(My) Casual Product Review,  A Tech Play MP3 and Phonograph record player ! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 09:54:17 pm
content: Hi All : I like to post in BEGINNERS section because we are about learning and analyzing existing products...before hopefully doing our own.This time I've gotten my grubby hands on a FLEA MARKET or dump recycled record player, or at least I thought, until I got it home. It's an MP3 / record / tape cassette / SD machine...and it powers up !!!Pictures on the way. First assumption was the thing got thrown in the dump trash, maybe due to some hopefully minor fail. But the 12 Volt wall wart worked, (once I moved my multimeter lead off from 'AMPS' and plugged into the 'V/hz' banana jack...duhuh...)This bedside super-alarm-clock radio costs around $100 at Walmart, Amazon, etc.Heck, I just needed the piezo sensor stereo needle, and would have been happy to convert to my Acoustic Guitar; a blast in itself, converting to '5 string' trimmer line BARITONE - BASS, in my rig.(more soon)Thanks for reading !

author: jwet
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2025, 03:27:46 pm
content: That's funny. I have a 35 year old son and he and his friends are very into Vinyl these days. He regularly comes over and raids my dusty 80's record collection. Used turntables and records are getting valuable here in the US with this generation. There are allways these funny products that appear during any technology transition. I had a funky VCR that could copy tapes to DVD's- not such a bad idea but a rare find.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 17, 2025, 07:45:14 pm
content: Quote from: jwet on July 17, 2025, 03:27:46 pmYes, vinyl is here to stay. Unlike CDs, apparently.Now, with no disrespect to the OP (Rick) or to his dumpster-diving discovery, that all-in-one LP/cassette/MP3 thing is, unfortunately, pretty much a piece of shit when it comes to the record-playing part.Meaning it will actually probably damage your LPs when you play them on it. Probably has a cheap ceramic (piezoelectric) cartridge, not the better and more compliant magnetic cartridge found on better turntables. Plus minimal or no counterbalancing of the tone arm, and no anti-skating.One could certainly use something like that to play scratched-up old yard-sale/thrift-store LPs that one doesn't really care about, but not one's pristine, carefully-kept-clean LPs. And, no, I'm no audiophool: just like to keep my record collection (currently ~500 or so discs) sounding as good as possible.Good turntables are harder to find these days than junk phonos like the one Rick found, but they are still out there. Any separate turntable, including the low-end Garrards, BSRs, etc., will be better than his find. Of course, you'll then need an amp and speakers. (Could easily build a small one to drive headphones, to keep with the hobbyist angle here.)But hey, it's good to find a (maybe working?) pornograph*in the trash, and I wish him the best of luck with it.*Anthony Perkins' Freudian slip in Orson Welles'The Trial; great flick.

author: jwet
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2025, 09:18:32 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on July 17, 2025, 07:45:14 pmNo, No! CD's are coming back too!- I guess people are getting tired of all the MP-3, lossy encoded, streaming, Pandora and Spotify junk. Neil Young was right as usual- he had a real beef with the streaming services. Now that you can get Terabyte drives for a few bucks and download at a gig/sec, who needs compression? People are re-ripping their CD collections with FLAC (3:1 lossless) or just straight PCM. Time was when 660M sounded like a lot but I can record 1000 CD's complete raw on a $50 disk. The only problem with ripping all that music is that everyone sold off or threw out their CD collections. I've been listening to 128K MP-3's so long, I'm kind of lost. I do listen to CD's still and they do sound better...If I live long enough, we'll probably see the return of cassettes and 8 tracks. Cassettes could muster 70+ db kind of number but 8 Tracks were hopeless. Its still an Analog World (spoken as a Maxim retiree after 25 years)Take care.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2025, 09:34:46 pm
content: Quote from: jwet on July 19, 2025, 09:18:32 pmThere seem to be plenty of places to acquire CDs these days. Thrift stores have them by the thousands; yard sales, even put out in the trash sometimes.Town I live in has a record store (vinyl!) that also sells CDs and cassettes; lots and lots of them. They're doing a roaring business.I recently ripped a cassette I had from decades ago of a performance (symphony orchestra) that I played in. I was absolutely astounded by the quality of the recording; much better than I would have thought. Plenty of dynamic range and HF reproduction. It's a much underrated medium.I actually have an 8-track player (Pioneer) that someone gave me and I haven't even tried out yet; chances are that it works and only needs cleaning and a lube. Then I can look for all the trucker tapes to play on it ...

