How to assemble an audio system from broken speakers and an amplifier from a flea market

In dreams, it looked something like this. The reality was somewhat different

I continue a series of posts about gadgets from the Spanish flea market. This time the post is not about the purchased gadget with its review. Everything is much more difficult, it will be about how to buy speakers that were faulty, fix them to the best of their abilities and make a home audio system by purchasing the Toshiba vintage amplifier at the flea market.

It all started with the thought that I want to try to listen to music not with headphones. Yes, you can turn on the built-in laptop speakers, but this is not the case. I have heard many times that the sound from powerful speakers (not necessarily turned on at full power), once heard, it is impossible to forget. The idea that it would be nice to buy speakers came to my mind for several years in a row, although not very often. One day I decided to fulfill my plans.

Columns. Search and purchase

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I looked at Spanish eBay, then I decided that I didn’t really want to wait for delivery, although I found several acceptable options. After that I tried to search on local resources with suggestions of everything and everything — from cowards to cars. Columns were quickly found and cost a little. Their price, as stated by the seller, was only 35 euros. Photos of the columns were not very high quality, but managed to discern that this model is Fisher Studio Standart STE-950.

On the Internet, there was no mention of them at all, which I was very surprised, because now you rarely find a device about which there is no information at all. I wanted to buy columns, so I made an appointment with the seller. I must say, I immediately asked him whether the speakers were in good condition and whether they were working as they should. The seller responded almost immediately, saying: "Man, well, I would not sell them if they did not work, right?" Well, ok, we agreed to meet.

I brought them on a scooter. The seller turned out to be a Spanish guy, about 17 years old, who brought first one, then the second column. Somehow it did not occur to me to remove the protective net, it occurred to me that it was occupied with other thoughts, and the speakers were large and very heavy. I brought 40 euros to the meeting, the seller did not have the change, but he promised "to go to the store now and exchange". And he really went and exchanged - in five minutes he brought me a change.

This convinced me of his honesty, besides, I rested all these five minutes, since the seller and I carried the columns to my entrance, and each one was about 25 kg. Not much, but they are very uncomfortable to carry.

The seller left, I brought everything home and was able, finally, to get acquainted with the purchase. To be honest, I don’t have knowledge and experience with any type of audio systems. Well, that is, not at all. The only columns I have dealt with before are some Soviet ones that I saw and listened to with relatives, while still a small child.

Repair needed!

Opened the protection of the upper part, everything was fine. He opened the lower part of the defense - everything seems to be okay too, but a suspicion arose that the speaker should not “hang in the air”, as in the photo. But then I did not think that the speakers were faulty, having decided to ask the pros for advice. I registered on one of the hi-fi forums and asked about my model of speakers. Nothing sensible old-timers did not respond, except for advice on buying some "suspensions".



No one else answered, therefore, rummaging through the Internet, I found the information myself. It turned out that my speakers are faulty, all because the old suspensions on bass four speakers due to age (and, probably, storage conditions) just rotted. As it turned out, the tweeter and midrange speakers reproduced, but there was no mention of bass, since the lower speakers instead of bass just wheezed.

To be honest, the thought immediately flashed to take the speakers to the dump and forget about this purchase and your dream to make an audio system. Finally, I decided to look for these “suspensions” on eBay. Here I found about what I needed, but it was somehow expensive, about $ 25 per pair of suspensions (I already knew what it was). And the prices on Aliexpress didn't really differ from eBay. Already after that, I accidentally found the necessary on one Ukrainian site. Here, circumstances were still well established: in a couple of weeks, my friend from Ukraine had to come to my friend here in Spain. Having received permission to order suspensions in their name, I paid for my suspensions on that very Ukrainian site. I ordered 4 pieces of suspensions 9 "(205x130 mm) made of polyurethane. They looked like this in the pictures in the store:



The order came to my acquaintances quickly and without problems (it cost me about 7 euros), and a couple of weeks later the suspensions were brought to me.



Here in this package, they arrived, and that's how they looked immediately after unpacking.





Well, there are suspensions, but what to do with them? And this is really a difficult question, because I did not even know how to glue them. It is good that in our time there is the Internet, where you can learn about everything, from the features of slow-moving metabolism to suspensions and the methods of their installation.

At one's own risk

In the posts and videos that I happened to read and see, everything looked not very difficult. But I knew that this impression was deceptive. Somehow, after watching the same videos from YouTube, I spoiled the display of my wife’s phone by trying to separate the cracked glass of the Nokia Lumia 1020 from the screen in order to glue the new glass. In general, this moment is better not to remember.







But the speakers are not a telephone yet, so I decided to try. Since I almost decided to throw them away, it would not be a shame to spoil them completely. In short, in one of the more or less free days I decided to take up the dynamics of one of the speakers.




Columns are ready to go.

First, he began to clean them from the "filth" - the remnants of old rotted features — he knows how many years ago suspensions. After that, using a high-acetone high viscose nail polish remover, removed the remnants of everything that did not want to be removed with a knife. It came out surprisingly well, the metal of the rim of the speakers after this operation turned out to be clean and smooth.



