Jump to content

Console Rescued


Recommended Posts

The forums here have seen me tracking this project now for - almost 2 or 3 years.  It's been long enough that I've lost count of how long it's been...

 

About a year before my grandmother passed, she wanted me to restore her old GE hybrid console stereo that she had purchased in the 1960s in a custom finish.  Her indecisiveness led to me pulling the plug on the project a few times, and finances with me went through 2 or 3 series of uncertainties which kept delaying the finish or work to continue on this setup.

 

The original plan called for a pair of Heresy speaker parts, gutted, with retro-fitted motorboards to be attached inside the current speaker cabinets.  The system was originally spec'd to be powered by an Emotiva UPA-2 amplifier, and an XSP-1 pre-amp.  We kicked around a few ideas for the turntable, ranging from retrofitting the existing one to replacing it with a Music Hall model.

 

When she passed away last year, I decided that I was going to finish this project if it killed me.  The plans changed over this time too to something a bit more cost effective and practical.

 

@DizRotus supplied me with a Technics SL-1500.  The bump in the road occurred when it was discovered that the turntable was in fact too tall for the space that it'd be occupying.  Fortunately, I had a Pioneer PL-990 that I ended up using in the cabinet instead.  The SL-1500 went to live on my main system paired with a Schiit Mani, where the PL-990 is now in the top-opening portion of the console cabinet.

 

Next, @willland supplied a DPS-10.5 DVD player to handle CD's and discs, and also supplied an Integra DTM-40.4 Stereo Receiver.  The pair fit perfectly in the lower compartment near where the Vinyl was stored, and the dimensions allowed easy integration with the wire compartment I was building in under the turntable.  The solid output of the Integra units made any speaker I had temporarily housed in the built-in-cabinets come alive.  I tested RSX-4's, 5's, and an RC-3 on this unit, an none of them sounded anything like how they did on my other systems.  They sounded many times better.  I was excited to see how Heresy's would sound on it.

 

The old fabric in the console was nasty greenish looking drape fabric that was rotting and moldy.  This was tossed and replaced with some awesome grille cloth courtesy of Bob Crites.  The new cloth looked many times better than the green cloth did, and I'm advised it looks better than the original cloth looked when new.

 

All that was left was to find a pair of Heresy to cannibalize.  Originally I had thought about just buying parts, but when that proved to be too difficult, my search continued for a pair of Heresy to harvest and build into the cabinets.  During this time I measured probably four to five times a month just to make sure I wasn't going crazy and making sure that the cabinets were as close to spec as possible.

 

Finally, a pair came across my screen from Diz, once again to the rescue, and 1986 BR II's.  The deal was made, and they arrived last week.  I gutted the speakers after making sure they worked and immediately put a call in to Bob Crites again to get a pair of freshly cut motorboards.  Those arrived yesterday...

 

The boards were an exact fit.  The dimensions were right on.  I could not have fitted them any better.  Today, the backs went on, the wire keep was finished, and all of the drivers were brought into phase.  The 1986 Heresy II BR's, are now Heresy II mods, built into a Cherry 1963 GE Built cabinet, originally fitted with RCA speakers.  As for how they sound in the modified cabinets...they sound like Heresy's.  

 

If I must say so...not too shabby.  I'll take some more pics tomorrow.

 

34067494_1910254208999116_110925725216800768_n.jpg.3ca3af4ff7ea72665351f9b42d45607a.jpg

Before the wires were wrapped and placed in the wire storage area (upper right) they were loose in back.  Only one wire comes off the back of the console now - a sole power cable leading off a power strip mounted inside the wire storage area.

 

34093504_1910254082332462_6212852442011271168_n.jpg.d12df1d197e704f57c4a66d1587552d2.jpg34178177_1910254115665792_4936287457541881856_n.jpg.e6e168d8ed1da125ccd07e4c4a158d4a.jpg

Right and left drivers mounted in the new cabinet.  The spaces around the motorboards are still sealed with solid wood.  The only exit point for any of the speakers is located on the inside rear where the speaker wire runs out of the compartments and to the amplifier.  Since the original cabinets did not have rear mounted terminals and an inline crossover - I opted to mount the cup and the crossover inside of the cabinet with bare wire running to the cup.  The cups are mounted with the rear facing down and the components facing up at the rear of each compartment.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pardon the dust on these, I have not yet cleaned off the gear from things that were mounted in place.

 

IMG_20180603_120000.thumb.jpg.feb4bedb11a420c00d4a8ca6bffd6986.jpgIMG_20180603_120007.thumb.jpg.9e87b5fbd1a91a2e5d3ffc4ad628498c.jpg

 

The left and right speakers shown here originally had the nasty green fabric I mentioned earlier.  The fabric that is there now, I purchased from Bob Crites, and is a beautiful gold color with black stitching.  The pictures really do not do the fabric the justice it deserves.  I highly recommend that cloth to anyone who's wanting to accent red or dark wood finishes.  He sent me a whole roll too - I have so much of this stuff left, I could probably refit several Klipschorns.  We're currently thinking about refitting the fabric on the 1981 Heresy OO's in the other room.

 

To compensate for the golden grating across the front that's bronze - I reinforced the edges with some additional staples, and even included a few extras in the middle to reduce rattling.  They don't budge an inch anymore, whereas before they were quite fluid in movement.

 

IMG_20180603_120037.thumb.jpg.e15a45042738a2ace015acd7fa453510.jpg

 

The original turntable was the gem to my grandmother, it held up to 6 vinyls at a time and would cycle through all of them.  Unfortunately, the build was cheap, and when I got under the hood, I discovered that many of the wires were frayed.  When I examined closer, I also discovered that the stylus was cracked and that the turntable itself wasn't at all steady or even balanced.

