Vinyl’s Good For Your Health (like we didn’t already know that)  

The idea behind the concept is to create an environment that takes these early Dementia patients back to a time that they hold dear, and the sound of vinyl records play an integral part.

From The Daily Vinyl’s Vinyl Helping Dementia Patients In The UK

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New PS-F9 Video on YouTube  

A happy new year to all. It was made especially happy for us here as our first child was born last week. Both mother and son are healthy and doing well.

As for the subject of portable Sony turntables- this video of a PS-F9 in action was posted to YouTube yesterday. Enjoy 🙂

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What is the PS-F5 & PS-F9 Cartridge? (It’s not P-Mount)  

Well, having wondered for a while about the type of cartridge used, I had read somewhere that it was a P-Mount (also known as T4P), which was a standard mount used by Technics and other Japanese manufacturers on some of their turntables in the 80s. I’m now certain it’s something else.

I saw this UK eBay listing for a P-Mount with a decent photo:

This is what a VL-44G cartridge from a PS-F5 turntable looks like (with stylus installed):

The difference is plain to see

So the question remains, is there another Audio Technica model number that these cartridges go by? That would surely help in tracking down replacement/ upgrade cartridges. The quest continues…

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Turntable Animation  

Some clever animations made using the strobe effect gained by filming with the correct shutter speed under household lights which are strobing undetectably at 50 or 60hz (depending on where you live). This is the same principle as the red dots that are used as a speed guage on the outside of the platter of some turntables.

The illusion of movement with a record player.

Watch as hidden animations come alive by using a specific frame rate and shutter speeds of a camera and RPM of a record player.

To me this is one of the ultimate illusions.

Definition of Illusion: something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.

I used a Numark turntable set to 45 RPM and the camera was set to 24 FPS. The shutter speed was set to around 840. With that combination of settings a 30 frame animation would appear to stand still. I used the slider to increase / descrease rpms which caused the images to move foward or backward.

The sequence of the guy jumping on the blocks was the most difficult but turned out the best, in my opinion.

The images of the guy jumping is me. I recorded myself jumping in the living room then took 30 frames from that footage and traced the images in photoshop and filled with black. Then printed out the 30 images and cut each one out. I used 30 wooden blocks and glued them to a piece of construction paper then taped the images of the jumping guy to the clear sheet and aligned them with the blocks.

I also love the pac-man animation. It’s so simple but just has such a cool feel to see the mouth opening and closing.

brasspup on YouTube

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Columbia’s Portable Mixing Rig  

Recently spotted a Columbia GMX-3 mixer on eBay. A portable mixer from Japan which is designed to be used with a pair of GP-3 portable turntables. Interesting piece of kit, but from what I can find online the turntables are only mono although they do have pitch control and built in speaker. Each device runs on either 100/110VAC (with built in tranformer) or batteries.

Going on recent eBay prices it would cost over £350 (US$560) to buy a pair of turntables and a mixer.

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Thank Timberlake For That  

BERLIN — Justin Timberlake says he thinks vinyl records sound better than digitalized tunes.

The 29-year-old pop musician and actor told German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau on Thursday that he loves putting on records featuring oldies from the Beach Boys and early Beatles, claiming they “sound warmer” and “more vintage” than digital versions. The Associated Press

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New(ish) PS-F5 for sale on U.S. eBay  

This is being sold as new, only out of the box once to photo & test.

What doesn’t quite add up to me is why the seller would have removed the It’s A Sony sticker from the front of the player and stuck it on the cardboard box. Weird. Anyway, I guess you could try to stick it back on, but I doubt it would go back all that cleanly.

So if money’s no object and you want an almost Fresh-Out-the-Box clean example, throw in a bid now.

Update:
It only received one bid, but sold for US $1,200.00!

The eBay page with the auction completed.

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A More Vintage Portable Turntable?  

kitchen_turntable

(Thanks to Bill B for the image)

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Becoming vinyl  

“Music lovers can now be immortalised when they die by having their ashes baked into vinyl records to leave behind for loved ones.”
wired.co.uk

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Retr0Bright – De-yellow your Sony?  

After the question posed by A.R. on this post, and my request for a “magical chemical solution” he did some amazing detective work and found a possible solution to the yellowing problem that many Sony PS-F5s and PS-F9s exhibit in their old age. This is mainly brought on by exposure to Ultra Violet radiation which reacts with chemicals in the ABS plastic of the case.

Some vintage gadget enthusiasts have come up with a home-brew chemical gel that can be applied to yellowed plastic which restores it to its original colour. This wonderful sounding product’s called Retr0bright.

“We have now proved on several forums that plastics yellowing can be completely reversed in hours without damage using our mixture.”

There are a number of recipes on their Wiki. Thankfully all of the chemicals involved are easily obtainable (at least here in the UK) and all are safe apart from Hydrogen Peroxide, which is the main ingredient in hair bleach and is to be treated with respect. Be sure to wear gloves and goggles and work in a well ventilated room.

I was initially concerned about any chemical solution affecting the printing on the case, but then I saw this Lego piece in the Retr0Bright gallery, which is painted. The paint appears unaffected by the process:

Although the Problems and Pitfalls page on the site does show some examples of label fade, the printing on the PS-F5 is generally of good quality with a heavy black ink, so hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue, especially if the Sony’s not too yellowed, and therefore doesn’t require many applications.

There are other examples in the gallery with stickers and paint too, all of which suggest that it should be safe. Something I’m not sure about is whether the smoked transparent plastic on the front of the case would need to be removed prior to applying the gel. Maybe masking would be safest, attempting to remove the glued in smoked panel may cause breakage.

I’d like to give this a try, but would really appreciate it if anyone out there has a spare case (or piece of case, ideally one with some printing) for their PS-F5 that they’re willing to experiment on and report back to the site so I can let everyone know for sure that this works on our Sonys and is safe.

“There were an incredible number of people at first that said this was impossible – that was until they saw the pictures, then tried it and proved it for themselves. The usual reaction was ‘No way!’ then ‘WOW!!’.

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Posted in Retro, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9, Weird & Wonderful | 5 Comments »