upgrade my stereo

Because as of late I have a more pressing need for a very small boombox, or powered speakers as a single unit, to use with a portable CD player. I’ll redirect any cash going to these things to this for now, although it won’t cost much. The two boomboxes I already have are both appropriated to other tasks right now. Again, a custom job will be best here: what would work is a pair of computer speakers (easily obtainable second-hand) combined into a single unit, with added electronics. Small is the key here: smaller than the smaller of my two bbxs, which, ironically, I’m using as amplified computer speakers. (This one should be OK to use in the meantime. Just not fancying having to haul two boxes back and forth all the time.)

1. take the front of one of the stereos (I saved them) where the tape goes and get rid of all but that section
2. mount one of those mechanisms onto it (just one side and without the recording stuff—this’ll just be a player for simplicity’s sake)
3. Mount into an enclosure
4. Build new electronics, focusing on minimizing things like line noise and RF interference with shielding, dual balanced/shielded leads from the head to an instrumentation input (I’ve never seen this done before so I’ll give it a try), filtering power, etc. Noise-reduction circuitry aside, the electronics necessary for tape playback are pretty minimal.

And get an older (compatibility reasons) USB recording input for the computer because the sound-card input isn’t very good, and start making MP3s from my tapes :)

1. Maybe gut out a dead digital-cable box or (better size) 5-disc changer for an enclosure. These are usually all metal except the front. Enclosures and hardware are the biggest hang-up I have with projects.
2. Another sticking part is a proper transformer. I should be able to re-wind one that’s already of appropriate size if necessary.
3. All linear—nothing digital. If I were to put a microprocessor in it, it’d get way out of scope in a hurry.
4. Both two- and 5.1-channel capacity. A matrix to upconvert 2.0 to 5.1, and to downconvert 5.1 to 2.0 (for headphones, etc). Again, no digital in: right now I only need 5.1 for my DVD player, which has linear outs for all six channels (I got it for this feature).
5. Instead of a “tape, phono, video, etc” selector, a mixer: maybe six 2.0 and a couple 5.1 inputs
6. Equalizer for all 5.1 channels. For all the 5.1 stuff I’ll need to be able to gang six potentiometers together. This’ll take some doing. Stackable ones do exist, but seem to be a rarity. A system of gears may be necessary, but this is the sort of thing I’m trying to avoid.
7. An AGC for all channels
8. Several “tape monitor” line-outs
9. Amplifiers of 10-20W/ch for 5, and 20-40 for the .1

1. One or two small-scale amps/front-ends, with multiple inputs, equalizers, AGCs and other tweakability. One to use for the computers along with a set of computer speakers, maybe another for the back room.
2. A two-channel 1/3-octave graphic equalizer. I want this for recording especially, like for converting LPs and cassettes to MP3. I’d rather have a physical EQ than the “equalizer” feature in sound-editing software like I do now. These can be gotten in various price ranges (some quite inexpensive). But I want to custom-build one with the sliders for both channels paired up for each band instead of the usual separate set for each channel. This will make it easier to set both channels the same but still allow for per-channel settings. The end result is going to be about 68 sliders in a row, making it look like a massive 1/6-octave EQ. :)
3. (eventually) Multi-channel receiver/preamp with tweakability galore and lots of inputs including a mixer.

just ordered my bose wave sound system. wanted one for a long time. (thanks granny!)

w00t! My old one was so broken. The cds kept skipping, so I tried to take it apart and figure out what was wrong, and broke it so the tray wouldn’t even open. Oh well! New one is awesome!