Classic Hifi Care

Howdy-

I'm wparks from Lewiston, northern Idaho. Lewiston is a small-medium town (35k) at the confluence of the massive Snake and Clearwater rivers, so is an actual ocean-going sea port way over here in the Idaho panhandle. We're at 700 feet elevation and deep down in a large volcanic valley so the weather is extremely mild. I'm a retired electrical engineer who specialized in microprocessor design and validation for HP and Intel until I burned out, sold everything, and ran to play hooky in the off-grid lifestyle of the rural countryside. Best move =ever=.

Now that I know more or less what I want to be when I grow up I'm following up on a dream of my younger self to design discrete electronics. I cut my teeth on mainframes with monochrome monitors before the internet was even a thing, so getting to learn about all of the new technologies available now to the amateur hobbyist has been very empowering. I have a rekindled and growing passion for high quality audio, and have begun learning, assembling and experimenting with my hi-fi gear. I am limiting myself at first to a low budget, first buying entry level and vintage, modifying, designing and building for myself as much as possible. I want to maximize the fun and the experience of the journey rather than making blind jumps into what I guess would be my "end game" equipment- crawling before running and all that. First, learn all I can, then really come to understand what is good, what makes it good, and why. Part of this is learning about myself, what I like, what is a good fit for me. HOW exactly do tubes sound vs. to solid state, silicon vs. germanium, class A vs AB, op-amp vs transistor or op-amp flavors? I can listen all day to other's opinions on how the landscape looks, but I really need to go look for myself.

Music that is flowing in my blood: Portishead, Tool and more Tool, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Gorillaz, some classical, and I'm exploring jazz.

Some initial gear I own and am learning/having fun with (did I say low budget?):
Sony SSCS5 speakers - my favorite starter speakers and best sounding I have ever owned (so far . . .)
Philips SHP-9500 Headphones - Inherited from my father and discovered on my own just how sweet they are- Thanks Pop!
1961 Magnavox 9302 15W 6BQ5 tube amp - A $40 console pull I reworked into an audiophile contender with Dave Gillespie's mods from Audiokarma
1978 Magnavox R344 12W white trash transistor chassis from a $20 console I turned into a pretty stand-alone wooden cabinet integrated receiver
1962 Magnavox A531 15W Germanium transistor chassis I bought online for $25 that I am restoring and modifying
Mid 70's Philips GA212 "touch button" turntable thrift store find I repaired using with Dad's Shure M91E cart
Denon DCD-1500ii CD player - my only piece of audiophile pedigree bought for $10 that just needed new tray belts (knowledge =IS= power)

Current or Recent projects I have built or are building:
"Combat Audio" +/-15V @1.5A regulated power supply in an army surplus ammo can for powering all of my DIY op-amp audio gear
Phono Preamp based upon Rod Elliott's ESP project 06 Hi-Fi Phono Preamp that is the best sounding I have heard (comparing across 4 others)
Most excellent headphone amplifier based upon Rod Elliott's ESP Project 113 that drives my 32 Ohm cans to tantric ecstasy. Oh so good!
Modifying a several crappy Fisher "Studio Standard" :ROFLMAO: (B.P.C. era) amplifiers into something somewhat respectable
Repairing and cleaning junked stereos and boom-boxes for donation to local charities
Crappy Acoustic Monitor PSM-1250 12" 3-way retro design tower speakers I am gutting and redesigning into something respectable.


I have learned an incredible amount about electronics design as supported by my education, and a lot about what makes good audio. I have a voracious appetite for new knowledge, and I love to teach what I have learned. I'm here to listen, learn, and teach when I can. Looks like a fun group.

-Warren

Welcome to the forum! This is a friendly group of stereo console enthusiasts, very knowledgeable and willing to help. We support and encourage the preservation of all kinds of vintage audio equipment, possibly specializing in console stereos. We have also been known to engage in conversation about other "toys" particularly old cars. You might want to refer to the "Our Other Toys" board, further down the index page. We look forward to hearing about your projects and you sharing your work with them. Again, welcome to the forum, make yourself at home.

