A few months ago I bought a non-working little old suitcase turntable with built-in amp. The thing - probably from the late 1950's or early 1960's - had a wobbly thin pressed-tin 7-inch platter, a plastic arm with no head shell and moths had eaten every non-metal bit of the single speaker, and much else.
The turntable part soon showed to be FUBAR, but I still had hope for the amp unit - it had a working 6x4 rectifier valve, and a working EL84 valve.
So I completely disassembled everything (making notes and taking pictures), and bought a few new parts (caps, resistors, IEC socket, on/off switch, fuse holder, speaker sockets, RCA socket etc.)
Then I found a (way too) big old radiogram chassis, cleaned it and resprayed it. I drew a picture of the new build in DIYLC (I love this software!) and started the new build.
Tonight I switched it on for the first time, using a dim light bulb safety device and a wooden stick to press "on", and it works!
It was designed for a ceramic pick-up turntable cartridge, but plays perfectly, directly from my CD player (line level input). It has a tone control pot and a volume pot, so pretty much an intergrated amp. I guess it is 2-3 watt (?) but there is absolutely NO noise /hum, and it sounds very sweet. I am more than happy with this little project!
The turntable part soon showed to be FUBAR, but I still had hope for the amp unit - it had a working 6x4 rectifier valve, and a working EL84 valve.
So I completely disassembled everything (making notes and taking pictures), and bought a few new parts (caps, resistors, IEC socket, on/off switch, fuse holder, speaker sockets, RCA socket etc.)
Then I found a (way too) big old radiogram chassis, cleaned it and resprayed it. I drew a picture of the new build in DIYLC (I love this software!) and started the new build.
Tonight I switched it on for the first time, using a dim light bulb safety device and a wooden stick to press "on", and it works!
It was designed for a ceramic pick-up turntable cartridge, but plays perfectly, directly from my CD player (line level input). It has a tone control pot and a volume pot, so pretty much an intergrated amp. I guess it is 2-3 watt (?) but there is absolutely NO noise /hum, and it sounds very sweet. I am more than happy with this little project!
