Retro Thing

This Little Radio Desperately Wants To Mate With Your Netbook

The Logitec AM/FM USB radio stick is proof that vintage technology isn't always the best solution for the 21st century. The receiver plugs into your notebook so you can listen to (and record) old fashioned terrestrial radio.

It's kind of like enjoying your mp3 collection or favorite streaming music service, except with much lower fidelity and frequent interruptions by loud people trying to sell you things.

The FM/AM stick can receive most strong FM stations, but you'll need to plug in the 3m external antenna to get a good AM signal. It's got a magnet on the back, so you can string it above your seat and fasten it to conveniently exposed metal while riding the bus. There's also an optional coax hookup should you wish to run an extension cable from your TV. Kinda defeats the whole idea of having a portable computer, doesn't it?

This ridiculous replacement for a $10 portable radio can be yours for an unspecified price, starting in early December 2009.

USB compatible FM / AM radio tuner "LRT-FMAM200U Series" [via Akihabara News]

The Coolest iPod Dock Ever

Pete Verrando wrote with news of his latest creation: "I just finished this, and thought it looked nice, so I thought I would show you. I do a lot of vintage restorations and mash-ups such as this. Some of them are on the main website under 'Radio Room.'

Inside the vintage cabinet is a 10 watt integrated solid-state amplifier, and a high quality Blaupunkt 5 1/4" coaxial loudspeaker with a massive ceramic magnet. The cabinet is air-sealed and fiberglass blanketed to create an infinite baffle enclosure. The inset side panel offers bass/treble controls, left and right RCA line inputs (sealed), and two 1/4" jack inputs, hot enough for a microphone or electric guitar. Also included is an iPod dock/charger that plugs in directly to the side panel.

The cabinet is a vintage Philco Dynamic Tester, from 1946. Known then as a Signal Tracer, which is just a small amplifier/speaker combination with an external probe for fixing audio equipment."

Absolutely stunning.

Vintage Philco Signal Tracer becomes Retro Ipod Speaker Amp

New Egg-Shaped Chair With 5.1 Surround Sound

 
Since the introduction of egg shaped chairs in the late 60's, many different styles occasionally appeared in movies depicting the future, or perhaps a scene showing some high style culture maven. In the "Men In Black" movies, egg chairs were even included on the movie posters. I've only seen actual egg chairs a few times in person. The most remarkable might be a 1970's flavor that had been removed from a Playboy club. It was a 2 seater, featured a yolk-colored corduroy interior (blech), and featured speakers built into the sides so that you and your bunny-eared companion could listen to some smooth jazz in relative comfort. 

If the thought of decades of horn-dog conventioneers having use the seat before you is a little creepy, there is an all-new version of the audio-equipped henfruit being introduced in just a few months. The Sound Egg features 5.1 surround sound (though it can be configured for stereo), and comes in a variety of colors for the outer shell as well as the sound-proofing foam within. While originally developed as a mini-environment for testing audio gear, the remarkable chair generated enough interest to encourage manufacturer Acousticom to hatch it as a new product.

The market is flooded with heap seats with built-in speakers that are aimed at avid video gamers. This chair gives the anti-social game player a fuller audio experience via the surround sound speakers built in (the subwoofer is built under the seat), while minimizing disturbance to others. Of course movies and music are an obvious candidate for critical listening within this self-contained chamber. At $1450 the Sound Egg isn't exactly a mainstream product, but is positioned to be surprisingly in reach by more than just the Austin Powers audiophile set. Just so long as the listener doesn't mind looking a little like Mork from Ork.

link:

Product page for the Sound Egg

related:
Even more 1970's design photos
Pocket Adder - save the economy in earth-toned 70's style
TV-Pow! - interactive gaming via 1970's kid's TV

A Nifty Portable Radio

 
This is the $59 Sangean PR-D7. It seems strange to write about an old fashioned AM/FM radio in the iPod Age, but there's something incredibly convenient about a good old terrestrial wireless receiver.

For starters, there are no monthly subscription bills and you'll never complain about paying 99 cents for a single song. Local radio also offers a sense of community that you don't get from a sanitized iPod playlist - listening to NPR / CBC / BBC can be an unpredictable and enjoyable experience.

The PR-D7 measures 8.5 x 1.5 x 4.5 inches and weighs about 2 lbs. It requires 6 x AA batteries for portable use, but don't despair - there's a nifty little "alkaline / rechargeable" switch on the back that lets you use NiMH cells and recharge them with the included AC wall wart.

Apart from that, there isn't too much worth special mention. The radio features digital PLL tuning and 10 station memories, along with a backlit LCD display and alarm. There's also a stereo headphone jack.

The set has been on the market since 2008 and receives excellent reviews, so it's a safe buy. Best of all, this little portable should still be alive and kicking in 10 years. I doubt I'll be able to say the same about my iPod.

