[Distracted by Design] loves gear from the 1980s, though some of it isn’t as useful as it used to be. He happened across a cheap old FM radio with a great look, but wanted to repurpose it into something more modern. Thus, he set about turning this cheap piece of old electronics into a stylish Bluetooth speaker.
All of the original electronics were stripped out, while the original speaker was kept since it neatly fit the case. Electronically, the build relies on a Bluetooth module harvested from an existing speaker. 3D-printed bracketry was used to fasten it neatly into place inside the radio housing, with the buttons neatly presented where the original radio had its tone and volume controls. Power is via an internal lithium-ion battery, charged over USB-C thanks to an off-the-shelf charging module.
Where the build really shines, though, is the detailing. The original cheap plastic handle was replaced with a CNC-machined wooden piece, bolted on with machined aluminium side plates. Similarly, the original clear plastic tuning window was replaced with another tasteful piece of wood that dropped perfectly into place. At the back, the charge port is nicely integrated. Where the radio formerly had a removable door for the power cable storage, it now has a machined aluminium plate hosting the USB-C charge port. Little 3D-printed button actuators were also used to integrate the Bluetooth module’s controls into the case.
It’s a very stylish build, overall. Perhaps the one area it’s a let down is in the sound quality. The ancient speaker simply doesn’t sound great compared to modern Bluetooth speakers and their finely-tuned, bassy audio. However, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing—sometimes it’s nice to have an audio source with a limited frequency response. It can be nice for use in an area where you may want to be able to easily speak over the music.
If you want to build a Bluetooth speaker of your own, you might like to whip up an open-source design from scratch. Video after the break.
Bluetooth speakers are the worst idea in recent years. They are inconvenient.
Interesting opinion… how so?
It takes 5 seconds to plug in an aux cable and start playing your music. It takes significantly longer to figure out how to get a bluetooth device into pairing mode. If you have multiple devices, there is a good chance the wrong ones will connect and you will have to manually disconnect and connect to the right one.
Replace old analog circuit with 20 kHz audio bandwith to a piddly bluetooth toy using lossy digital coding and audio bandwidth limited to something like 12,5 kHz. A PERFECT YOUTUBE PROJECT SPONSORED BY SKILLSHARE AND NORDVPN.
Oh, I seriously doubt the old radio had a 20 kHz audio bandwidth. This wasn’t a high-end piece of component gear, it was a beach radio, a picnic radio, a lunch-break radio.
FM has +-16kHz
The frequency range of that original speaker would have been a great limiting factor, it’s a pity that didn’t get replaced for a much better speaker.
i built a bluetooth receiver into my old 1980s car radio cassette player. if you put a cassette in the slot, the bluetooth module boots and the amp of the radio does the rest. eject the tape and the radio plays.
A old Akai ghettoblaster got the same treatment. I even wired the ff and rew buttons to the bluetooth module, so a short press sends a next/prev signal to my phone. the best thing is, if you put a cassette in, that also still plays. if you press play without an inserted cassette, the bluetooth boots.
but yeah, I don’t have time for a youtube channel or its sponsors.
I have recollections of a commercial product that did this. Might have just gone to 3.5mm instead of BT, but it was everywhere about a decade ago (not that that helps you today).
Have done the same with my old (broken) LW/MW radio I had as a kids using a BT module from eBay. Still need to find an appropriate handle, this one looks nicely done.
Good to see the trashing about poo sound but there is 5.0 and better, it can do high def. I don’t knock it anymore I just have to ask is it 5.0? I found a lunchbox speaker that’s 5.0 and my newer phone will send it. There is a difference! Get up to date!
Now I go into a bar and it’s floppy-disc-dial-up sounds still with “touch tunes” everywhere and people nuking others songs with their bass track. At such low res audio I’m fine as long it’s so small a “screen” that I can’t hear the pixels which are noise. Turn it down, there’s nothing here to turn up.
Who can suggest a good Bluetooth module that doesn’t have those awful and loud voice promps or beeps when pairing?
That’s the problem, pretty much all of them have these major annoyances built-in.
