1930's radio

[hmmblah]

Finally got around to finishing a project I've had in mind for around 5 years. I mentioned to my wife that I'd love to take an old radio and upgrade it. She found an old 1938 Silvertone 6157 that had been sitting in a barn for the last 50 years for $25!

It was in rough shape. Non-working of course and the internals were used as a litter box for a family of barn cats. Luckily, this made ripping it apart easier to do.

I forgot to take a pic before I started tearing into it, but this is what it originally looked like:

Mine was missing knobs and the cloth was a little torn. There's also some damage on the outside, but that makes it look better IMO. Eventually, the room this is going in will have a steampunk look to it. So many plans, but little to show for it yet!

Some more shots before tearing it apart:

As you can see it was in pretty rough shape. The cords and wiring were chewed in spots and in other spots the insulation just crumbled off. I definitely didn't try plugging it in!

Stripped down some:

 

[AlienALX]

These are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Back when you literally had nothing else these were made to mad quality standards.

I sometimes wonder if we were separated at birth. My buddy Gary did something very similar, will see if I can find the pics.

 

[hmmblah]

These are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Back when you literally had nothing else these were made to mad quality standards.

I sometimes wonder if we were separated at birth. My buddy Gary did something very similar, will see if I can find the pics.

Definitely a show piece. Hard to find anything now on this level unless it's custom. Separated at birth...who knows lol. Nothing surprises me anymore .

My original plan for the project was to leave the front intact. I love the metal details. I thought about having the screen slide out of the top of it. I planned on doing this with an rpi and the 7" rpi screen. The software I'm using is RuneAudio.

Some rpi and 7" screen pics:

HifiBerry amp+ hat - this will allow the rpi to power some bookshelf speakers

All together:

This was the original idea, then I found a use for an old iPad screen...

 

[AlienALX]

Nice ! deffo worth modernising inside tbh.

I would imagine that valve amp would be repairable, but it will only be mono any way.

For the speakers I would probably get a nice set of 6x9. They output a ton of bass, and would work very well with the large cabinet size. Would only really need a ply baffle. Pretty sure you can get grille cloth that's pretty much period correct too. The ones with the gold thread woven through are lovely.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144617197667?hash=item21abdb5063:g:YqQAAOSwkUpitPiO

That should be in your yard too.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-151881-MB-Quart-FKB-169-FKB169.html

For speakers. I love 6x9s because they provide much more bass than anything else. Like they will destroy a 6" regular speaker, and a pair provide enough bass to not need any sort of sub.

 

[Warchild]

Nice ! deffo worth modernising inside tbh.

I would imagine that valve amp would be repairable, but it will only be mono any way.

For the speakers I would probably get a nice set of 6x9. They output a ton of bass, and would work very well with the large cabinet size. Would only really need a ply baffle. Pretty sure you can get grille cloth that's pretty much period correct too. The ones with the gold thread woven through are lovely.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144617197667?hash=item21abdb5063:g:YqQAAOSwkUpitPiO

That should be in your yard too.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-151881-MB-Quart-FKB-169-FKB169.html

For speakers. I love 6x9s because they provide much more bass than anything else. Like they will destroy a 6" regular speaker, and a pair provide enough bass to not need any sort of sub.

Not everything is about bass though. I'd rather speakers that I can sit and hear string play dense with detail. That said, it comes down to what music you are really into. I think my joys of dominant bass tracks are behind me. It's like I have migrated towards music where the audio focuses more towards the vocal track in music. I have my Shure IEMs to blame for that

Have to agree with Alien though, there are some parts on the market today which still feel like they sit well with the antiquated designs of some radios.

 

[hmmblah]

Nice ! deffo worth modernising inside tbh.

I would imagine that valve amp would be repairable, but it will only be mono any way.

For the speakers I would probably get a nice set of 6x9. They output a ton of bass, and would work very well with the large cabinet size. Would only really need a ply baffle. Pretty sure you can get grille cloth that's pretty much period correct too. The ones with the gold thread woven through are lovely.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144617197667?hash=item21abdb5063:g:YqQAAOSwkUpitPiO

That should be in your yard too.

https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-151881-MB-Quart-FKB-169-FKB169.html

For speakers. I love 6x9s because they provide much more bass than anything else. Like they will destroy a 6" regular speaker, and a pair provide enough bass to not need any sort of sub.

It was so full of cat pee that it went straight to the trash can. The shelf it sat on was too so I cut that out of the case. Thankfully, once those were gone the smell went too.

I had some bookshelf speakers around that I used, but they had 0 bass. Never thought about using 6x9's. Ended up buying a powered sub to get some low range. I'm actually really impressed with how it sounds and how little money I have in it.

Wish I would have seen that grille cloth before tbh, but I ended up going dark. It looks pretty good, the wood is much darker in the middle so it all kind of blends together.

Not everything is about bass though. I'd rather speakers that I can sit and hear string play dense with detail. That said, it comes down to what music you are really into. I think my joys of dominant bass tracks are behind me. It's like I have migrated towards music where the audio focuses more towards the vocal track in music. I have my Shure IEMs to blame for that

Have to agree with Alien though, there are some parts on the market today which still feel like they sit well with the antiquated designs of some radios.