Sangean PR-D7 AM/FM Digital Rechargeable Portable Radio [Amazon]

Sangean's official PR-D7 product page

Sony's Transistor Radio Kit

Japan’s first miniature transistor radio, the TR-55, was introduced by Sony in mid-1955 at a price of 19,900 Yen ($55). It was available only in Japan and achieved modest success. However, Sony's second transistor radio was much more interesting - especially for DIYers.

The TR-2K radio kit was released a few weeks after the TR-55 at the bargain price of only 5,700 Yen ($16). They achieved the low cost by eliminating the internal speaker and amplifier and making buyers do all the assembly work themselves.

Sony claimed a hobbyist could complete the TR-2K kit in about four hours. Unfortunately, few people were familiar with electronics back then and it often took much longer to build a working set.

The company struggled for a couple of years until the international release of their TR-63 “Transistor Six” shirt-pocket radio in 1957. Instead of shoehorning in traditional components, the TR-63 was designed around all-new miniature devices. It was the smallest radio ever manufactured, selling over 100,000 units in four different colors. More importantly, it established Sony as a credible international brand.

I wonder if anyone still has an unbuilt TR-2K kit sitting around on a shelf? Assembling one could result in the best unboxing video ever.

Sony: The Little-known Transistor Radio Kit

A Mysterious Sony Radio

Shav La Vigne recently sent us some photos of a tiny Sony TR-8 radio with a plea for more information. For once, we didn't have much to say. All we know is that it was Sony's first micro radio, released in 1963.

Sony managed to cram 8 transistors onto the tiny hand-soldered circuit board in an astounding display of miniaturization for the early sixties. However, I suspect the tiny size made it extremely expensive to manufacture.

If you can tell Shav more about this diminutive receiver, please leave a comment.

Get Your Groove On: The Vulcan Cylinder Record Company

Unbelievably, the Vulcan Cylinder Record Company still manufactures phonograph cylinders. Their modern process incorporates a molded resin cylinder that is considerably more robust than historical recordings. Each is hand crafted in Sheffield, England and their catalog is available by mail order. They can even make custom cylinders from your recordings, if such a thing tickles your fancy.

Prices start at £13, with hits like the 'Charleston Fox Trot' and 'Everything is Hotsy Totsy Now' priced at £15 each. Incidentally, one of the main reasons cylinders fell by the wayside was that they were challenging to duplicate in large quantities. A standard record can be duplicated using a stamping process, but you'd be lucky to get 100 copies from a master cylinder before the artist had to re-record it.

The photo features Thomas Edison (circa 1878) with an early phonograph recorded on tin foil. The glass plate negative is part of the Library of Congress collection, and the high resolution scan underscores the simplicity of the era - the base and fittings of the machine are well worn from constant use, and the foil appears to be partially recorded. As for 31-year-old Mr. Edison, the grime under his fingernails reveals that he spent the vast majority of his time squirreled away in his machine shop.

The Vulcan Cylinder Record Company Catalog

Pre-iPod Shiny Plastic Earbud

Some time ago, we ran a story comparing an iPod to a Lloyd's portable 8 track player from the 70's, but we left out a crucial component. The headphones. While the Lloyd's unit sports a spiffy speaker, the iPod relies on the included shiny white earbuds that quickly became as much of a status symbol as the iPod itself. Apple has been a pioneer in making technology stylish and fun, no doubt, but I've never liked their smug marketing. From some Apple ads, it's as if they feel like a piece of tech hasn't been invented until they "reinvent" it.

So I'm here to tell you that I was listening to music through a shiny white (-ish) earbud decades ago. On long car trips, I remember taking along a tape recorder I'd found in the alley with an open air cassette dub I'd made of the ZOOM cast album (told you it was a long time ago...). My folks didn't abide "that kind" of music (especially the ZOOM kids' version of Octopus's Garden, which as you can imagine was pretty hardcore...), so I had to keep it on the downlow. The only headphones we had were painful & bulky with hollow sound, so I opted for that era's version of utra-portable sound... the earphone.

These ivory colored nubs were frequently included with tape recorders and crystal radio sets. They did produce sound, though fidelity was another matter entirely. Mine has a spiffy flesh colored patch on the outside to make it look even more like geriatric tech. We even had one with a hard plastic bit that hooked behind the ear with a menacing pinch. It was designed to make you suffer for your music much more than the original artist did.

I assumed that portable sound was always going to be low quality until my cousin Paul let me listen to his Walkman's headphones in 1979. This was the first model, and even then it was an auditory revelation.  Since then I've probably enjoyed more music through earbuds & headphones than any other way... though I've never used iPod earbuds. If you grew up with earphones like this one, then you are also probably reluctant to stick anything shiny and white into your ear ever again.

related:
Lloyd's portable 8 Track - iPod version .1?
Twin antenna headphones make AM radio cool again
Panasonic retro headphones: old school looks & value

A Prized Nakamichi Tape Deck

[Here's long-time reader Nash Rambler to tell you about his prized cassette deck...]

