Sunday 4 December 2011

Rewired antique radios undigitize MP3s

source
I couldn't have put it better myself!
Rewired antique radios undigitize MP3s

First a latter-day telegraph ticker and now antique iPod docking stations - what better examples of the ethos I was expounding a month ago; modern technology meets vintage style and classic ideas.

I'm sure many of my readers would love to have just a working vintage wireless, and perhaps some of you do.  It would be great to have an aesthetically pleasing 1930s-, '40s- or '50s-style radio to on which to listen to all your favourite FM/AM stations.  I want one myself!

Ooho, yes please!

Now that'll be all very fine and large for the time being, but there will come a time (confound it) when the analogue AM/FM signal will be switched off (current estimates put this at somewhere between 2015 and 2020 in the UK).  What then will become of our beloved vintage radios - will they all suddenly end up as museum pieces or silent ornaments?  OR they can be converted, as this American company proves is possible, into iPod docking stations!  Not only does this give them a new lease of life but, if it is to be believed, the update is done in such a way as to convert the digital signal of the mp3 format back into the warm sound of analogue - and particularly vintage analogue at that.  Who knows, it could mean that it may even be possible to convert them in such a way that they can pick up and decode the digital signal of DAB radio.

Either way, it proves that tube radios can still have a place in the modern world and that they have very much left to give.  It sounds like an absolutely topping concern, and just the thing for my iPod!

5 comments:

  1. Ah, but have you seen this?

    http://www.gracedigitalaudio.com/the-victoria-nostalgic-internet-radio-p-163.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Indeed I have; it formed one of the cornerstones of a post I did a month ago - http://eclecticephemera.blogspot.com/2011/11/vintage-unhealthy-fantasy-world.html - and which I alluded to at the beginning of this one.

    As delightful as it is, the Grace Digital Victoria Internet Radio is a reproduction clothing modern mechanicals and producing modern digital sound. The USP of these 3ryan radios is that they are actual 1930s-60s sets that retain their original workings, updated to accept iPods and digital mp3s which they then somehow convert back into analogue sound.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OOh, neat! I could see one of those in my apartment!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Superb idea. I bet they will start producing the equivalent of 'digiboxes' for radios soon- after all, not everyone will buy a new car stereo or sound system over the next 3 years. If they applied them to a vintage radio that would be fab: the convenience of digital with a cool retro aesthetic.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are beautiful! Definitely going to be adding these to my wish list!

    ReplyDelete

Don't just sit there, type something! I enjoy reading all friendly and positive comments.

Followers

Popular Posts