How do I make the modifications my Magnavox Stereophonic Hi Fi Console desperately needs ?

May 12, 2008 7:09 PM

How can I make the modifications/hacks my Magnavox Stereophonic Hi Fi console desperately needs.

I have a Magnavox Stereophonic Hi Fi console that seems to be more than 30 years old. I want to make the changes listed below but I don't really know how to complete these tasks.

1. Ipod Cradle/PSP Cradle (it has what may be really crappy aux cords sticking out of the back, but I want something better).

2. Replace the record player with maybe a new one or change it out (its grinds when it moves and it doesn't do much more than that)

3. Put in a bar (I've got the space on the side that would hold records but I would like to have a little bottle holder for my assorted liquors, but I want a neat way of presenting it)

I do have some experience with carpentry and I have friends that can solder so please try to explain somewhere between lay and technical. I also found a blog that has pictures of a the console that is almost like mine except I don't have a knob above the tuner display

posted by carefulmonkey to home & garden (4 comments total)

If you post the blog picture that you found it may help you get some answers on the carpentry and soldering fronts. From a general perspective, if it has "really crappy aux cords" on the back, that's probably about as good as you're going to get - if you inspect the board you can probably find out where to hook the aux input in directly, but the cords probably go there already. You could replace the aux cords with better quality cable, but it won't make any difference on a 30 year old receiver.

I'd adapt the aux cords to a 1/8 " jack for the ipod.

For the record player, you could go to target and buy one of the cheapo record players - problem is going to be finding out where to hook up the phono out from the record player to the magnavox. When you cut the old one out, you should find out how it hooks into the main board. You may be able to just hook up the wires from the phone cartridge directly to the wires that used to go to the old one's phono cartridge.
posted by rhys at 8:03 PM on May 12

Here's the iPod dock.

Personally, I'd figure the most bang for the effort would be to just buy a decent amp and speakers, and sit them inside the hollowed-out cabinet. You might post some pictures of your actual unit to get people's creative juices going.
posted by Orb2069 at 8:12 PM on May 12

This sounds like such a cool thing to do.

The iPod thing is pretty simple with a regular iPod dock. I would try to integrate it somewhere into the front face of the piece so that you can use a remote to access the iPod in the dock. If you take out the crappy turntable, put in a slab of stone on which to mount or at least set your new turntable. It will help isolate it from the loud music you will play. Feedback to the turntable kills the sound. As for the bar, are you going to replace the existing speakers? Those old 12 inch and larger speakers in the consoles were for crap usually. You could put some new more efficient, and smaller speakers into the same area to leave room to implement a bar. Just hide a pair of bookshelf speakers behind the existing grill.
posted by caddis at 8:26 PM on May 12

Here is the link I forgot to put up http://modobjectathome.blogspot.com/2007/12/crank-up-hi-fi.html
posted by carefulmonkey at 8:54 PM on May 12