Category: Music

I had said my next little retirement project would be getting the Sony 300-disc CD changer working again, but doing that is going to be a more complicated job than I feel like tackling right now, as I recuperate. So instead I freshened up the walnut veneer finish on my 45-year-old Dynaco A25 speakers.

The Dynaco’s were made in Denmark, so I felt obliged to use Watco Danish Oil, and I’m very pleased with the results. The speakers still sound great, and now they look pretty good too.

Among other potential uses for the logo picture in the upper left corner, I’m posting the covers to some of the albums I’ve been playing. With all of the buzz about the resurgence in interest for vinyl records as a music medium, I never stopped listening to them.

I bought this high-quality German-made turntable new 35 years ago, and as you can see it’s still in excellent condition. As a small retirement project I have done a bit of work on it, so it is now working perfectly. The RCA plugs were shorting, so I snipped them off and soldered on new connectors, with the most modest of soldering kits.

There is a very active online community for vintage Thorens turntables. The rim of the platter on my record player was looking quite dull and it was slightly pitted in spots. One tip I picked up from the online forums is that the rim can be shined up very nicely by polishing it with a fine grade of steel wool. It took only 15-20 minutes of effort to get the shiny finish seen in the picture.

The rubber belt for the turntable was loose and starting to crack, so I ordered a new one. There are a lot of knock-offs for turntable belts, but mine is from Thorens. Before installing it I cleaned off a lot of rubber residue left behind on the motor pulley by the old belt. I finished my project by installing and aligning a new phono cartridge. An alignment jig came with the turntable, and after using it I checked the stylus by downloading a free protractor and printing it on card stock to ensure accuracy. The alignment checked out as being spot-on. Yay!

Next I need to turn my attention to my 300-disc Sony CD carousel. The CX-335 began fading a few years ago, and eventually became completely non-functional, which is why records have been my primary retirement music medium. There are three rubber belts that are shot and need replacing — one for the door, another for the carousel’s turntable, and the third is for the loading mechanism. As with turntable belts, generic versions are everywhere, but to my surprise Sony makes OEM parts available online, and I now have two sets of belts on hand.

I’m still dealing with my late father’s estate-related matters, but that isn’t fun, and having First World hobbies to indulge is good at keeping me distracted from the stitched-up mess on my scalp. The first follow-up exam with the plastic surgeon is in a couple of days. So far, I feel pretty much the same as it did exactly one week ago upon leaving the hospital. There are a couple of puffy areas, an occasional sharp twinge, and a fairly regular tingling sensation.