I still love my bass, but not overpowering. I put a 10 inch subwoofer in my truck and that is enough most of the time .

 

[AlienALX]

Not everything is about bass though. I'd rather speakers that I can sit and hear string play dense with detail. That said, it comes down to what music you are really into. I think my joys of dominant bass tracks are behind me. It's like I have migrated towards music where the audio focuses more towards the vocal track in music. I have my Shure IEMs to blame for that

Have to agree with Alien though, there are some parts on the market today which still feel like they sit well with the antiquated designs of some radios.

Of course it isn't all about bass dude. I think you misunderstood a little....

Bookshelf speakers are usually sub 6". My Revel M105 are 5.25". Which tbh? is OK. They sound absolutely incredible, measure as so and etc. However, in something like rap? yeah, they are definitely missing that low end grunt. I hardly ever listen to rap (usually when Em releases something new) but yeah, they deffo don't have enough low end grunt.

The sort of perfect size driver for most rooms is 8". However, it still isn't a standalone sub capable of reaching down below where they will bottom out. This is why in cars at least a 6x9 is the perfect solution. Because unless you are bass mad they can do it all, kind of like a swiss army knife.

And I didn't choose the brutish ones at all. MB Quart have always been known for their clarity. They are only cheap now because like every other manu they have gone overseas for construction.

And the reason I chose car speakers over a specific hifi driver? well there are two reasons. One, in car audio there is *a lot* of competition. Meaning driver prices are way, way lower than "hifi" type drivers. That is why I used a 15" car sub in my forever sub. Because basically had I gone to hifi for a sub of that spec? I would have paid about £800 just for the driver. As it turns out I paid £220. And being high excursion? it will pummel pretty much anything else.

The second reason why I would fit those car 6x9s needs a bit more explaining. They are not designed for a strict cabinet size in mind. They are designed to run "free air" or in other words without a cabinet at all. You can cut them into your parcel shelf, for example, and in an open boot/trunk they will hit their measurements whilst being totally unfussy about their enclosure type. Meaning you may even get away with just a baffle leaving the entire back of the radio open. Or, you could also box it in for a much punchier sound.

Another nice thing? the tweeter is mounted directly in the centre. Meaning you don't need to worry about axis so much or a wave guide etc etc.

Now yeah, some of that is all overkill for a project like this but you may as well think about it and design the thing with the best sound in mind eh?

BTW dude RE the cat pee? white distilled vinegar. Cat pee is ammonia, vinegar will neutralise it to a degree. If it still mings? put some water in a spray bottle with some white vinegar and give it a spray.

 

[hmmblah]

I had an old gen 4 iPad lying around collecting dust. Apple ended support for it awhile ago with iOS 10 being the latest version you could update it to. This meant certain apps like Netflix couldn't be updated to the latest version.

Instead of chucking it I found a kit that allows you to turn it's touchscreen into an HDMI display. You have to gut the thing, but sounded like a good project to me. At 9.7" it's quite a bit larger than the 7" rpi screen and a higher resolution.

After prying the iPad apart (seriously, I hate the glue that's on all these mobile devices now) I removed all the internals. I have a few new controller boards that are required for the conversion, but they definitely would not fit inside the iPad chassis. The rpi and hifiBerry need to be installed somewhere as well. I figured the best spot would be the back of the iPad. This would also allow easier mounting of the screen and keep it all together as "one" part.

I had to do a little cutout to allow 2 ribbon cables access to the back of the screen.

I removed all the sharp edges so the ribbon cables wouldn't get cut. There were also a couple internal standoffs that I removed and ground down smooth as well.

Continuing on I laid out where I would place the boards and marked for drill holes. Then added standoffs.

I swapped out the rpi2 with an rpi3 b+ for the finished build. It's quite a bit faster. Here it is mounted on the iPad case with the HifiBerry attached.

Here you can see the HDMI and digitizer boards attached. The blue board is for HDMI and the little green one is for the USB touchscreen.

Last pic has everything together with the screen installed on the iPad case

 

[AlienALX]

Supoib ! that's a fantastic idea, and a way to keep it out of the landfill.

 

[hmmblah]

Supoib ! that's a fantastic idea, and a way to keep it out of the landfill.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the results.

To mount the "iPad" to the chassis I needed to mount it in a frame. After cutting a strip of wood I added grooves.

With 4 pieces this will fit together like a picture frame with the display inside the grooves. The top pieces are glued while the bottom piece is screwed so I can remove the hardware from the frame in the future if need be.

 

[hmmblah]

So instead of having the display slot out of the top of the case, I found that the iPad size with the added frame fits perfectly in the space where the old dials and frequencies were displayed.

I cut out what I could with a jigsaw, then used a coping saw to get near the edges. The front is recessed pretty good between the sides.

After the cut I glued additional pieces of wood on the inside of the case to strengthen things up.

I also glued strips at the side of the opening. The wood here was really thin so the trips allowed me to use longer screws from the back to screw the iPad frame to.

Last shot has the subwoofer and speakers inside the case, all seems to fit perfect.

 

[AlienALX]

Really cool dude. I would have put it there also.