Another welcome, this time from a mid-country ocean-access port in Michigan on the Great Lakes! Our Lakes have world-wide navigation opportunities via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal. Those connectors also gave us the sea lamprey, which almost wiped our our native Lake Trout and the zebra and quagga mussels from northern Europe that are having huge effects on our ecosystem. But every time I set sail in my sailboats, there's the notion that I could keep going and reach any port in the world. We get lots of shipments of wind turbines, their towers, and blades via heavy-lift ships from Europe.

It would be interesting to hear details of your modification and enhancement projects. Silk purses from sow's ears.... Stereophile magazine, a guilty pleasure, always touts devices that cost more than my first house. Getting good sound from a humble device is fun. And the tray-belt project too. I have a couple old Magnavox CD players that need a bit of help with a small pry tool when they have been sitting.

And as a tech guy, you may be able to advise on dealing with damaged flexible connectors, the kind that have conductors printed onto a flexible plastic substrate. I have an old CD player on which the ribbon tore when I got fumble-fingered in doing another repair. And just last night I was examining a GPS unit a neighbor gave me with a torn screen connector. Surely there's some fix.

Chris Campbell

Hello and Welcome Warren !

We look forward to your advice and projects
as they come along.

I am still learning a LOT of basic electronics here,
but it's very rewarding to apply it.

Thanks for joining.

Welcome, Warren, from another Michigander who lives just south of Chris. Well just south means about a 2-hour drive. There are actually several of us Michiganders here on the forum, we may even have you all out numbered.

I look forward to your posts, and like Mr. Mogul, I am new to this game but always enjoy what others are doing and how they do it.

Bill

Wow- Thank you for the warm welcome everyone! Very nice to hear from you and meet you. I look forward to longer conversations as I am able.

What brought me here were the search hits when looking up information on my several Magnavox projects. It has been disappointing just how little good service information is online for such an incredibly popular and ubiquitous line of audio products. I assume this is a combination of too few people skilled in electronics servicing, and the lack of audiophile pedigree of anything Magnavox. That, and people just don't think of others often enough- they get what they need and leave. Imagine my surprise finding a board that has consoles as a major focus. I wish I had found this somewhat earlier.

As you said Chris, getting good sound from a humble device IS great fun. My intention is to provide content that will bring to this forum more internet searchers- I want to do write-ups and photos of each of my projects, link to the information that I was able to find out there, and upload the Sams and other schematics I have purchased into the Downloads database, to make them available to other Magnavox owners and DIY'ers in general. These Maggie offerings are great fun, and an incredible opportunity for the budget limited and tinkerer. I admire and respect restoring and keeping full consoles as they are historical, but there are too many examples that are beyond salvation and otherwise going to the landfill, yet the amplifiers and speakers in them are very much worth saving. I'm hoping to keep more of these out of the landfill, and illustrate that audiophile potential that many of these have.

Thanks again for the warm welcome, and I look forward to listening more than talking, and contributing where and when I can. -Warren

I am not an expert, by any means, but I collect Magnavox console stereos. I collect tube stereos that have P-P audio, including the bi-amped models. I have lowest in price to highest, with a Stereo Theater in the middle of the lineup. Technically, I still need a "little" Imperial to complete the lineup, but a Stereo Theater is basically a little Imperial with a TV set in the middle of the cabinet. I have a Concert Grand, an Imperial, the Stereo Theater, a Symphony, a 1ST616 and a 2ST653 Contemporary, circa 1963. They each have their own personality. I just finished a component by component restoration of the Imperial and there is a topic on the Magnavox board about that project. I took the Stereo Theater apart to the last screw, refinished the cabinet, redid the electronics and redid the TV, which took me three years. The Concert Grand was $995 new plus MPX and external speakers, the 2ST653 was around $250. The little one does not give an inch to the Concert Grand. The Stereo Theater is a kluge of off-the-shelf parts, but is also a work of art.

We look forward to following your projects and hope you will jump right in and feel at home.

TC Chris wrote: ↑Fri Sep 27, 2024 9:39 pm Another welcome, this time from a mid-country ocean-access port in Michigan on the Great Lakes! Our Lakes have world-wide navigation opportunities via the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal. Those connectors also gave us the sea lamprey, which almost wiped our our native Lake Trout and the zebra and quagga mussels from northern Europe that are having huge effects on our ecosystem. But every time I set sail in my sailboats, there's the notion that I could keep going and reach any port in the world. We get lots of shipments of wind turbines, their towers, and blades via heavy-lift ships from Europe.