author: jwet
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 19, 2025, 09:54:43 pm
content: QuoteI graduated college in 1982 and my first company gave me a relocation stipend of $2000. This was supposed to get me moved and settled in my new town, San Diego! I lived with my sister and moved my self so used that wad of cash to buy a killer stereo complete with a Nakamichi LX-3 Cassette deck. The bargain option of their line of amazing Cassette machines- it was $500 IIRC. Cassettes were a great format and were/are under appreciated. A year or two later, 1984?- CD's came out and Vinyl and everything else seem to disappear overnight. I think the cost of reproducing CD's in high volumes was peanuts compared to pressing LP's. These things go in cycles. 8 tracks fit the time pretty well. You could access any quarter of an album (10 minutes- 2 songs?) with a click. They crammed 4 stereo channels on a 1/4" tape roughly the density of pushing 4 tracks onto 1/8" cassettes but all that moving head stuff was pretty dodgy. I lived through all the audio formats and my favorite is probably CD's but for portability and convenience, MP-3 is a winner. (not an audiophile). I have 40G of music on my phone and spotify, its all just too easy.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2025, 12:12:32 am
content: Quotewouldn't say there hard to find,but maybe its different over here,5 minutes from my door i can pick up an entry level turntable for just over £100 in a shop thats more tv /home cinema biased than hifi,and one of our larger online sellers has 157 models to choose from.Ive still got all my vinyl going back to the first albums i was given, they still get played regularly and my trusty ole P3 still makes em sound good, crackles an all.QuoteI was a big fan of mini disc.First used them for sound fx playback,replacing a revox, life became so much easier,and soon realised what a good format it was,especially as work had free loan of cds at the local libaryQuoteThey never really took off over here,cassette was way more popular.pity nobody seems to do a reasonable priced machine that sounds decent these days but i guess theres no market for them.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2025, 10:57:51 pm
content: It's The Sound, man....THE TUNES !As long as we are on the subject, of MP3 sound vs CD, (etc.) MY motivation is two-fold:First, I like bass, in balance of course, but bass response is a big part of concert-going excitement ! So a good Dual brand automobile low end speaker (10 inch), helps providing a moderately loud low end sound.Second, I have several music related projects, a standard scale 5 string bass, tuned down a fifth, and a toy based REVERB microphone.The microphone is also for picking up the bass guitar, hopefully with a heavy, mechanical spring reverb sound. For that I need a (sensitive) magnetic pickup.I'm also considering a piezo-audio pickup,...hence the interest in the record player (needle and piezo pickup).This cheapo TOY creates a non-electronic REVERB sound by using a focus sound cup, and with an attached spring, at the apex of the hard plastic cup. It's enough to create a large room or auditorium reverb sound, having a long delay (or persistence of the general sound frequencies that happened over the last couple of seconds).Plan is to try using one of my electric guitar pickups, to pick up the mechanical vibrations, of the internal spring.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 20, 2025, 11:04:23 pm
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 20, 2025, 10:57:51 pmNow that sounds tres kewl.How does the toy pick up the reverb sound at the other end of the spring?Piezo pickup of some kind (my guess)? something else?Hell, that's how all those old Fender amps created that great reverb sound they had.Ever pick up an amp a inch or two off the floor and drop it? You can definitely hear the springs hitting their casing.(Not recommended to try with tube amps!)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 12:01:57 am
content: Well the toy microphone gathers sound through the usual grill and that collects into a hard plastic cup, similar to how we used to use a string, as kids, for communicating (yelling "what ?"), to the other kid's paper cup.Once that plastic cup vibrates, the spring connected to the end will transmit vibrations down the spring, and also up and down the length of the spring multiple times. A kid using this toy has to bend an ear against the end of the microphone, but then things sound like in a big cavern or auditorium.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 12:16:12 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 21, 2025, 12:01:57 amAha.So you'll need to add some kind of pickup at the end of the spring, plug it into some kind of amp.Sounds like fun.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 12:32:25 am
content: Yes as my standard guitar, at approx. 28 inch scale, is an acoustic Ovation brand, featuring an engineered plastic body, in back of the usual wood diaphragm style body top and sound hole.Usually, I understand, a piezo style pickup is located on the vibrating bridge. My plan, is to use a coil, or an existing guitar pickup for obtaining the microphone audio, along with audio reflections.Next after that, is attempting to make the reverb effect adjustable in the 'depth' or amount of special effects getting introduced as a 'color' to the real-time sound happening.Otherwise, a heavy reverb sound can get annoying, or inappropriate for the moment.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 12:41:31 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 21, 2025, 12:32:25 amYes, Ovations, as well as pickups (like Barcus-Berrys, etc.) use piezoelectric pickups. Very high impedance.QuoteDon't think a coil will work, unless you put it right next to the vibrating spring (which is steel).Try your guitar pickup here.QuoteMaybe just a simple high-R pot (250-500KΩ) in line with the pickup might work.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 12:52:24 am
content: No. It would have to be mechanical, like some sort of immobilizing screw turn. I would need to use, maybe a very short price of the spring, where the oscillating magnetic field gets picked up, whether by way of an 'official' guitar pickup, or just a simple but very high turns count solenoid coil.Problem would be how to isolate or dampen the excess spring, from introducing the delay and sound persistence.Ultimately might be better to simply add in a piezo sensor channel, for obtaining the 'dry' or non-effect sound.Besides...intention to experiment as a BASS guitar, usually played by single notes, isn't where most reverb effects are used. Just saying.

