New guy with a "Mac Plus" music player

[KnobsNSwitches]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking around here for a few months, mostly because I miss the old Macs I had when I was younger. (I also registered last week but apparently my user got eaten when the forum went offline again a few days later)

I thought I'd share a project I recently finished here. I like vintage audio gear, mostly because of the physical controls. All my digital music used to be on a iPad but I wanted physical controls.

I took a Mac Plus case that was an aquarium previously (no functioning computers were harmed in this project), retrobrited it, cut a bigger hole for a cd player, and mounted a mac mini running snow leopard inside and a 9.7" LCD, and used a griffin powermate as a knob. All mp3s and CD controls and done with the big shiny physical knob, just the way I wanted it. Front row is the software, and it actually plays CDs natively, which was news to me.

(i realize now my pic is a bit blurry. pity) 

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

I learned some things on this project, I had never retrobrighted anything before. It does have a bit of a 'marbley' texture, but I guess that happens some times.

The powermate some times is a little funky and needs to be dialed right and left a couple times before the button push responds properly. 

Otherwise it works pretty great, and is a definite conversation piece. 

 

[Compgeke]

The marble texture tends to be a result of uneven application or mixing of the retrobrite mixture. Sometimes a retreatement might fix it or you can consider it a feature and call it unique.

Nice choice in amp by the way. One note about the amp, watch out for bad capacitors as mine did need a couple caps and a zenner replaced.

 

[jamie marchant]

Nicely done. 

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

The marble texture tends to be a result of uneven application or mixing of the retrobrite mixture. Sometimes a retreatement might fix it or you can consider it a feature and call it unique.

Nice choice in amp by the way. One note about the amp, watch out for bad capacitors as mine did need a couple caps and a zenner replaced.

Nice amp! Thanks for the tip, I'll keep any eye on the caps. I love the dual VU meters. So satisfying.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Sweet, lovin' that CD slot. Your choice to leave it rounded works well. Filing the opening to recreate the FDD opening's bevel would have pushed the edge of your slot too close to the printing to look right.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

Sweet, lovin' that CD slot. Your choice to leave it rounded works well. Filing the opening to recreate the FDD opening's bevel would have pushed the edge of your slot too close to the printing to look right.

Thanks! I also colored the silver front of the mini black so it looks a little bit more like the dark depths of a drive when there's nothing in the slot. Kind of. 

I should probably get a clearer pic.

 

[KnobsNSwitches]

One more note: the LCD I used was an eBay special, called "Totevision LED-1003HD 9.7" LCD Monitor", it's 1024x768 and can do VGA / HDMI / BNC in. 

I bought it because it was cheap, but it has a horizontal and vertical zoom control, which I've never seen on a cheap LCD before. By shrinking with the zoom settings it allowed me to get the picture nearly entirely inside the screen bezel. 

The seller I got the LCD from still has a few left, it's one of the cheapest 9.7 LCDs available right now.

 

[techknight]

Vintage audio is hot right now. That particular Kenwood sells for decent money. The Pioneer SA-9800 which I am after currently, sells far more than I care to pay. But honestly at this point where they sell consistently at $300+ depending on operation and condition, it may be worth that at this point.