It would be interesting to hear details of your modification and enhancement projects. Silk purses from sow's ears.... Stereophile magazine, a guilty pleasure, always touts devices that cost more than my first house. Getting good sound from a humble device is fun. And the tray-belt project too. I have a couple old Magnavox CD players that need a bit of help with a small pry tool when they have been sitting.

And as a tech guy, you may be able to advise on dealing with damaged flexible connectors, the kind that have conductors printed onto a flexible plastic substrate. I have an old CD player on which the ribbon tore when I got fumble-fingered in doing another repair. And just last night I was examining a GPS unit a neighbor gave me with a torn screen connector. Surely there's some fix.

Chris Campbell

Hi Chris-
I wanted to reply in more detail to your post. Yes- local access to the rest of the world via the sea port certainly brings unforeseen challenges and uncomfortable compromises- You mention the zebra and quagga muscles- We here on the Snake and Clearwater rivers are also dealing with this challenge- They have gone so far as poisoning stretches of the river to try and nip it in the bud before they get established, and yet they keep re-appearing. We have boat inspection stations everywhere and they can't seem to stop the spread. We also have problems with declining Salmon and Steelhead- Ships must pass through a series of locks at multiple dams between here at 800 feet and sea level, and each are a barrier preventing fish migration and it has been a struggle keeping runs healthy. You may have heard a lot of debate about breaching at least some of the dams. However, it's not without a cost- a full 10% of all grain produced in the USA is shipped out of the port of Lewiston to the rest of the world via this sea lane. Hydro-electric power is plentiful in Washington and Oregon because of the dams, and the irrigation resource they provide supports massive agriculture.

My father was an avid self taught sailor. He was based out of Oak Harbor on Whidbey island in the Puget Sound. He had a 30' Tartan with teak interior that was a British blue-water design. Frequently he would disappear and single-hand it up the Canadian coast to explore and hide in the many inlets for weeks at a time, so I sure understand that desire. Mom and I were thankful that he never had inspiration to travel further.

Where I lived before Lewiston was in Fort Collins, Colorado- (They too are fighting the zebra muscles) Near Fort Collins was a Vestas wind turbine plant- They manufactured several different sizes of the fiberglass blades there for distribution across the western US. My son in law worked in the plant, hand-laying the fiberglass and other composites to build them. Fascinating technology, and fascinating to watch how the biggest ones are shipped. Some of the longest ones lay across the length two full flatbed rail cars supported by a rotary cradle at each end that could twist and keep the blade straight as the cars went around a bend. What monsters.

On the CD players- either message me or start a post with some pictures and a detailed description of what problems are that you are having, and we can work through them. If they are newer it is almost always very simple stuff- belts, cleaning, switches, or fixing wear. The older ones however often require touchy manual electrical alignments and can be quite involved and difficult, but may be worth it on higher valued models.

Fixing flexible ribbon connectors may be possible if the conductors are copper and wide enough to accept solder. I have done these repairs done but it is difficult. You have to abrade off an area of the outermost plastic layer on either side of the break to expose the conductors. I seem to remember careful scraping with an exacto could be easiest, otherwise very fine grit wet/dry sand paper can be used. Once shiny copper is exposed on each side of the break, flow it with rosin and roll a bead of hot solder across it. If the tear is ragged or conductors too fine, it may just not want to bridge the gap and want to short the wires together. It's hit and miss really. Interesting side note- I worked with an engineer in Colorado who had a patent on a method to do just this- He was in the business of repairing HP ink cartridges. HP got tired of refillers cracking open the cartridge, refilling and reselling them, so HP started cutting the fine ribbon connector between the ink jets and the terminal pads on the side of the cartridge. He invented a clear plastic adhesive tape, that had ultra fine pitched lines of gold on the face of the sticky side. A remanufacturer could then just abrade or dissolve the coating off of the cut ribbon, and slap a piece of this tape over it aligning the gold stripes with the copper conductors and viola! instant fix. The pitch of the gold lines was many times finer than the pitch of the ribbon conductors, which made it useful for any pitch of conductors.

Anyway, thank you again for the warm welcome. -Warren

I once went from Spokane over to Coeur d'Alene. Nice area for sure.