Jukebox Jr. project

by **rembetis** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 11:56 am

Not exactly home theater, but I figured some of you guys might get a kick out of my latest project: a digital music server -- complete with internal amp, lcd screen, and cd drive -- built into an antique radio case. 95% of the parts came from my junk box. But don't tell that to the friend to whom I am giving this for a housewarming present ;-)

Little did the antique radio collector who sold me this case for $10 know what I had in store for it.

The 5" LCD screen was stripped from a broken portable Panasonic DVD-L50 player purchased on ebay (composite input still worked).

The mighty little Sonic Impact T-amp stripped of its ugly plastic casing.

Finally my Gateway P3 500 of yesteryear lives again in a form it can be proud of. Air is pulled in by that little fan on the bottom right, pushed across the case by another fan mounted right on the cpu heatsink, and then sent back out by the PSU fan, which I modded for less noise.

A poor shot of the back panel. The composite cable will be replaced with a single RCA to minijack once I can find it (this ones from my working DVD player). One soundcard jack goes to the internal T-amp. Thanks to the KX drivers, I can send another to a separate amp for multizone. Ethernet port allows for tweaking and control via VNC, when necessary (though the monitor port is available to).

The finished project, running a custom Xlobby skin, and controlled by a Remote Wonder that had been collecting dust. Right now, the 80 GB drive has over 300 albums on it in 245kbps MP3, but the CD Rom drive works just like a regular player -- plays discs on insert. Front buttons controll LCD on/off, LCD aspect ratio (an unfortunate necessity), server power up/down, and eject. Original radio knob turns on the amp and controls volume.

Now all I have to do is build the speakers to match. :shock:

by **S Pittaway** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 1:06 pm

by **m_masta** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:39 pm

That is really cool, and will make a great gift.
You got me thinking of building something similar for my future leisure room :lol:

It looks great man, good job!

masta

by **P3rv3rt B3ar** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 3:52 pm

I would say u spoiled nice piece of equibment... Idea is great. But whats up with using those ugly buttons and their totally chaotic placement?

by **PhilB** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:37 pm

Interesting project. It would be really nice to use an iMac-mini running XP (the Intel version can). Runs nearly silent, has CD/DVD no-tray loading mechanism, audio out, could play movies too.

I would nix all the buttons except power on/off and use a remote for everything else...although one of those 7 or 8 inch touch screens could make it cool too.

Now all I need is a really nice antique case....mmmmm. I might come back to this one.

Thanks for sharing the work,
PB

by **rembetis** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:43 pm

"Totally chaotic placement" was dictated by components on the other side of the faceplate, and were placed near to the thing they control to help a technophobic friend keep track. Ugly buttons were what was available locally for cheap. The whole idea was to keep costs down. Since you seem to value bluntness highly, P3rv3rt B3ar, how about fu#$ off! :evil:

by **P3rv3rt B3ar** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:51 pm

rembetis wrote:"Totally chaotic placement" was dictated by components on the other side of the faceplate. Ugly buttons were what was available locally for cheap. The whole idea was to keep costs down. Since you seem to value bluntness highly, P3rv3rt B3ar, how about fu#$ off!

Sad u take it this way. I value straightness, not bluntness, do u think it easier to give bad feedback than good one? Its not, but atleast when i ask feedback, i value straight opinion. And im sure most of people here finds buttons anoying, its just I might be about only one here with enough balls to open my mouth.

U can take it however u want, but my questimate is if that friend of yours has better half that thing is going to enjoy display time only when u choose to visit him and it is shame cause that is just because of buttons, otherwise its really freaking awesome... but in these kind of items... it really comes down to small cosmetic details.

My two eurocent

by **rembetis** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:03 pm

I value constructive criticism as much as the next guy but after a buttload of work and frustration, I'd rather not be told I "ruined" my gift by some guy who goes around judging whether other people's gear meets his definition of "home theater." The buttons were an unfortunate necessity. And you'll be pleased to hear my buddy's wife is as mellow and non-materialistic as he is.

by **abobader** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 5:53 pm

A nice job on these collection iteams, turn to be one a stand a lone gift!

Well done rembetis

One thing tho, regarding the fan incoming air (air-in), from the images here, sound it will not get good air to the unit, or it's my old eyes not seen it? I am very intersting to do this as well, since I have a lots of items for the many years back.

My best.

by **rembetis** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:11 pm

Thanks for the feedback, abobader. I was under the impression that as long as some fresh air was coming in, I would be ok. I've read a few articles online that suggested venting hot air (here via PSU fan) was much more important that pulling in cool air. In any case, temps seem to be holding ok and no shutdowns. Yet

by **Jay** on Sat Jul 22, 2006 6:40 pm

Excellent job!

If the temps are holding, you should be fine. As long as you have a flowthrough.

Use to collect antique radios. Sorry now I dumped the cases

by **Marbles_00** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:03 pm

It is rather unfortunate about the buttons not blending in better cosmetically. Hey, being an avid DIY'er myself, I can relate to the effort you put into the project. Anyone with any senses would appriciate the time and effort you put into the project. I think it is awesome in what you have done. Who knows, later on, you may be able to mod it further and fix the buttons, with the help from your friend.

You know what would really be cool (if it would have fit) was to encase the motherboard in aluminum, and place some tubes out the top. Even wire them up to light them and make them appear to be working.

Couple of questions.
1) What do you think of those T-Amps? I've read some peoples reviews of them...some love them, other can't stand them. For what they are worth, It may be worthwhile to snag one off ebay and have a listen...but I just wanted to know your personal unbiased opinion.

2) How are you powering it (the T-amp), from AC (with its own supply), or from the computer 12v supply?

Anyways...Good Job Man. :wink:

David

by **S Pittaway** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:21 pm

yipers, P3rv3rt you come across as rude a lot...

the buttons arnt great, but if someone had given me that has a present i would have thoght it was great!

by **bmblank** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 5:30 pm

Looks like you'd probably be alright with a soldering iron... My brother made a bluetooth headset out of an old phone and the original buttons are still on the board, but we soldered some wires on in addition and put some new buttons in the side. I would think that that would be the way to go. Other than that it's pretty cool. Now you need to put the antique skin or whatever it is on there (if it gets finished in time). Pretty cool. Maybe I'll be able to convince my parents to give me their full sized ancient radio to do something like that to it.

by **rembetis** on Tue Jul 25, 2006 6:27 pm

FWIW, here are the speakers I built to go with the Jukebox Jr. Since I still have everything to learn about crossovers, and I wanted the speakers to match in height (9") I decided a single driver design was my best bet. After a little research, I settled on the Aurasound NS3-193-8A1 3", which some independent tests by John Krutke over at Zaph Audio have shown to be pretty smooth from 85Hz to 15kHz, thanks to its nearly 5mm of xmax (both stats are pretty rare in a 3" driver). At a mere $20 a piece they were certainly worth a try.

The results? Well, let's just say they don't have my main speakers shaking in their boots

But not bad at all, really, and when mated with a small sub I think they could easily hang with some of the better PC speakers on the market. And for my friend, who is about as far from an audiophile as they come, they will be just fine.

(The less said about the finish on the speakers the better. I've been doing woodworking of one kind or another for over 10 years and the secrets of a truly great finish are still as mysterious and unknowable to me as alchemy. The fact that they look about as aged as the radio was a happy accident I just claim was intentional.)