This Nakamichi 482Z from 1981 is my favorite cassette deck for a number of personal and practical reasons.  On the personal side, my father purchased it new in the early eighties when we were overseas; he recalls paying somewhere in the range of $500 as opposed to the $950 MSRP figure I found online.

Although I was just a kid when it appeared in our house I soon realized that it performed better than the other players I got my grimy little hands on.  The 482Z set itself apart with light touch controls and smooth, quiet operation.  No heavy clunks or jarring grinds with this unit, and the way the tape drawer gracefully opened entranced me.  Naturally, I was forbidden to touch it until I was older.

On the practical side, Nakamichi was a name that embodied top quality in cassette players from the early 70's all the way to the 90's.  The direct descendant of an electromagnetic research institute founded a few years after WWII, their early products were reel-to-reel machines branded under other companies.  With the development of the compact cassette, Nakamichi found itself on the cutting edge and released a number of high-end milestone stereo products under their own banner.  With the production of their famous models 1000 and 700, they quickly became known for their dedication in extracting the best possible sound from cassettes, as well as staggeringly high price tags.

My own 482Z hailed from their "budget" line (meaning "expensive" as opposed to "outrageous,") but the list of features shows that the company didn't cut any corners.  Dolby NR processors, separate motors for take-up and capstan, discrete three head system for playback, recording and erasing, +/- 10% fine bias adjustment control, and cassette media selection buttons to get the best from the type of tape you were recording to.  The "Z" seems to mean it also got an LED peak level meter and bias control as opposed to just analog dial meters on a regular 482; I can't see any other difference between the models.

Despite the passage of time, the styling doesn't look dated.  It definitely comes from the "sleek, flat, black" school of stereo design, which may help.  I had to carefully clean the belts of dust due to minor slippage, but that has been the only issue.  It now performs flawlessly, delivering a clean, crisp sound across the board.  No muffled bass or tinny trebles here, and wow and flutter have yet to plague it.  I can still revel in the magnetic analog glory of LL Cool J, The Talking Heads, and Kenny Rogers.

I only wish the company had fared as well as my deck.  When CD's hit the market in a large way, Nakamichi remained heavily invested in analog tape technology and released several terrific DAT system players that failed to compete.  Over the next few years, it struggled to maintain its' premier spot in the high-end world of audio electronics.  The company went into bankruptcy in 2002 and although they emerged and continue to make high-end components for the home, Nakamichi is a mere shadow of it's former self. -- Nash Rambler, Esq.

related:
Birth of the Compact Audio Cassette
Sony Walkman Turns 30, Feels A Bit Overweight

Miniature reel-to-reel tape recorders

Roland Schellin's miniature tape recorder collection includes some stunning examples of 1950s and 1960s technology, including the world's first entirely solid state recorder - the Teltape. The most fascinating device of all is the tiny Minifon Mi51, which recorded on wire rather than magnetic tape:

The Minifon Mi51 was the world's first miniature magnetic recorder. The product line was built in Hanover, starting in 1951. Even the USA was not in a position to build such equipment at that point. The Minifon is a wire recorder that incorporates two miniature vacuum tubes . Three different batteries are necessary for operation: one for the motor, along with two to power the vacuum tube heater elements and anodes. The Minifon measured 17 x 11 x 3.5 cm - about the size of a wallet - and was intended to capture clandestine recordings. Corresponding accessories included a wrist-watch microphone and telephone adapter.

Roland Schellin's miniature recorders [German, lots of pix. Via wileywiggins.com]

Neuhaus T-2: An Odd Hybrid Tube Amplifier

The Neuhaus Laboratories T-2 amplifier is a strange beast. On one hand, it features six vacuum tubes in a push-pull configuration. The signal path is kept clean by eliminating bass and treble controls. However, it also has a newfangled USB input that drives a 44.1 kHz digital to analog converter. But that's not all... there's another TOSLINK optical digital input in case you want to hook up a DVD player.

I'm somewhat baffled. If you're going to make a fuss about creating a clean and simple analog signal path, keep it that way. Don't add a couple of DACs because chances are that the converters in your CD and DVD players sound every bit as good. Keeping digital interference away from your glorious tube circuit is far more important.

Those criticisms aside, the T-2 is a nice looking amp that offers a handful of old fashioned analog inputs. The $795 list price is reasonable, and I appreciate the inclusion of a genuine ALPS motorized volume attenuator and a basic but functional remote.

