I recently bought a pair of these portable speakers from eBay. They’re a bit rough, but they work OK. Was just doing a bit of digging around online and found this image on AudioIdiots from the German 1984 Sony brochure:
They sound pretty good for their size. Powered by a 6 V AC adapter or 4 x C cells in the left hand speaker which houses the amplifying circuitry. I was initially a bit stumped as to why the right hand speaker also had a battery cover, space for 4 cells and the metal contacts for the speakers until I noticed a sticker stating “Put the spare batteries here”! So it’s both a way for Sony to save production costs by only having one moulding they used for both speakers and a way to carry a spare set of cells should you wish. I guess the metal springs & contacts are to stop the cells rattling around in there. The leads are both integral (main signal in and lead from right speaker which plugs into the left speaker with a mono 3.5mm jack. There’s room for them to stow away under the battery doors so they’re neat when not being used. They’ve also got wall hanging points, so I could mount them either side of my wall hung PS-F5 if I was so inclined…
Sadly I didn’t receive the carry handle, but happily both have their original “It’s a Sony” sticker.
Well, the site’s made it through 2 years. Cheers to all visitors past, present and future and thanks to everyone who’s written in with help and support.
Most things I’ve been sent have ended up on the site, sometimes straight away, sometimes after a while and I still have things that I need to get on one day.
Two such examples that some kind people sent me to stick on the site that I haven’t got round to sticking on till now are the workshop manuals for both the PS-F5 and PS-F9. Thanks to those people for helping the rest of us keep our turntables going.
They’ll get a proper link in the main menu one day, but for now those links will just be available in this blog post.
So keep checking back, or subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed to be updated of updates as I’ll be steadily adding to the site and trying out de-yellowing one of my PS-F5s in the near future. And if you have any info that you’d like to see on the site, hit me up on the contact page.
Leaking battery cells will cause the spring contacts to corrode. You can help prevent this by coating the contacts with silicone grease.
You can use it in any equipment that uses battery cells – from remote controls, model boats, model cars to hearing aids.
Seems like a sensible, easy and cheap precaution to take on our turntables to me.
I plan to add a maintenance section to this site one day to which I’ll add this, but in the meantime I thought I’d post this info here as it may help others and to remind me to add it to a more permanent part of the site one day.
I made some updates to the About page today, including a real life recording of the PS-F5 in action, kindly donated by a friendly visitor of the site from France called Emmanuel. Thanks to you for that.
I’ve started gathering the ingredients to mix up some retr0bright, but still some way off. Today I found this Google translated French article describing the process:
It looked like it was complete, but wasn’t in great condition. Originally made in Switzerland in the 1920s, surely this has to be one of the earliest small portable turntables made. It was known as a CameraPhone due to the fact that it looked like a folding camera when folded up. So it was the first Camera Phone too 😉
Thorens Exelda “CameraPhone†Portable Phonograph ~ Switzerland c1920 What a cool little device this is: a hand cranked motorized portable phonograph that stores in a case that masquerades as a folding camera. Made in Switzerland by Thorens of St. Croix, this is the Exelda 78 rpm portable gramophone often referred to as the CameraPhone. Measuring only 28 x 12 x 6 cm (11 x 4.5 x 2.3 inch,) the turntable tone arm, head, and crank all store neatly inside the ornately painted metal case. The turntable has a nut that holds the record in place and it also acts as a closing lock for the case. There is an on/off speed lever on the inside and it comes with a packet of extra needles. It is in excellent condition and plays perfectly and is actually quite loud for such a little thing. Taken from Victor Phonogrpahs
While trying to find what it was online, I also found this portable Thorens, which is the best looking suitcase turntable that I’ve seen:
Shonky quality, but good to see another one in use.
Interesting how the user inserts the records in their sleeves. Not sure if that’s really necessary, specially as he seems to pull them back out to see which way round he’s put the record in.