author: themadhippy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 01:02:51 am
content: hows about a cheap small speaker,hook the end of the spring through the dust cap.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 01:06:51 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 21, 2025, 12:52:24 amOK. How 'bout some kind of damping material, foam rubber or such, that could be brought into variable contact w/part of the spring?

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 05:09:33 am
content: The idea of small speaker resembles actual Fender Instruments transducer, which I now understand came from Hammond organ reverb development. Your idea (thanks, Thermahippy ) of using a speaker as a type of microphone is very close to the actual, TAPE HEAD style magnetically modulated sensor, that Hammond used.My idea will likely pick up all sorts of squeaks and scuffle sounds, as any microphone should, really. The Fender spring reverb uses all electronic input and so the only real worry is about doing the 'spring crash' sound, via extreme joustling of an amp, to cause physical contact of the sound conducting spring, with a side of container. That effect, BTW was used in an amusement park. In Knott's Berry Farm (L.A. area) there was a 'monster' gorilla used for creating very loud crashing and disaster noises. A person would walk up, and notice the little gorilla doll, bashing a set of SPRINGS with his little sledge hammer.The BASS or BARITONE guitar uses weed trimmer line, for the 5 strings tuned a fifth low;String #1: 'B', uses 0.065 inch line,String #2, 'G', using 0.065 " as well.String #3, 'D', uses 0.080 inch lineas well as String #4, 'A'.and String #5, 'E' uses line at 0.095" or about 1/10 inch. That thick line doesn't ring out so much, musically.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 05:16:00 am
content: That bass/baritone guitar sounds a lot like the Mexicanguitarrón, a pretty powerful instrument. Really booms out.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 06:22:21 am
content: Quote: "Junk phonos", (Pornographs). Since I am into word mangling sarcasm, I guess I would have to accept that reader's contribution. Besides, as many members here know, getting some possibly negative commentary does serve to get my own ideas moved, to the top of the heap...(Wistful Sigh...)BTW, doing the 5 string bass project helped me to learn better ways to do mechanical caliper measurements, for high accuracy in the new guitar string spacing. It turns out, that each string, on a 5-string, is spaced to 1.25 or 1 and 1/4 of the original, standard 6-string spacing.That forced me to focus, on getting the utmost accuracy, from my newly purchased calipers.There was enough space, to ignore the old slots, and create new slots for string placement, in the guitar nut. The guitar bridge will still need a bone or ivory material newly cut, for slots for string placement.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 07:56:54 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 21, 2025, 06:22:21 amBone. Nobody uses ivory anymore (except maybe a couple of African poachers).If you don't want to pay music-store prices for a bone blank (kinda expen$ive), get a bone from the butcher. You'll have to get the grease out of it, but it's the right stuff for a nut or bridge.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 08:05:42 am
content: Are YOU an AI ??YOU are, an AI, right ? (Who builtz yous ?)