The piano black glossy front panel is understated and the stainless steel body reflects the plethora of tubes in their best light. You can connect analog devices using three sets of gold plated RCA inputs, and the amplifier is capable of putting out 20W x 2 (presumably into a 4 ohm load). The output transformers are "homemade" (not a marketing term that instills great confidence) and the circuit incorporates slow start power on to avoid damaging your speakers.

I only wish they'd release a simplified version without the digital bells and whistles. It would cost less and probably sound better.

Neuhaus T-2 vacuum tube amplifier [via Uncrate]

Join The Crystal Set Society

The Xtal Set Society was founded in 1991. Although the name evokes a 1980s synth band, they're actually a bunch of radio geeks who experiment with electronics - especially crystal radios.

Because components are sometimes hard to find, the Society offers an inventory of kits and parts for the discerning radio experimenter. The My Marconi 2106 Crystal Radio Kit ($59.95) includes everything you need to build a double-tuned crystal radio set that can pull in the full AM radio band. A lexan front panel with printed graphics and a cabinet enclosure kit are also available to protect your radiophonic masterpiece.

As a kid, I played for hours with my dad's Grundig shortwave. It picked up all manner of weird and wonderful transmissions from around the globe. The memory of those late night listening sessions drew me to the My Marconi Shortwave Crystal Set. It's related to the AM kit, but features a single-tuned front end followed by a shockingly modern dual transistor audio amplifier. The $59.95 kit includes a 10 mil Lexan front panel with professionally screened graphics.

For budget builders, there's a $12.95 oat box radio kit that provides everything you need to build an ultra-affordable radio around an (empty) Quaker Oats box. If you're a real skinflint, just download the plans and manual. We'll still love you.

Visit The Xtal Set Society

PS: Check out MidnightScience Ultrasonics, an offshoot of the Society dedicated to all manner of ultrasonic experimentation.

Lo Fi 8 Bit Music Tribute To Miles Davis

 

The last few days have marked the 50th anniversary of the release of Kind of Blue, the legendary album by Miles Davis. Noted chiptune artists raised the money to release an official 8-bit tribute to Davis. The lo-fi collection Kind Of Bloop is available starting today for a mere $5 for the download. There are demo tracks on the project's website, as well as this YouTube before & after comparison.

The artists themselves jokingly admit to the project being a kind of sacrilege, but it's amazing to me how much of each tune remains intact even when choked by the limited video game sound hardware of the 80's.

"Kind of Bloop" website
original album re-release in extensive box set

related:
8-bit Kraftwerk tribute album
Kasio Kristmas - it's never too early

10 Classic Reel-to-Reel Decks

oobject has pulled together a nice collection of reel-to-reel recorders pics. They explain, "Some, like the Magnetophon, date all the way back to the 1930s whilst others appeared at various intervals over the years. Whether portable or stationary, chances are that if someone is looking to recapture that classic rock and roll sound, reel-to-reel is ultimately the answer."

I desperately wanted a Fostex R8 as a teenager in the late 1980s, when digital multitracks were still too pricey for mere mortals.

10 classic reel-to-reel recorders

Sony Walkman Turns 30, Feels A Bit Overweight

The original Walkman was released on July 1, 1979. But let's get couple of things straight: Sony didn't come up with the idea, and its success was due to revolutionary lightweight headphones, not the lowly Philips Compact Cassette.

I labored for years under the mistaken belief that Sony invented the portable personal stereo, culminating in the release of the Walkman in mid-1979 (it sold only 3,000 units in the first month). It turns out I was wrong. The real credit for such devices goes to Brazilian intellectual Andreas Pavel, who created the first portable personal stereo players in the late 1960s.

He was unable to get people to see the magic of the device -- no great surprise, given the massive earmuff headphones that were the state-of-the-art in the sixties and seventies. He recounts that, while he lived in Milan in 1976, "people would look at me sometimes on a bus, and you could see they were asking themselves, 'Why is this crazy man running around with headphones?"'

Pavel filed patents in five countries, and Sony agreed to license his technology in 1986 -- although they refused to acknowledge him as the technology's inventor. He fought long and hard, and it wasn't until 2003 that he reached an agreement with Sony that saw him credited for his idea, along with a sizable cash settlement rumored to be over $10 million. To his credit, he never let his legal battle consume him or define his life, even when faced with financial ruin.

While many people assume that the Compact Cassette tape was the secret behind the Walkman's runaway success, it would have been a dismal flop without the introduction of featherweight headphones with samarium-cobalt magnets.

The original headphones weighed a mere 45 grams. Prior to that, hi-fi headphones were bulky, heavy devices ill suited to jogging or riding the train. Their arrival was a critical and frequently overlooked part of the Walkman's immense success throughout the early 1980s, especially when you realize that the Compact Cassette had been on the market for 15 years before the Walkman set sales on fire.

Walkman 20th Anniversary Press Release from 1999 (oh, how far we've come...)
Giving up my iPod for a Walkman  [thanks, Gio and Retroandy!]