habit of maintaining any of the scraps as they were generally of no use to anyone. The third shop invited me in, took an interest in what I was going to use the tint for and gave me a piece for free. This guy did not believe in throwing anything out. Probably was an Indian in a previous life.

After tinting the glass, I mounted the grille cloth (Parts Express # 261-810) and reassembled the entire unit together. I have yet to get some dummy potentiometers to hold the knobs in place. The knobs have no function as the Squeezebox has a remote controlled volume, with a built in Pre-Amp stage.

I mounted the Squeezebox in place just to see if it was visible through the tinted glass. Here are some pictures of what the unit will look like, sitting in my Living Room and pretending to be that what it is not.

Pictures were handheld and without flash as that would wash out the display.

In Screensaver mode - Faux Analogue VU meters

Now Playing - From my Music Library on my Laptop

Searching for Internet Radio - Bosnia anyone????

A Station in Amsterdam

Railroad Radio in Vancouver

Retro Squeezebox Mod

In 2007, I posted my latest aquisition, a Murphy Radio from the 60's or 70's. See here.

In the summer of 2008, Jita, Lynda's good friend and my Logitech Godess gave me a Slim Devices Squeezebox 3. Only this week, I plugged it in and set the unit up. It is an amazing device which gives you access to all you music on your PC as well as a host of Internet Stations. It's only drawback being that it needs to be connected to a Stereo. This has since been addressed by the Squeezebox Boom. But I digress.

I now plan to integrate the Squeezebox 3 with a pair of Amplified Creative Speakers into the carcass of the now restored Murphy Radio set.

It's a Work In Progress and I will be posting pictures soon.