Another challenge is to pick up the glue. Since the authors from the Internet advised brands of adhesives that do not exist in your foreign countries, I went to a Chinese store and bought a glue that is designed to work with polymers. I bought three different glue at once with the aim of trying which one would be better.



He put the glue on the metal, put the hanger on top, and began to put pressure on the hanger with his fingers and a cotton swab so that it stuck. Not to say that the operation went smoothly, the suspension immediately began to deform, soaked with glue, but after a few minutes of torment everything went well, and the suspension (its outer part) took on its original shape.

By the way, I didn’t take off the “caps” of the speakers, I read that you can do without it. After the glue has dried up (several hours have passed), secured the outer side of the suspensions using the frame that was there before.



It remains the most difficult - 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 this, but the effect was so-so - the edges of the suspension all the time sought to move away from the paper dynamics. After that, a happy thought came to mind to find something round, the diameter coinciding with the internal diameter of the suspension. This something turned out to be a saucer and a baby bucket. Putting the bucket on the butt, I saw that the edges of the suspension were crushed almost perfectly.


Glued speaker compared to untouched. On the curved top edge, it was a bit behind after I removed the load. But then, when I put the load back in place, the sizing was almost perfect.

Columns. The final

Having waited until morning (about 12 hours), I took off the load and realized that everything stuck, if not perfect, then close to that. After that, the existing experience was used to repair the second speaker of the first column. It turned out also not bad, and the next morning I decided to connect the column to the amplifier (about its purchase - below), in order to understand how terrible my idea turned out to be. Surprisingly, the speakers stopped wheezing, I also did not hear any distortions, although I tried to lose a lot - from Harlem Shake to Million Scarlet Roses. The bass was reproduced (as for me) excellent, the sound was not bad.

The experience of repairing the first speaker was used again, after which it turned out that the second speaker also sounds good. They sounded almost the same, there was no distortion. Wheezing and other unpleasant things were gone, the sound was clear (for me). Probably, some specialized tests and devices will indicate problems, but by hearing I can not catch any problems, no matter how hard I tried to do it. That's how the dynamics look now.





Here is a video of the repair process.

Amplifier

An important problem is that without an amplifier, the speakers will simply be useless. I realized this a couple of days after buying the speakers themselves - that’s how far I was from the world of audio. Began to look for an amplifier on the web, but did not want to spend dozens or even hundreds of euros. Therefore, I tried to search where I had already acquired a lot of good things - in a Spanish flea market.

I must say that when I was looking specifically, I did not come across amplifiers. All that was able to buy - this is the connecting wires. I stocked them for 2-3 euros in excess.

But a couple of weeks ago, considering a completely different thing (I already forgot about the amplifier somehow), I found next to me a certain Toshiba system with the inscription “Amplifier”. It didn’t look very much (the top panel was someone who had been cut off), plus the wire was broken in two places and connected with tape. But besides this, everything looked good, and the seller vowed that everything would work. Initially, for the Tosiba SC-335, he wanted 20 euros, but managed to bring the price down to 10. Taking the amplifier, I went home. By the way, at home I looked at how much this system costs on eBay. Amplifiers in a state much better than that of my specimen were priced at 100+ euros. In general, a good buy, whatever you say. The only negative is the lack of instructions. I will be grateful if someone will share the manual in Russian, English or Spanish.

By the way, even before that we managed to see a cassette holder combined with an amplifier from Nikkei (I once wrote about vintage technology, including this company). But there the key was broken off and I strongly doubted the efficiency of this system. Unfortunately, I forgot the model.



I was lucky. I connected the amplifier to the outlet, the backlight is working. I suffered a couple of minutes with speakers, I managed to connect them too. I connected the phone to the amplifier, afraid to connect a laptop. I was very surprised when everything started working after switching on the music from VC. And it worked very well - the volume of the music was excellent even by 50%, the quality of playback also seemed good to me.





The amplifier turned out to be a four -channel dual - channel, but it seems like a second pair of speakers can be connected to it. I got the idea to purchase 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 next to the house, I saw columns ejected by someone standing next to the containers. After some hesitation, I picked up these speakers and took them home. As it turned out, they work, and they are well preserved, despite their appearance.



Well, the lack of suspensions (the fact that in the photo is glued fabric, someone made homemade suspensions) did not scare me anymore, I know how to glue them. So now I plan to repair these columns. I will not publish anything on them, because I do not want to repeat.

In general, now a small dream has come true - a good home audio system, as far as I can tell, of quality. Now I listen to music regularly, and besides, I am not at all frightened by a film with a quiet audio track - the speakers are powerful, they can enhance almost a whisper even to the level of a scream. Now we have 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 what the Spanish flea market looks like (this is the same video that was posted in previous posts of this category, so if you saw it, skip it).

Next review

The other day I managed to buy a Sun Netra x4250 server at a flea market. In the vaults there is a baby fotik from VTech. So what's the lower poll - which review is preferable - server or fotik?