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 08:09:40 am
content: Last time I needed to change string placement, I used a stainless steel rod, which has plenty of hardness. The little rod fit into a small U-channel that also included string height adjustment, of the two rod ends.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 21, 2025, 08:40:48 am
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 21, 2025, 08:05:42 amYes. I.am.an.AI.Take.me.to.your.leader.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 08:59:54 pm
content: Rick, an idea for your project:Instead of using a guitar pickup (which might work but seems unwieldy because of its shape and size), how about making your own pickup?Shouldn't be too hard: get yourself one of those "super magnets" (neodymium) in the shape of a small rod, wind a bunch of magnet wire around it. Put it close to the spring and connect it to your guitar amp.I'll bet that would work just fine. You'd need a few hundred turns of wire, I'm guessing.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:33:15 pm
content: Pickups have a LOT of turns, otherwise they might require a high gain preamp. But, the advantage I see, over, say, a piezo crystal pickup, is the piezo would essentially also pickup any rubbing or impact sounds, maybe even better than the musical tones.The whole, experimental rig is going to have that bulky TOY 'microphone' looking case INSIDE my Ovation brand acoustic guitar!Not very hard to work on, actually, as the standard size round sound hole allows a person to get 'one hand' inside. Note that I've also broken off the center brace, up under the deck (sound board front).BTW, it's a standard scale at 25 inches but I've altered the string spacing, for being a 5-string baritone. That actually was an enjoyable exercise, figuring and doing the new slot placements, (and purchasing a standard micrometer.Micrometer ? Sorry, I meant Calipers, which takes myself some memory recall effort. That's LYME DISEASE / CFS (chronic fatique' syndrome). I've had folks comment, over the years:"YOU could have come up with a better name, for the disorder!"Ahh, sorry, I guess.But one telltale distinction, is that the measuring and reasoning skills aren't so much impacted, while the memory and 'brain fog' aspects rage. I suppose perhaps. that disease / disorder puts a person into the whole, autism-like spectrum, for symptoms.At any rate, on the guitar string spacing change, I concentrated on accurate use of my calipers, to place 5 strings into the usual 6-string spacing. Turned out I needed to space them at 1 1/4 X the original.One (new) slot in the middle of the end 'nut', and 2 new slots, while still retaining the slots on the ends (1rst and 5th now, but was 1rst and 6th strings in the original guitar).That was, actually, more a satisfying job, than actually PLAYING the sucker is. (Go figure, huh).- - Rick B.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:47:11 pm
content: Wow. Does the guitar actually play in tune? That's definitely a non-trivial thing, re-scaling a guitar.I know; in a previous lifetime I was a guitar repairman. But I never did anything like that!Sure, refretted a few instruments, but that's easy by comparison; just put new frets in the old slots.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:49:22 pm
content: ...but you are correct, as the best would be a bobbin (machine screw) having many, many turns, hand-wound. Big difficulty today is the simple lack of direct retail, as I've been buying my brass wire from various ARTISTS...No Radio-Shack. Although I believe Berkeley, CA still has the store: Quintronics, as in owner Mike Quinn!Best to wind the sensor with many turns, for better S/N ratio in the AMP (that's Signal to Noise ratio).Gonna put in a movie and wind, wind, wind.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:56:11 pm
content: Quote from: RJSV on July 27, 2025, 11:49:22 pmNope. Mike Quinn went out of business a loooooong time ago.QuoteYou might could make yourself some kind of winding jig to make it easier. Here's mine:The problem otherwise is that the thin magnet wire tends to get all tangled up, which is a total pain in the ass.Yeah, a machine screw, nut and 2 washers would make a pretty good bobbin. Cover the threads with tape first.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 12:00:07 am
content: Yeah, in tune, at a fifth below standard guitar pitch.Although the thickest / lowest 'string' is very dull, at 0.095 " inches.I try to play: Third Stone from the Sun, partially, (as taught to myself by the late, Buzzy Linhart.). That chord sequence starts in after the intro and is a basic 'C' chord, but with the high C note dropped a half-note, by omitting that finger. Literally it's an 'F', but I'm talking in terms of standard 'C' chord SHAPE. That's a major 7th jazz style chord.(Sorry no photo). That break, BTW, happens twice during the long instrumental as Hendrix takes off into heavy blues licks for a few moments. Very nice and Jazzy derivative.They say he was good, on the guitar.... (Ahem)

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 01:45:53 am
content: Aaaaargh. I totally misread your previous post, where you said you altered thestring spacing.I somehow brain-farted that to mean that you altered thefret spacing.Which would have been a hell of a job.But still, if you got the string spacing right, good for you.I've played tenor guitars (4 strings), never a baritone. I'd like to have a tenor again (had a Harmony a long time ago); great accompaniment axe.

author: RJSV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 02:47:58 am
content: No harm done. I declined to nit pik, (and others are so involved, in their own goals, that they often don't notice some flaw or typo error.Point was, I had purchased a MECHANICAL oriented device, as part of a way to force things, in the direction of my passion, which is the nano-scale Computer Architecture, melded with the existing electronics development.A couple of teaching toys have surfaced, using rolling ball activated logic. My approach went way, way complex, into whole systems.I mean: WHO wants 98% of a machine that needs FULL function.But, there are snags; a big obstacle is that a ball bearing poses substantial swallowing hazard! Especially for young school starting kids...a deal breaker, I've felt...