L-O's projects of eternity...

[Line Out]

I don't know if there is a better term for a project that lasts forever or at least seems like so... in Finland we often have the thing called "ikuisuusprojekti". So here is a list of my ongoing or not so ongoing restorations, customizations, tunings or other non-sense hobbyisms. Will try to add some photos too, if not too lazy.
EDIT: Updated 3/2018

Crown CSC-850L
fix:
-few broken screw posts
-broken piece on the right lower part (the foot)
-little cracked on the upper part (handles)
-rattling
change:
-worn belts
add/change/tweak:
-better lights (with the option to keep them lit)
-battery charger for a 14.8V Li-Po

Philips D8444
add/change/tweak:
-digital amp
-tweeters

Hitachi 3D80
fix:
-little cosmetics, grille paint etc.
tweak/change:
-speakers, amplifiers

Palladium 872-075
fix:
-tape 1 (lubricate)

ICS STR 5099A
add/tweak/change:
-led level meters from an old car booster/equalizer
-digital amplifier
-speakers
-speaker cabinets
-integrated subwoofer in the big chassis?

Hitachi TRK-9300W
change:
-speakers
-belts

Philips 70CD555
fix:
CD player display and buttons
add/tweak/change:
-MP3/PMP -player to replace missing tape deck
-integrate high voltage Li-Po battery & charger
-speakers
-crossovers

Sound 4008
adjust:
-cassette playing little too fast

Sharp GF-575
change:
-speakers
get:
-tape 2 door
-function switch cap


I miss this moment


Sharp GF-8686
get:
-deck door

Sharp GF-9494X
fix/tweak:
-straighten up the molten side
Sanyo M 9990LU
fix:
-few screw posts
change:
-belts

I think I bought a bit too much in a hurry (okay, it was a mental thing)... Well, at least I can't say "I don't have anything to do".

Here is one groupshot of the boxes I hooked up to an car DSP and played them all at once in a few different events (2015 and 2016)


First time in action (all running from a 100Ah+ car battery), early 2015

Summer 2016

(this gig was a small disaster: running late, hooking up took ages, the steel container made some horrific phase problems, resulting a minimal sound output, that had to be remedied with the in-house PA)

End of summer 2016

Here we used a pair of PA-speakers to make more bass (I really hated the idea), but the night was ok.

 

[jimmyjimmy19702010]

You certainly have a few projects going at once!

Regarding the Hitachi TRK-9300, I did very similar work to a well worn example I picked up a year or 2 ago. I had the original speakers (with wizzer cone) professionaly refoamed, added high quality audio speaker box padding, did a complete recap minus the tuner board. I also had to do some resoldering of the speaker output circuit board plus added audio quality speaker cables to replace the thin, dodgy wires that were wired in by a novice previous owner. This work fixed sound quality and restored the Hitachi's ability to produce strong bass without distorting excessively.

The work you are contemplating will be worth the work as the TRK-9300 are quite a powerful unit when running right.The speakers in your example don't look to be the originals though.

Have fun,

James....

 

[Line Out]

Yes, the TRK is built like a tank. IIRC, it weighs about 8 kilograms without batteries! And it has a distinctive sound when turned on, its probably from a relay. Whats really spooky is that if you power it on, power it off, remove it from mains and let it sit for months and then go and flick the switch, without AC or batteries, you can still hear the relay klicking it on...

BTW, previous owner had replaced the woofers with some generic ones as you can see from the photo. Though they may be decent quality. But I have a pair of Macrom 4" mids (from 2-way component system) with phase plugs and aluminium -look cones. Those would probably have much clearer mid to high section.

 

[im_alan_partridge]

Haha, that sounds just like my project list. So much to do and so little time

 

[superlew]

Whoa. I've got 2 projects going on right now and I'm overwhelmed. Best of luck to ya!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

Wow man, your really in knee's deep! I really need to write down a list of repairs to radios that need to be done. I keep buying and keep forgetting to get back to repairing!

Great work!

 

[Line Out]

I found a TV-repair guy near to my location, and he had quite a lot of belts in his storage. I got the Philips back to life, got a new rectifier for it. But the humming/motorboating is still there. I will try to disable the ALC and take the signal to the new amp from a different spot, to maybe get more volume. ATM, cassettte is playing at very low output. FM is okay but it's a bit weird because the bass is overpowering. At least compared to cassette.