 

Diz supplied me with an SL-1500 which ended up being too tall for this space.  The Pioneer PL-990 was much slimmer, and it effectively did the job and fit in the space, with just enough room to hit play and stop.  The top of the turntable meets where the lip in the console is, effectively matching near what the original turntable had in height.  There's about 7 inches worth of clearance between the stylus and the top of the console.  The wires filter down underneath the turntable, as the original did, into what is now the wire compartment.

 

IMG_20180603_120050.thumb.jpg.6c9dcaa55075c1dbefb70b94a1c9c054.jpg

 

Original to the design of the console, it had a Record Saver.  This is the original chrome piece from the original build.  Since there was no damage done to it, I opted to keep it for the retro style.  It was pretty gritty though, so a good cleaning made it shine again, it's dusty again now, but it was the first refitted piece to go into this console, so most of that dust is from over 12 months of work being done on the system.

 

More soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really like the look of the fabric as installed.  What was the purpose of the  “Record Saver?”   It appears the record was put into the slot to drop on a pile?  If that’s correct, from what we’re the being saved?

 

From the earlier posts it wasn’t clear whether, or how, the space behind the woofers is sealed.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The "Record Saver" as I understand was lined with rubber (it still is) and supposedly made it easier to replace the vinyl back into its sleeve.  I don't see the purpose/point to it, but it's the token original piece I left that was part of the original system.  It's not there really to be functional as far as I'm concerned.

 

The backs are sealed.  There are three boards on the back, one for each speaker, and one for the electronics segment.  The wire to the speakers runs into the side of the speaker enclosures through the electronics segment, so there's no wires coming off the back other than a power cable.

 

There's a few minor cosmetic things left to do...

 

IMG_20180603_120020.thumb.jpg.277b376cd15735f4ef9b20a85beb2c0e.jpg

 

Here is where the amp and the disc player are located.  They both are courtesy of willland, and were the third pieces to come in for the system.  The 40.4 puts out plenty of clean power to really get the Heresy's jumping.  The plan is to place a pair of AC Infinity fans at the rear of the electronics segment in order to ensure constant airflow/displacement and rear-ported cooling. 

 

The DPS-10.5 is a monster of a disc player, and weighed even more than my ERC-1's weighed.  That's a heavy duty hunk of metal, and it works like a charm.  Every now and then it likes to hangup on booting, but a reboot usually resolves that.  I'm using a TOSLINK for the output from this to the 40.4.

 

IMG_20180603_120025.thumb.jpg.29a11331ced0ea791fa0fe78fa213d0f.jpg

 

Next to the amp and disc player on the bottom shelf is space for vinyl.  The size of the collection we have outweighs the amount of space we have available in this cabinet, but that hasn't stopped us from using it.  We have a separate storage area for excess vinyl, but the most played stuff has found its new home here.

 

IMG_20180603_120044.thumb.jpg.e00bd3aed3ca8e5d289de00b16ae950b.jpg

 

Since the big thing today is digital and mobile media, and the Integra is finnicky when it comes to streaming services, I opted to add a 3.5 mm jack running off the back of the amp.  This is on the far side of the record player, and when totally finished will include a charging port, a fan, and the compartment sealed from the bottom.

 

Just behind the 3.5 mm jack, you can see speaker wire running in through one of the slots to the modded Heresy to the right.  These spaces were cut just large enough to run wire through.  You can also note the marks on the wood around the square cutout where the original solid-state amplifier used to sit.  The amplifier had a damaged tuner section, volume pot, and corroded wiring.  Instead of restoring it, it was decided to replace it with a modern amplifier with a built in preamp.  The previous preamp would have been mounted just behind the top of the console (see upper left, where there's a screw hole).  The original connections included 1 for an 8-track, 1 for a tape deck, and 1 mono output for an external speaker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, The History Kid said:

The "Record Saver" as I understand was lined with rubber (it still is) and supposedly made it easier to replace the vinyl back into its sleeve.  I don't see the purpose/point to it, but it's the token original piece I left that was part of the original system.  It's not there really to be functional as far as I'm concerned.

 

Of course you should leave it in there.  I wish we could see a commercial from the day showing it in operation.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/3/2018 at 2:29 PM, The History Kid said:

The "Record Saver" as I understand was lined with rubber (it still is) and supposedly made it easier to replace the vinyl back into its sleeve.

Not arguing, just adding my Google-fu to make the pile bigger.

In the 1960s, General Electric had some gimmicks to set themselves apart from other record player/radio companies.  One thing they had on some models was a "record saver."  It was a slot with fur sweep that was intended to wipe the dust off your 45 RPM records

DSC_0313.JPG.

 

 

Wonder if you were supposed to turn the records in there to "brush" off dust? Nice job on the restoration.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just cruised through one of the local Goodwill stores. Saw a console,  beautiful shape, $19 that is a GE, looks to be a match for yours. It has a sold sign on it. 😬

 

Bruce

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, haydukej said:

Not arguing, just adding my Google-fu to make the pile bigger.

In the 1960s, General Electric had some gimmicks to set themselves apart from other record player/radio companies.  One thing they had on some models was a "record saver."  It was a slot with fur sweep that was intended to wipe the dust off your 45 RPM records

DSC_0313.JPG.

 

 

Wonder if you were supposed to turn the records in there to "brush" off dust? Nice job on the restoration.

Nice find.  It's quite possible that's what you'd do.  Certainly no fur sweep left, just rubber lining. (in before innuendo)

 

1 hour ago, Marvel said:

Just cruised through one of the local Goodwill stores. Saw a console,  beautiful shape, $19 that is a GE, looks to be a match for yours. It has a sold sign on it. 😬

 

Bruce

Ohhhh dear.  :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...