Who can suggest a good Bluetooth module that doesn’t have those awful and loud voice prompts or beeps when pairing?
I have done the same! I connect a Qualcomm QCC5181 to the SPDIF-In of my Yamaha RX-V3000 with external T&A TMR160. That sounds acceptable well for a bluetooth speaker. But I did not print a handle for the speaker, because I have a hand truck. :-D
“And next time, kids, we’ll show you how to upcycle your dad’s hi-fi speaker boxes into some nice hamster cage!”
Hardly fair… obviously a cheapo BT module is hardly hi-fi, but it’s debatable as to whether a cheap transistor radio with a crappy little speaker would sound much better, if at all. Then you have to factor in that there is little if anything of interest to listen to on the radio these days.
Bluetooth speakers are for convenience; I have an old 60s Pye radio I converted that I use with my phone at work, and it’s ideal for that job.
Only the front and back panels and the speaker were ‘upscaled’ (everything else got binned).
This would have been much more impressive if they kept all the original electronics, identified the audio amplifier stage in the circuit, and added a Bluetooth module which could be switched in to feed the audio amp.
I remember this project https://hylobatidae.org/?action=articleinfo&id=52 that put a Raspberry Pi in a Roberts R707 radio, leaving the FM part functional, but when switched to AM BBC radio 4 played from the web streaming. So it’s doable if one has sufficent space and of course the radio doesn’t have an all-in-one chip with integrated audio amplifier and tuner.
That’s what I would have done as well as adding an audio input jack. You can get much smaller bluetooth modules that don’t have an amplifier.
Good hack, and I’ve done something similar on lower budget, adding BT module to an old boombox. Since it was a 1980s JVC, the sound was surprisingly good : – ] It had AUX input, so the trick was reasonably straight forward – I opted to solder the input wires on permanently. Still works, ~8 years later, and runs off the batteries, since the BT module had built-in 5V regulator.
The issue with the old radios (not boomboxes) is their rather low-fi amp matched to the equally low-fi speaker of rather unimpressive kind. Most were made to receive voice bandwidth, not really music, so if you are to wire BT module to the internal amp, it will sound decidedly low-fi. Modern average $1 PWM amp plus similarly average $1 speaker would sound far better, and draw less power, too.
As sad as it sounds, old electronics are not always worthy scavenging, especially the cheap kind that was used in the pocket radios : – [ (I own quite a number of them, and it is really mixed blessing, some are of such low quality, the only thing that’s worthy saving is the looks – and that’s exactly what this project is about).
On a second thought, looked at the nice design, I think I’d opt out for just 3D printing the replica, handle and all. Including a carbon rod (or a bike spoke) inside the handle would take care of the flexing, and there is no shortage of rather nice BT players with MP3 players that can find better looking vintage form factor : – ]
That looks like too nice and too classic of a radio to do this too… I thought at first glance. Then I read the article. [Distracted by Design] MADE it nice, having added that beautiful wood trim and replaced the plastic handle with metal.
Nice! Well done!
I see it still has an antenna. I’d have been tempted to use one of those “bluetooth modules” that also contains a radio receiver and usb/memory card player. But this is good too.
Seems a bit of a waste. We’ve used a low power FM transmitter for this job which was originally fed from an audio system (pre-Internet) and then an Internet radio. The transmitter sends out high quality stereo, only becoming disused when we stopped using FM radios around the house.
FWIW — My wife’s car lacks any kind of Bluetooth support so she has a 12 volt to USB charger that’s also a Bluetooth to FM transmitter. Cost less than $10.
I second that – used one (FM transmitter) in my last car that only had radio. Worked perfectly, and the FM transmitter I bought also came with MP3 player that I really never used, but thought it was kewl.
As a nice side effect, with FM stereo transmitter one can fire up multiple FM Stereo radios in multiple rooms, presto, streaming service on demand in every room of the house. Old school boat anchors (aka “stationary hifi systems of the past”) would appreciate the fact that they are (mostly) still of use.
Who can suggest a good Bluetooth module that doesn’t have those awful and loud voice prompts or beeps when pairing ?