CCRDude
2008-04-05, 11:53
I'm a big fan of those old, bulky, 50s/60s radios, those mono-tube-things we all might remember from our grandparents. Quite some time ago, I thought about adding a CD drive to one to allow some modern use, but never got around to do that. Lately, with most of my music ripped in mp3 and re-ripped in flac, I was thinking about it again, since it wouldn't mean slicing the housing for the CD slot.
Ok, first an important point: I would never have "destroyed" a working tube radio - that would be kind of an oldtimer, nearly antique ;) So I went to eBay and bought a broken radio, a Blaupunkt Granada. Only to let it set in a corner for a few months because I wasn't too sure how to mod it in a preserving way.
In the end, I decided I had to get rid of the old mono tube amplifier, so I went ahead and removed all the inner partly dead "life". Then, my next action was to remove the old front board canvas (looking and smelling like kitchen), and replace it with a new one (two layers of canvas, one fine to avoid that the wood could be seen, one coarse for the look).
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4428/granadakorpusneuerstofffw4.jpg
At this point, I had to give up the Soundbridge, since it's housing was too thick, and bought and disassembled a Squeezebox instead:
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8677/granadaplayeropenedue7.jpg
Here's the housing part that is about to carry the Squeezebox, after lengthy hours of getting the right cuts into the thick metal, which is the main reason I gave up the Soundbridge: I would've had to use a flex to cut out a part as large as Soundbridge itself, and some of the attached structure behind it, and all in all created a way more difficult to mount mess.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/8374/granadaeinschubdrilledqu2.jpg
And here's the Squeezebox mounted and playing:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3378/granadaplayermountedfe1.jpg
Now, the important part left were the electrics; you've seen the amplifier (E-SA9, chosen for its small size I have to admit) in an earlier picture; I added two frequency crossovers and six Visaton speaker (two low midrange in the front, and two cone midrange and two dome tweeters for the sides); here's a non-final version of the mounted electrics:
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/6564/granadaelectricsyd0.jpg
Once that was playing (and the sound was much better than I had anticipated, very clear, no audible noise, and a really good stereo room feeling I never would've expected from both channels in the same housing), the only thing left was the front. I wanted to give it the antique radio feeling, keeping all the old buttons and control wheels, so my first thought was to replace the amplifiers potentionmeters with new ones mounted in place of the original ones. Changing the amplifier electrics could have unexpected influences on the sound though, so I ended up placing the amplifier control board exactly where I could just use an axle extension, and gave up treble and bass controls. With some slight modifications, I could solder the power cord to the old switches though, so that both volume and power are still the old way.
The final task was the front plate. The old radio scale wouldn't have allowed me to see the SBs display, so I went to a glazier's workshop. And nearly fell from my chair when he called me back with a cost estimate a week later. The whole mod wasn't a cheap one, but paying more than 200 bucks for a colored glass plate? I opted for a standard glass plate for a tenth of the price, and decided to "paint" it myself. Finding the proper paint was a bit challenging; the glazier told me a special paint imported from Australia would have to be used, but after some experiments that showed that standard spray paint doesn't attach itself very well to glas, I ended up with black car underbody protection spray, a cheap but absolutely perfect solution. No fancy colorful lines (that wouldn't have been in the glaziers version either), but a very nice black finish (sprayed on the inside, quite like the original, so that the front is easy to clean simple glas still).
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8838/granadafrontplatecb4.jpg
And finally, everything mounted, about a year later (yes, I had a few "thinking" periods in which I forgot to continue the work ;) ), the final result, a Squeezebox-Granada combination that, except for the display and the slightly simpler front plate, doesn't show a clue that it's been updated 50 years into the present, and has working operation elements (though I mostly use the remote of course). The screensaver shown there was most fitting of the ones I tested; if you know about any third-party one that would even more "antique", please let me know.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4033/squeezeboxgranadagz9.png
Ok, first an important point: I would never have "destroyed" a working tube radio - that would be kind of an oldtimer, nearly antique ;) So I went to eBay and bought a broken radio, a Blaupunkt Granada. Only to let it set in a corner for a few months because I wasn't too sure how to mod it in a preserving way.
In the end, I decided I had to get rid of the old mono tube amplifier, so I went ahead and removed all the inner partly dead "life". Then, my next action was to remove the old front board canvas (looking and smelling like kitchen), and replace it with a new one (two layers of canvas, one fine to avoid that the wood could be seen, one coarse for the look).
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/4428/granadakorpusneuerstofffw4.jpg
At this point, I had to give up the Soundbridge, since it's housing was too thick, and bought and disassembled a Squeezebox instead:
http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/8677/granadaplayeropenedue7.jpg
Here's the housing part that is about to carry the Squeezebox, after lengthy hours of getting the right cuts into the thick metal, which is the main reason I gave up the Soundbridge: I would've had to use a flex to cut out a part as large as Soundbridge itself, and some of the attached structure behind it, and all in all created a way more difficult to mount mess.
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/8374/granadaeinschubdrilledqu2.jpg
And here's the Squeezebox mounted and playing:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/3378/granadaplayermountedfe1.jpg
Now, the important part left were the electrics; you've seen the amplifier (E-SA9, chosen for its small size I have to admit) in an earlier picture; I added two frequency crossovers and six Visaton speaker (two low midrange in the front, and two cone midrange and two dome tweeters for the sides); here's a non-final version of the mounted electrics:
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/6564/granadaelectricsyd0.jpg
Once that was playing (and the sound was much better than I had anticipated, very clear, no audible noise, and a really good stereo room feeling I never would've expected from both channels in the same housing), the only thing left was the front. I wanted to give it the antique radio feeling, keeping all the old buttons and control wheels, so my first thought was to replace the amplifiers potentionmeters with new ones mounted in place of the original ones. Changing the amplifier electrics could have unexpected influences on the sound though, so I ended up placing the amplifier control board exactly where I could just use an axle extension, and gave up treble and bass controls. With some slight modifications, I could solder the power cord to the old switches though, so that both volume and power are still the old way.
The final task was the front plate. The old radio scale wouldn't have allowed me to see the SBs display, so I went to a glazier's workshop. And nearly fell from my chair when he called me back with a cost estimate a week later. The whole mod wasn't a cheap one, but paying more than 200 bucks for a colored glass plate? I opted for a standard glass plate for a tenth of the price, and decided to "paint" it myself. Finding the proper paint was a bit challenging; the glazier told me a special paint imported from Australia would have to be used, but after some experiments that showed that standard spray paint doesn't attach itself very well to glas, I ended up with black car underbody protection spray, a cheap but absolutely perfect solution. No fancy colorful lines (that wouldn't have been in the glaziers version either), but a very nice black finish (sprayed on the inside, quite like the original, so that the front is easy to clean simple glas still).
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8838/granadafrontplatecb4.jpg
And finally, everything mounted, about a year later (yes, I had a few "thinking" periods in which I forgot to continue the work ;) ), the final result, a Squeezebox-Granada combination that, except for the display and the slightly simpler front plate, doesn't show a clue that it's been updated 50 years into the present, and has working operation elements (though I mostly use the remote of course). The screensaver shown there was most fitting of the ones I tested; if you know about any third-party one that would even more "antique", please let me know.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4033/squeezeboxgranadagz9.png