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I upgraded/modified a vintage style Bluetooth radio


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Just wanted to share a recent upgrade project. The Pyle Vintage Bluetooth radio looks very nice but is tainted by some poor decisions. They even used metal knobs and décor, authentic looking speaker grills and station dial. Feels very solid...but they cheaped out on the guts of course. It's a shame that just spending a few extra bucks would've made this much more valuable to their customers..but it's Pyle. Anyway, I just bought this because my wife likes to sleep to the sound of rain, so instead of buying one of those sleep machines (which sound even worse) I decided to buy something with an SD card reader and could use whatever ambience I chose or create a track list. For $55, I knew what I was buying beforehand but reasoned that I can make it sound better by adding an amplifier board and better speakers.

 

So anyway, as you can see in the first pic, that is default and the rear of the speakers are completely open to the front wave. The front and back speaker grills are open so there is no cabinet whatsoever. I would think even a company like Pyle would understand that the interior should be sealed, however the speakers sound very tinny. The radio antenna is just a wire out of the back. Terrible. 

 

So I went on Partsexpress and found a pair of 2" X 5" shielded full range speakers on a closeout sale for under $2. These fit the front grills perfectly (as seen in last pic) I also bought a pair of 3" Sony, shielded full range drivers. So now I have a 4 ohm load on it's amp instead of the 8 ohm default. The volume will never be used even at midway so I wasn't too concerned about blowing it. I was originally going to buy a $10 30 watt board amp since the transformer has a 10 volt DC out but figured at this volume range, I'll never notice anyway. By default it has enough power. I also added a $4 monopole antenna out of the back. I soldered the antenna wire to it and hot glued in place from the inside.

 

The result is I pick up more radio stations. The sound is much improved and has some warmth. I sealed up any remaining holes using hot glue and patched over the side speaker grills so the interior acts a little more like a sealed box. I also bought a pair of 3" foam baffles to seal over the rear 3 inch speakers, just to keep them separate from the fronts. I had to move the transformer over some to make room for the right, rear speaker. Basically hot glue and solder holding everything in place. I used the original speaker bolts to bolt down the rear speakers which fit absolutely perfectly without the need to drill any new holes. So for about $12 plus shipping, I'm quite happy with it, it's just a shame that Pyle didn't bother to tack on a few more dollars in parts.

 

It doesn't have the bass that some BT speakers that have passive radiators do as they were designed with that in mind. I probably could have bought better speakers for the rear and added a monoblock sub amp but it'll never get used like that. It's more of a decor thing and used for sleep ambience tracks but I do find myself listening to talk radio on it when in the bedroom sometimes. Hope you found this entertaining for a minute, have a great weekend everyone.

 

 

IMG_20201022_195112.jpg

IMG_20201021_082011.jpg

IMG_20201022_192711.jpg

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I really like this project!!!! i would sport it!! good job!


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  • 1 month later...
On 10/24/2020 at 9:37 AM, omnibus said:

Just wanted to share a recent upgrade project. The Pyle Vintage Bluetooth radio looks very nice but is tainted by some poor decisions. They even used metal knobs and décor, authentic looking speaker grills and station dial. Feels very solid...but they cheaped out on the guts of course. It's a shame that just spending a few extra bucks would've made this much more valuable to their customers..but it's Pyle. Anyway, I just bought this because my wife likes to sleep to the sound of rain, so instead of buying one of those sleep machines (which sound even worse) I decided to buy something with an SD card reader and could use whatever ambience I chose or create a track list. For $55, I knew what I was buying beforehand but reasoned that I can make it sound better by adding an amplifier board and better speakers.

 

So anyway, as you can see in the first pic, that is default and the rear of the speakers are completely open to the front wave. The front and back speaker grills are open so there is no cabinet whatsoever. I would think even a company like Pyle would understand that the interior should be sealed, however the speakers sound very tinny. The radio antenna is just a wire out of the back. Terrible. 

 

So I went on Partsexpress and found a pair of 2" X 5" shielded full range speakers on a closeout sale for under $2. These fit the front grills perfectly (as seen in last pic) I also bought a pair of 3" Sony, shielded full range drivers. So now I have a 4 ohm load on it's amp instead of the 8 ohm default. The volume will never be used even at midway so I wasn't too concerned about blowing it. I was originally going to buy a $10 30 watt board amp since the transformer has a 10 volt DC out but figured at this volume range, I'll never notice anyway. By default it has enough power. I also added a $4 monopole antenna out of the back. I soldered the antenna wire to it and hot glued in place from the inside.

 

The result is I pick up more radio stations. The sound is much improved and has some warmth. I sealed up any remaining holes using hot glue and patched over the side speaker grills so the interior acts a little more like a sealed box. I also bought a pair of 3" foam baffles to seal over the rear 3 inch speakers, just to keep them separate from the fronts. I had to move the transformer over some to make room for the right, rear speaker. Basically hot glue and solder holding everything in place. I used the original speaker bolts to bolt down the rear speakers which fit absolutely perfectly without the need to drill any new holes. So for about $12 plus shipping, I'm quite happy with it, it's just a shame that Pyle didn't bother to tack on a few more dollars in parts.

 

It doesn't have the bass that some BT speakers that have passive radiators do as they were designed with that in mind. I probably could have bought better speakers for the rear and added a monoblock sub amp but it'll never get used like that. It's more of a decor thing and used for sleep ambience tracks but I do find myself listening to talk radio on it when in the bedroom sometimes. Hope you found this entertaining for a minute, have a great weekend everyone.

 

 

IMG_20201022_195112.jpg

IMG_20201021_082011.jpg

IMG_20201022_192711.jpg

Omg, that`s crazy job! But it looks soo neat. Literally inpired to do something like this in near future

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