The "iPhonola"

9-24-08

First post! woo!

Umm... Yeah. So, about a month ago, I found an old Waters-Conley Phonola "portable" record player at the local Goodwill for $25. Peering through a screen on the back of the unit, I could just barely make out some tubes. Enough to make me bring it home without any further inspection. Though it appeared mechanically sound, the stylus was either smashed or rusted off- and even if it hadn't been, I a bit uptight about what I play my records on... My main intention from the get-go was to harvest the amp anyway.

Before even getting it more than a few feet from the car, I tore into it and hastily hooked up an old iPod to the guts of it as a means to test the functionality of the amp. To my surprise, it worked great and sounded reasonably decent (minor hum from old, greasy caps and crappy/used up speakers).

Below is a shot of the amp itself, lightly glowing. on the wooden base of the enclosure, you can see what appears to be the date of manufacture: 7-17-59.

...and a few more shots of the amp, removed from the case. Everything was surprisingly clean and rust free on the inside, however the caps definitely are showing their age.

Around this point in the tear-down, I decided to reassemble the unit and turn it into a oversized "portable" iPod dock. I was very surprised to find the unmodified phono in on this amp handled the headphone and line outs of the ipod throughout the volume range without distortion. For me, it kind of went against intuition, as I had jumpered the audio out of the ipod (via half of an 1/8" audio cable) right into the cut lines coming from beneath the tonearm on the underside of the platter assembly.

In the image below the finished audio interface is shown. The four prong plug in the upper half of the shot is the original connection supplying the audio and chassis ground from the removed turntable assembly. I removed the unneeded chassis ground wire and soldered in left, right and audio ground to the appropriate pins.

This next photo shows the modified power switch get-up. Power to the amp and turntable motor was originally switched via a plastic (or Bakelite?) rotary switch on the removed turntable platter. For the modified switch assembly, I used the existing wire, but replaced the original knob with a run-of-the-mill SPST toggle. I installed an old power receptacle pulled from a very old extension cord I had laying about at the connection where power was originally supplied to the turntable motor (The brownish rectangular thing in the image below). The white molex connector is unmodified from the original configuration. It connects near the amp inside the case to a wiring harness also supplying 120VAC from the wall.

Next is shown the beginnings of the new base plate that will replace the original that held the turntable assembly and provided access to the volume, tone and balance controls for the amp. I decided I must have a window to show of the glowing tubes. The easiest and cheapest solution I could come up with was to make the first plate entirely of plexiglass, then install a second to cover everything that wasn't going to be my window. For this layer, I chose a sheet of foam craftboard (I don't know what it's actually called, as this is the only time I've ever bought the stuff) - it's very cheap and easy to work with. I used the original wooden base plate as a template, traced the outline onto the plexiglass, cut with a circular saw and drilled with a uh, drill. The precess was repeated (substituting a boxcutter for the saw) for the foamboard, with the addition of a cutout for the window.

Here's test-fit of the plexiglass. Good stuff.

This shot shows the power assembly and ipod charger in place. I stapled a sheet of white paperboard to the backing for aesthetic reasons.

Finally, the completed unit. I covered the foamboard with white "marine vinyl" glued on with spray rubber cement. I'd used this stuff in the past with good results. It's reasonably stretchy and forgiving, for easyish and clean results. The iPod dock shown was bolted down with some tiny little nut/bolt pairs I had readily available. To do this, I just drilled through the dock without too much care or thought. I kind of think this wasn't wise as (at least in some of the newer ones) there's a pcb under there. As I couldn't get this dock open without making it ugly, I just took my chances and got lucky.

So, yup. In the end I'm pretty happy with it. The total cost was about $50 including the original Phonola purchase price. The white vinyl doesn't perfectly match the yellowed original enclosure, but it's good enough. After a few hours of play time, it does seem as if the hum from the failing caps has become a bit more pronounced, so I'll likely disassemble and recap it in the near future. At that time, I also plan to replace the original speakers. They sound fine, but they're an open air type (the backs of the enclosures are completely open, just covered by wire mesh) and the enclosures themselves tend to rattle a noticeable amount with any bass when played at a loud volume. We'll see when or if I ever get around to it.