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#1 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Anyone knows anything about these?
According to the label they are rated for 60W, but when I disassembled them I was fairly disappointed with the size of the magnets of the speakers. The tweeter seems to be rated for just 0.4W (!) and made in Poland from Tonsil brand. The woofer and the mid-range driver have no markings on them. The crossover is just 2 electrolytic caps in series with the tweeter and the midrange driver and also a potentiometer that is just a variable resistor. Pics attached |
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#2 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() 3 more pics
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#3 |
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![]() The power going to the tweeter and midrange will be limited by the crossover caps. The woofer is likely rated for a maximum of 60 watts, but this could also be 60 watts peak music power, not 60 watts RMS
They are a low cost set of speakers and were likely paired with a low power amp. They look similar to the Technics SB-X300A Last edited by R_J; 01-15-2022 at 08:35 PM.. |
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#4 |
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![]() It looks like a low cost china or taiwan speaker. These were sold out of vans by guys in parking lots... or sometimes just fake that everyone thought was a real hifi speaker because they had the look.
But weird to have Polish drivers, "Product kit for asemply", "Precision Crafted in USA" and a fake Kansas city address. Notice the rheostat aluminum faceplate has a signal generator front-panel exposed on the backside. As if they recycled some parts. The electrolytic capacitors are wrong, they should be non-polarized and without any inductors- the speaker's x-over is a rip-off and I would say anthing over 30W would damage the drivers. |
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#5 |
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![]() definitely not 60W RMS. I second RJ and redwire's post.
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#6 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() Quote:
Unfortunately I cannot find the model name, the unit is made back in 1980 and the paper label on the rear that stated model and other stuff is unreadable. The turntable is plastic and it uses the idler wheel type mechanism, no belts, no direct drive. Lately the rubber has totally decomposed, so it needs new rubber wheel like the other Brawnig Mony turntable I posted on the free scores thread. Do you think it is worth restoring? I have limited experience with vintage equipment don't want to do any harm. But it is really beautiful and the casing is real wood. FM radio seems to be working OK. Tape makes a loud hum on the right channel. The belts are the original ones from 1980 so probably need replacement anyway. I attach some pics of the unreadable label and pics of the stereo cassette turntable receiver mainboard/amp board |
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#7 | |
Badcaps Veteran
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Yeap, I also noticed the weird markings on the backside of the metal of the rheostat. OH, how did I miss that? The caps should be bipolar/nonpolar... ![]() I also noticed that there was no dumping material (but maybe it was not used back then) and that the bass reflex port has no tube, it's just a hole with grilles. |
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#8 |
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![]() They are cheap, low cost speakers, likely sold for $49.95 back then, If they had everything you think they should, they would have been $349.00.
They are perfectly fine for the amp that is driving them. The whole system including stand was low cost, and did it's job and didn't cost $1000.00, likely under $200.00 including the stand. The markings on the metal were likely silkscreened for something else and the metal was just re used and there was no need to clean off the original markings, again saving cost. As for the hum from the cassette unit, try cleaning the record/playback switch, it should be a long narrow switch that is activated when the record button is pressed. And look, another ![]() Last edited by R_J; 01-16-2022 at 01:07 PM.. |
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#9 |
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![]() From pics of the board, audio amplifier IC HA1338 is rated 6W at 24VDC power and 8R load. So the power level is not enough for a party
![]() For modifications I would add a low cost Bluetooth module or stuff in an LM3886 amplifier board. There's lots of room under the turntable. The power transformer looks strong. |
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#10 | ||
Badcaps Veteran
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List of things missing from that sound system: 1)Most annoying : An aux input 2) Vu meters. I have a soft spot for VU meters, since I was a child. Too bad this thing doesn't have ones... I had a boombox from my cousin that had vu meters, used to watch them move and feel so nice, his family threw it away, couldn't save it. Tried to buy used but the prices are crazy high... This is it: https://www.badcaps.net/forum/attach...1&d=1642362061 the boombox I grew up with when I visited my other grandparents on weekends 3) More power. Seriously, when I opened datasheet, I though I had mispelled the IC codenames. 6W per channel is too low even for those days standards.. Need to pair this with very efficient speakers to be able to output some juice. 4) Bigger transformer. I think the pics are deceiving, it is not very big, I have some mini hifi systems from late 90s that have much bigger transformers. 5) Better turntable mechanism. If my online research is correct, Philips chose to use a cheap plastic BSR mechanism, any input on this? Things I don't care at all: 1) Bluetooth capabilities. I like to stream my music through cable. But it doen't even give me this option, since it has no AUX input / option on source selector 2) Recording level adjustment 3) Dolby noise reduction system etc But, wouldn't this change the sound signature of the amp? Sure, it's not a tube amplifier, but it's a vintage amplifier made in 1980 |
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#11 |
Badcaps Veteran
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![]() It depends on what you want to keep vintage. It's in a nice stand. For all the room it takes up, why not have it be able to play mp3 from bluetooth? Or just add a box outside if the unit has AUX or TAPE IN at the back RCA connectors.
