In dreams it looked something like this. The reality turned out to be somewhat different
I continue the series of posts about gadgets from the Spanish flea market. This time the post is not about the gadget bought with its review. Everything is much worse it’s more complicated, it’s about how to buy speakers that are faulty, fix them to the best of their ability and make a home audio system by purchasing a vintage Toshiba amplifier on a flea market.
All Began with the idea that I want to try listening to music not in headphones. Yes, you can turn on the built-in speakers of the laptop, but it’s not that. I have heard many times that the sound from powerful speakers (not necessarily included at full power), once heard, can not be forgotten. The idea that it would be good to buy speakers, came to mind for several years in a row, although not very often. One day, I decided to fulfill his plan.
column. Search and buy
Looked at the Spanish eBay, then decided to wait for delivery is not very desirable, though, and found a few suitable options. After that I tried to look for local resources with offers of everything and everything – from panties to cars. The speakers were quickly found and cost a bit. Their price, declared by the seller, was only 35 euros. The photos of the speakers were not very high-quality, but we could see that it was a model of Fisher Studio Standart STE-950.
There was no mention of them at all on the Internet, which surprised me very much, because it’s rare to find a device, o Which generally does not have any information. I wanted to buy speakers, so I agreed with the seller about the meeting. I must say, I immediately asked him if the speakers are in the normal state and whether they work as they should. The seller responded almost immediately, saying: “Man, well, I would not sell them if they did not work, right?” Well ok, agreed to meet.
They brought me them on a scooter. The seller was a Spanish guy of 17 years, who brought first one, then the second column. I did not get to remove the protective mesh somehow, to my mind, it was occupied with other thoughts, and the columns were big and very heavy. At the meeting, I brought 40 euros, the seller did not have the change, but he promised “now to go to the store and exchange.” And really he went and changed it – in five minutes he brought me the change.
This convinced me of his honesty, in addition, all these five minutes I rested, as we with the seller moved the speakers to my entrance, and each weight was About 25 kg. Not much, but they are very uncomfortable to carry.
The seller left, I raised the whole house and was able, finally, to get acquainted with the purchase. To be honest, I do not have any knowledge and experience with any type of audio system. Well, that is, in general, no. The only columns I dealt with earlier are some Soviet ones that I saw and listened to from relatives, being still a small child.
Repair is needed!
Opened the defense of the top, everything was fine. Opened the defense of the bottom – like too, everything was okay, but there was a suspicion that the speaker should not “hang in the air”, as in the photo. But then I still did not think that the speakers were faulty, deciding to ask the advice of the pros. I registered on one of the hi-fi forums and asked about my column model. Nothing sensible old-timers answered, except for advice on buying certain “hangers.”
No one else replied, so I rummaged on the Internet and found the information myself. It turned out that my columns are faulty, all because old suspensions on bass four speakers due to age (and, probably, storage conditions) just rotted. As it turned out, the HF and MF speakers reproduced, but the bass was not in sight, as the lower speakers instead of the basses just wheezed.
Frankly, immediately flashed the idea to take the speakers to the dump and forget about this purchase and your dream Make an audio system. Finally decided to look for these same “hangers” on eBay. I found here about what I need, but it was somehow expensive, about $ 25 for a couple of suspensions (I already knew what it was). And the prices for Aliexpress did not differ much from eBay. After that I happened to find the right one on one Ukrainian site. Here, the circumstances were still very good: in a couple of weeks my parents from Ukraine were supposed to come to my friend here in Spain. Having received permission to order suspensions in their name, I paid my suspensions on that same Ukrainian site. He ordered 4 pieces of 9 “(205×130 mm) hangers made of polyurethane foam. They looked like this on the photo in the store:
Familiar order came quickly and without problems (he treated me about 7 euros), and a couple of weeks later the suspensions were brought to me.
Here they came, in this package, and that’s how they looked right after unpacking.
Well, there are hangers, but what to do with them? And this is really a difficult question, since I did not even know how to glue them. I have the Internet, where you can learn about everything from metabolic features tardigrades to suspensions and methods of installation.
At your own risk
In posts and videos, which I happened to read and see, everything looked not so difficult. But I knew that this impression was deceptive. Somehow, watching the same video from YouTube, I messed up the phone his wife’s display, try to separate the cracked glass Nokia Lumia 1020 from the screen for the purpose of sticking a new window. In general, it is better not to remember this moment.
But the speakers are still not a telephone, therefore Decided to try. Since I have almost decided to throw them away, it will not be completely offensive to ruin it. In short, in one of the more or less free days I decided to tackle the speakers of one of the columns.
The speakers are ready for work
First he began to clean them of “filth” – the remnants of old rotten devils-knows how many years ago suspensions. After using a liquid to remove the varnish of his wife with a high content of acetone, he removed the remnants of everything that he did not want to take off with a knife. It turned out to be surprisingly good, metal speaker rim after this operation appeared clean and smooth
Another problem -. Pick up glue. Since the authors from the Internet advised brands of adhesives that do not exist in these your abroad, went to a Chinese store and bought a glue that is designed to work with polymers. I bought three different glues at once with the purpose of trying which one would be better.