EDIT: I revisited both of the D8444 amps datasheets and now I must say, they did put fine amps in, but installed speakers with kinda idiotic specs and used two D-cells too little.

Originals are 8 ohms for the mid/highs and 4 ohms for the bass. The TDA2004 and TDA2003 are specially designed to drive low loads down to 1.6 ohm, but they put the 8 & 4ohm speakers in. With 10 D-cells and 3.2 ohm speakers it would've pushed up to 8 watts @ 10% THD per channel. Bass (TDA2003) would've had about the same power, 8W at 3.2 ohms or 11W @ 2 ohms.

I bet one could easily use the D8444 with a 14.8V Li-po battery without damage and double the power for the bass. With the mains connected, the voltage reads about 13.5-13.9V from the transformer without any load. The amplifiers are rated to work at 18V. Of course there is other components that should be considered too but for example, my D8634 has more than 20V of voltage when its used with mains.

EDIT: Turns out that the Palladium does NOT have any highpass, just confirmed it with Crown CSC-850L front cover with speakers hooked to the Palladium. With a bass knob little on the positive side, that thing pounds... Also confirmed that Palladium speakers lack bass altogether, playing them on the Crowns amplifier and the low end was really weak even with loudness on, bass to the max and stereo wide (should give the final oomph), but no. So, here's the plan. The Sanyo M9994 has really sweet sound for its size, so lets try those speakers... though they have seen their best days and are in "no show" -condition.

Here is some testing with the Crown faceplate

Palladium speakers

Sanyo speakers

May be that the 6 ohms is not so well suited but we'll find out.

The other option (more preferable) is to use the speakers from the matt black super jumbo (ICS), it has a high power ratings on those and they are 3,2 ohms if I remember correctly.

EDIT2: Well, the sound was indeed better, but it somewhat lacked. Then I tought what the h*ll and tried the GF-700 speakers. First the other only, and there was a significant difference in the sensitivity for 3.2 ohms VS 6 ohms. Then I put both in, looks sweet, dont you think?

I really like the looks now.

The higher bass/low midrange is kinda high and the "hitting" bass still lacks, but that has been the case in the GF-700 too, the speakers are much weaker on the bass dept. versus the speakers in GF-575. But for some reason, the 575 speakers don't match each other, the other has different basket and it lacks bass... so not usable for this one. Should try to fill the cabinet with a foam plastic... Because the sound is a bit "empty" on a big empty box.

 

[Line Out]

Now installed the ICS woofers to the Palladium, best yet. I tried the 3D80 woofers too, but they distorted quite easily.

Removed and opened both mode switches, cleaned them and put them back together. Sh*t happened and now the main switch works really bad. I must made a mistake when put them back together...

Bad thing is that the 3D80 woofers surrounds glue had dried up and now they should be glued back together. Don't know if the loose surrounds made the distortion or are they just "used up"... because the 3D80 has very limited power output and most obviusly when cranked, its driving the woofers with lot of distortion. That will eventually "cook" the voice coils and they can start distorting more easily or they just burn the lacquer and then the voice coil is done.

3D80 Indicator led problem is solved but not fixed. Seems like one or another led has blown and maybe its blown the other too. They are connected in series. The other led showed about 4-6V voltage. So it would need 3mm red leds. Maybe it would be best to add a bit aggression to the box and put those superbright 3mm red leds in it. Or maybe 2x green 1x yellow and 2xred... I could add resistors to adjust the brightness so that the 2 reds would be super bright and the other not so much. Would give a nice look when they are bouncing.

 

[Line Out]

Okay, got the Siemens back to life, for a while, then as I was inserting the mains plug, fuse blew. Seems either a small design fault or just something wrong with the mains connector...

Then, tried the Sanyo M9990LU speakers to the Sound 4008 (Conion CRC-H58) and man! The original Fostex speakers are totally worthless compared to these. Sure they can be loud but nothing on the lower frequencies.

EDIT: Oh and forgot. The 3D80 leds are now working, found some super bright white/bluish 3mm leds and put them in. Ooh, its flashy now when the signal hits +3dB... But I'm doing some speaker surgery to it too.

EDIT: 3D80... should cut the chassis to handle the big magnets on the woofers.


