Random Audio, Electronics and Electrical

[CaddmannQ]

A while back I did a minor restoration on a Sanyo quadraphonic receiver from about 1974. My sister originally bought this fresh out of high school, and it had been passed around the family, eventually winding up in my garage with a lot of dirt in the controls and about 2 1/2 channels working.

Anyhow I cleaned this up and wired it up to some various speakers that I had and I’ve been using this as my work shed stereo.

I’ve been pretty pleased with the sound and the reception. I had to clean the controls three times and recover a lightbulb floating around inside the chassis. It worked just fine when I placed it in the tuner window correctly, but I never had a proper strange type 1/4 watt 6vac lightbulb for the tuning meter.


I had a bunch of LEDs and a handful of various resistors laying around, and I experimented with different configurations to light my meter. In the end I didn’t like putting LEDs in a vintage receiver.

I ended up using two 3v Christmas tree lights in series. I peeled these two babies out of their plastic sockets and wired them up bare.
The tuning light was originally white, filtered thru a pale green meter, but now it’s much different green.


It looks good to me and it doesn’t appear to be overheating. It’s really no brighter than the original bulb.

Anyhow, because I had never fixed that lamp, I had never replaced the wood case, and it has been sitting open for months on end. I finally closed it up and got the case cover off my workbench which is very welcome.

This is one of those little projects, that while it remained incomplete, created sort of a mental bottleneck for the rest of the work that I’ve been trying to do. Anyhow I’m glad it’s off my list, and I’m really happy with the way the meter looks.

 

[Bobster]

This is one of those little projects, that while it remained incomplete, created sort of a mental bottleneck for the rest of the work that I’ve been trying to do.

I have too many of those "little projects" compounded by the fact there is only 24hrs in the day...

 

[John A.]

I appreciate those older radio's. I had one very similar to that when I was a lot younger. Had two small bookshelf style speakers that had laminate wood sides and covered in black foam on the front that once dusty, was impossible to clean due to the tangled weave pattern much like house insulation.

But, I spent a lot of time with that old radio/turntable. It sat on the desk right beside my bed.

I listened to a lot of Casey Kasem American top 40 and Shotgun Stevens (he was the night DJ at the radio station)

You did good replacing the diode caddmann

 

[meanstreak]

This thread brings back memories.

 

[CaddmannQ]

One of the other bottlenecks is the high power 1980s receiver that I was given by an old friend before she died. It sits in my shed because I don’t have the parts to repair it yet. It’s about 4 times as heavy as the Sanyo, with power to match.


Now amplifier power ratings are widely distorted in many ways and for many purposes. The Sanyo only boasts four channels of seven watts each while the realistic boasts two channels of 125 W each.

The reality is actually much closer, because of the distortion specs the manufactures chose to read their equipment at.

My first real powerful stereo amplifier was a 50 W per channel Pioneer built about 1970. I had to repair a little bit but then I traded it for a used Chevrolet which was a pretty good deal. I wish I had avoided the Chevrolet and kept the pioneer however. The Chevrolet burned a lot of oil, and the pioneer was the quietest amplifier I’d ever heard.

 

[John A.]

I traded a pioneer car cassette deck to a Ruger P85 mk2.

I'll probably be buried with that handgun.