I put the glue on the metal, put the suspension on top, and started using the fingers and a cotton swab on the suspension so that it stuck . Not to say that the operation went smoothly, the suspension immediately began to deform, impregnated with glue, but after several minutes of torment everything went well, and the suspension (outer part of it) took its original form.
By the way, I do not have “speaker caps” Shot, read that you can do without it. After the glue dried (a few hours later), the outer side of the hangers was fixed with the frame that was there before.
The most difficult thing left is to glue the inner edge of the suspension to the outer Edge of the speaker. Using the same glue and fingers for pressure, it was possible to do it, but the effect was so-so – the edges of the suspension always tried to move away from the paper dynamics. After that a happy thought came up to find something round, in diameter coinciding with the internal diameter of the suspension. This something turned out to be a saucer and a baby bucket. Putting a bucket on the priest, I saw that the edges of the suspension were crushed almost perfectly.
A glued speaker in comparison with the untouched one. On the incinerated, the upper edge lagged behind after I lifted the load. But then, when I returned the load to the place, the sizing ended almost perfectly
Columns. Final
Having waited until morning (about 12 o’clock) I took off the load and realized that everything was stuck, if not perfectly, then close to that. After that, the existing experience used to repair the second speaker of the first column. It turned out to be good too, and the next morning I decided to connect the speaker to the amplifier (about its purchase – below) to understand how much the terrible turned out to be my venture. Surprisingly, the speakers stopped wheezing, I also did not hear distortions, although I tried to play a lot – from “Harlem Shake” to “Million red roses”. The bass was reproduced (as for me) perfectly, the sound was not bad.
The repair experience of the first column was used again, after which it turned out that the second column sounds good too. They sounded almost the same, there were no distortions. The wheezing and other unpleasant things were gone, the sound was pure (for me). Probably, some specialized tests and devices will point out the problems, but by ear I can not catch any problems, no matter how I tried to do it. That’s how the speakers look now.
Here is a video of the repair process.
The amplifier
An important problem – without a column amplifier will be simply useless. This I realized a couple of days after buying the speakers themselves – that’s how far I was from the world of audio. I started looking for an amplifier on the web, but I did not want to spend tens or even hundreds of euros. So I tried to look where I had already got a lot of good things – on a Spanish flea market.
I must say that when I was looking specifically, amplifiers did not come across to me. All that I managed to buy is the connecting wires. They were stockpiled for 2-3 euros in excess.
But just a couple of weeks ago, considering a completely different thing (I had already forgotten something about the amplifier), I found next to me a certain Toshiba system with an inscription «Amplifier». It looked not very (the top panel was someone pokromsana), plus the wire was interrupted in two places and connected with electrical tape. But other than that everything looked good, and the seller swore that everything would work. Initially, for Tosiba SC-335, he wanted 20 euros, but managed to bring down the price to 10. Taking the amplifier, I went home. By the way, at home I looked how much this system is on eBay. Amplifiers in a state much better than my specimen, met at a price of 100+ euros. In general, a successful purchase, whatever you say. The only drawback is the lack of instructions. I will be grateful if someone shares the manual in Russian, English or Spanish.
By the way, even before that I managed to see a cassette-box combined with an amplifier from Nikkei (I once wrote about vintage technology, including this company ). But there was a broken key and I strongly doubted the working capacity of this system. Unfortunately, I forgot the model.
I was lucky. I plugged the amplifier into an outlet, the backlight was on. I tormented a couple of minutes with the speakers, I managed to connect them. I connected the phone to the amplifier, afraid to connect the laptop. I was wonderfully surprised when after turning on the music from the VC everything worked. And it worked very well even – the volume of the music was excellent even by 50%, the playback quality seemed good too.
The amplifier was four-channel, And I came up with the idea to buy two more speakers to make a very powerful audio system.
I did not have to buy anything – after two days, accidentally passing by the garbage containers near the house, I saw the speakers thrown by someone , Standing next to the containers. A little hesitating, I picked up those columns and took them home. As it turned out, they work, and have remained well, despite their appearance.
Well, and the absence of hangers (the fact that in the photo – glued cloth, someone did Homemade hangers) I was no longer afraid, I can glue them. So now I plan to repair these columns. I will not publish anything on them, because I do not want to repeat myself.
In general, now a little dream has come true – a home audio system of good quality, as far as I can judge. I listen to music on a regular basis, in addition, do not frighten the movie with a quiet audio track – the speakers are powerful, they can even whisper even to the level of shouting. Now it is necessary to put in order the case and the protection of the first and second columns – as seen in the photo, the grids are dirty, the case is a bit beaten.
Well, this is the Spanish flea market (it’s the same video that was placed in the previous ones Posts of this heading, so if you have seen – skip). The following review
The other day I managed to buy a Sun Netra x4250 server on the flea market. In the store is a children’s photo by VTech. So below is the survey – which review is preferable – server or fotika?