Sound much more powerful with a 11.1V lipo than AC, this has a weak transformer, leds are blinking already on moderate volumes. With lipo, no blinking whatsoever, just pure power. Though it hits the limit quite fast, low powered amp is to blame. Maybe I'll mod a D-class amp for the 3D system, should punch about 2 x 15W to the woofers.

EDIT3: Oh, now it pounds a a little more, bass is tight and deep, volume is ok. It was Really(!) tight fit. The woofer magnets needed lot of space and I had to cut the chassis with just the most basic hand tools, knife, razor and some pliers. Hands really feel like they've been to work.

Videoclip after the break, if youtube wont stuck at "processing..."

EDIT4: Few pics to show how tight the fit was. I even had to cut the PCB!

 

[Lasonic TRC-920]

That's allot of work right there!

That 3D looks SWEET!

 

[Line Out]

Would need to take some pictures, better video too.

But right now... The Sound 4008 is one of my new favourites! I exchanged the 3D80 woofers, that I fixed and "tweaked". Glued the upper surround back on and gave the surround a silicone treatment with a q-tip.

I must say, that Sound (Conion) goes helluva loud! And it now have a very punchy bass, not the lowest but really powerful. Also found a suitable belt for the tape counter and that also remedied the crazily spinning reel after releasing FF with Play engaged.

Also found that it has a fine working line in too. Attach DIN-connector, place some plastic tubes inside both MIC inputs and to the remote also, that will prevent the motor from spinning. Then just hook the source in and press play! There is switches inside the mic jacks that switch the input on.

Heres a picture of it recording from a computer

 

[squeeezebox]

nice work, my 3d80 needs a little work, the ff on tape 1 doesnt work, also theres a loud noise when using tape 2 (maybe thats the motor boating sound you mentioned) 1 side of the handle is broke also, hopefully wont be a difficult fix.

 

[caution]

Going to threadjack briefly...
Hey squeeezebox, I just noticed that you are the 2,000th user to register on the site. Welcome aboard and congrats

 

[Reli]

So those are M9990 speakers in the Sound?

 

[squeeezebox]

Going to threadjack briefly...
Hey squeeezebox, I just noticed that you are the 2,000th user to register on the site. Welcome aboard and congrats

2000th so does that mean i get a gift? im thinking gf777.
anyway line out, if you can help me with the grinding noise id appreciate it, i fixed the handle, the plastic noggin had broken off, i need to order the correct size bands and replace them too.

 

[Line Out]

So those are M9990 speakers in the Sound?

ATM, they are the 3D80 woofers and its goes insanely loud with fine bass. Perfect match.

Squeezebox, sorry, but hard to say whats causing the noise... Is it from the speakers and not mechanical?

Been very lazy lately and haven't done much. Though I have an idea of throwing some kind of "underground" outdoors techno party at the old partially abandoned slaughterhouse when the spring comes. At the moment I've listed 9-11 boxes that I could play simultaneously there. 7 boxes are no problem (RCA in-out-in-out and so on) but I have at least three or four boxes that want DIN connection. And they all are a little different in terms of sensitivity, Crown being the most sensitive and Sound being the most forgiving (best ALC).

I thought of running them all with a few car batteries. Should be able to blast at least for an hour or so, maybe two or three...

 

[squeeezebox]

ATM, they are the 3D80 woofers and its goes insanely loud with fine bass. Perfect match.

Squeezebox, sorry, but hard to say whats causing the noise... Is it from the speakers and not mechanical?

Been very lazy lately and haven't done much. Though I have an idea of throwing some kind of "underground" outdoors techno party at the old partially abandoned slaughterhouse when the spring comes. At the moment I've listed 9-11 boxes that I could play simultaneously there. 7 boxes are no problem (RCA in-out-in-out and so on) but I have at least three or four boxes that want DIN connection. And they all are a little different in terms of sensitivity, Crown being the most sensitive and Sound being the most forgiving (best ALC).

I thought of running them all with a few car batteries. Should be able to blast at least for an hour or so, maybe two or three...

through the speakers.

 

[eli]

I'm just glad to hear that other people have a list of repairs that they want to do but haven't gotten to yet!!
Makes me feel better about my long list-------

 

[Cpl-Chronic]

good deals brah!!! NOYCE!!!

Like the looks of the modded 3D woofer radio....the leds & the new cans look sharp...

Cpl

 

[oldskool69]

Don't feel bad about repairs. They take awhile...some years. It's the journey and the finish that counts.

I have loads of broke sh*t in my BASSment.