The cassette problems are almost always a dirty rec/play switch. Very hard to clean them because they are so long. |
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#12 |
Badcaps Veteran
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#13 | ||||||||
master hoarder
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But that's actually not a bad thing that there is no damping material / baffle. While having it would help to reduce some cabinet and speaker self-resonances (especially at higher output power... which these speaker drivers aren't really capable of), it can also hurt (attenuate) the low-end of the bass on ported systems. Given the sub-par woofers, they really can use all the help they can get - and that means a ported box with no dampening / baffle is probably better here. In regards to the tube-less port - play a bass sweep through the speakers and try to hear approximately how low the bass goes. Also, listen for any "booming" notes in the mid-to-upper range of the bass (70-90 Hz) that sound much louder than the rest of the bass range. If you hear any, roll a piece of paper like a tube and stick it in the port temporarily. Then have another listen to a bass sweep. With any luck, you might extend the low end of the bass a little and reduce any booming notes. The paper port won't be ideal, but should still show some results. Start with a port length of about maybe 5 cm, then go up. If the port is too long, it will make the speaker act like a "closed" box... and given the weak woofers, you'll probably get even less bass. So don't make the tube too long. There are actually softwares that can allow you to calculate the tuning of the port frequency per given box size. For weak drivers, ~40-50 Hz tuning should give a good balance between low-end bass and high dB output. Quote:
While these "rack" systems were kind of cheap and certainly nowhere near a marvel of Hi-Fi (or even good lo-fi for that matter), they do look really nice. So I'd say these are worth restoring just for the looks/radio, if nothing else (though I'm sure spending a bit more time with it can restore the other functions too.) Quote:
6 Watts is actually not that bad with some efficient speakers. If the speakers posted in this thread are anything like the cheap Philips speakers that came with my brother-inlaw's system, they should be fairly efficient, despite the small motors. No, you won't be demolishing walls with Bass I Love You ![]() But such speakers can still produce decent enough sound with 0.5-1 Watts input. Mostly suitable for when you have people over and sitting/conversing at the dinner table with some "light" music in the background. Quote:
Just see which IC is the "mixer" pre-amp and then pick an input you'd like to "double-over" with the Aux input. For example, let's say you do that over the Tape input. Trace which signals come from the tape pre-amp IC and re-route them to one side of a DPDT switch. On the other side of the DPDT switch, add your Aux input. Depending on which way the DPDT is toggled, you'll have either the tape still playing or the Aux input. Quote:
And yeah, I also like watching the VU meters. But I also like my dad's Sony gear (tape deck and TA-F70 amp), which had beautiful LED level bars. Watching those lite up and off as a kid is pretty much how I always listened to music. Quote:
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![]() It's a cheap IC amp. Nothing special about it. Mod it like crazy if you want to retain the looks but get better/updated/modern functionality. Or use as-is for "casual" listening and nostalgia. Last edited by momaka; 01-21-2022 at 01:08 AM.. |
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#14 |
Solder Sloth
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![]() TBH 2WPC is sufficiently loud for me, more than that gets into the realm of pain.
Only thing is that if running at full volume, THD tends to be fairly high for most amplifiers so yes need something with like 20WPC and run at 2W to keep THD down. I'm still pondering whether I should get rid of my Heathkit AR-1219... Works fine but eating space, and feel a better connection with my Realistic STA-64B tuner that I got with a blown final and got it repaired... |
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#15 | |||
Badcaps Veteran
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I also thought of using the tape input to add an aux input, but your idea of a switch is great. Now I have to google what is a DPDT switch ![]() Quote:
My cousin also had a hifi system (probably made in Taiwan, nothing really high fidelity) but full with blinking lights. I love this kind of stuff and I really want to be able to live it again someday... I have a graphics equalizer that came for free with the Technics MK2, those have lights, right? I have so many running projects right now I didn't even have time to test it. And I also got for free a rack type cassette deck with VU meters but the unit appears to be totally dead. It's not the belts unfortunately. So many things to fix/test/play with! Quote:
I wont spend any time on those fake speakers. I will revisit thread and let everyone know when I have news about the Philips system though Last edited by goodpsusearch; 01-31-2022 at 04:52 PM.. |
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#16 | |||
master hoarder
Join Date: May 2008
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I'm the same way. Sometimes I wonder if I can even complete a fraction of my started projects in my lifetime, lol. ![]() Quote:
Maybe the magnets are starting to rust from the inside out, like with these Panasonic Thrusters speakers? In the case of the Thrusters (what a funny name ![]() ![]() Last edited by momaka; 02-16-2022 at 08:03 PM.. |
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#17 | |||||
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JVC Kaboomboxes & Gigatubers- early 2000's in their own way! To think those are "old" or semi retro now... Futuristic cyberpunk indeed. There was such hope then. ![]() Quote:
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