I've wanted to bring back the console electronics. To that end I have built a few things along similar lines for myself.
A couple of thinner "speaker tables" with a small subwoofer + plate amplifier built in and a pair of full-range drivers. Not really a full console but does keep the wires to a minimum [1]. Just add an amp and sound source. (Sub is down-firing and underneath — so not visible.)
I built a taller version with storage for albums underneath (now we're getting closer to a console stereo [2]. (Sub is also down-firing.)
Additionally I built one for the TV that has a mid (full range) driver as well. With the integrated sub it's fully 3.1 with no external wires [3]. (Like previous, sub is also down-firing.)
FWIW, the "cavities" allowed for the drivers within the body of the furniture were designed to match the drivers in terms of volume (usually sized for a bass port as well). So there was a little more thought than to just slap speakers on a box.
Tried to find a build photo — this is the taller stereo version being built. Full-range drivers on each end, dual subs left-center, bass port in center, plate amplifier (for sub only) right-center: https://imgur.com/ZZtP2qp
That is excellent! I followed more of the 'just slap speakers in it' method - I have an old 50s record player that I got as a teenager (in the 90s) the bass on it was stunning, so I played it to death until the values blew.
I then emptied out the insides as with the lid it made a nice box to keep stuff in. A few years later I worked a 2.1 computer speaker amp and drivers in there (sadly I'd used the original speakers for a project), and added a Bluetooth receiver, an ipod touch and an additional aux cable - then mounted the whole thing on hair pin legs.
It is now a cute coffee table, chest and basic speaker system - but no where near as polished as yours!
I have the advantage of having iterated on these. All told I've made perhaps 7 or 8 of them in various configs. I also got very much into baltic birch (and other high-end multi-ply plywood) construction on earlier projects (MAME machines, furniture, etc.) so I already had down the joinery. (And built a number of "normal" speakers before as well.)
So I already some wood-working experience before starting these. Still though, not a thing anyone else couldn't learn to build.
The lower frequencies can, yeah. Some turntables are better than others though. It does make sense for turntables though to have a separate sub on the floor — the full-range drivers are not a problem for the turntable at least.
Mid 1980s, I worked at an record store that was also heavy into stereos and other audio / visual equipment. We were fortunate enough to have not only a huge 40" Sony set (which weighed about 300lbs) but also a 36" Fisher console set that I think weighed close to 400lbs. So, so much heavy glass.
There were lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to buy one of these behemoths at the time (cost, weight, heat) but maybe the most significant was how bad NTSC video looked when you spread it across a 40" screen. I recently pulled out an old laserdisc player and connected it to a 65" OLED set and it looks absolutely terrible.
One does not do it like that. There needs to be a hardware video signal upscaler in between. Of which many different versions at different capability and price points exist.
Laserdisc will output 480i rather than 240p (it's just an encoding of the NTSC signal) and lag isn't really an issue, and the linked page doesn't really cover the other advantages. I can imagine that a TV's scaler isn't optimised for composite signals (or even ingesting and filtering the composite signals in the first place), but also laserdisc is just going to look kind of bad compared to modern formats even under the best of circumstances. Even back in the 90s, when encoders were at their worst, DVD was considered a meaningful step up from laserdisc.
When my dad's old Sony KV-25XBR bit the dust, he replaced it with a 32" Toshiba flat-screen CRT. That thing was a chunk indeed.
In my opinion, even though it was really quite a good set, you're absolutely right about NTSC looking horrible on big screens. From day one I noticed that the scan lines very much made it look like watching through very fine Venetian blinds.
Upscaling NTSC and putting it on a big flat panel isn't really so great either.
My dad was a big fan of Trinitrons. Both our first TV bought in the mid '80s, and the second one bought in the early 2000s after the first one died, were Trinitrons, as was our 17” PC monitor.
Last year I got bitten by the retrogaming bug and ended up getting now one, but two 17” Trinitrons, one for a MAME machine in our office's cantine, and one for my retro PC. Even after 25 years those beasts look gorgeous, old games really look great on them.
As a kid, I had a Sony 20" Trintron KV-20EXR20 with the weird PiP feature. That was right about the era of the change from OTA NTSC to cable TV.
On the PC side, I had a Sony CPD-1304 Trinitron monitor, and later an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (with a Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube) which was possibly the finest CRT monitor ever made.
I will always remember when my Dad bought a vertically flat, 27in Trinitron back around 1998. I miss those buttery-smooth pans. Probably my biggest gripe with any modern television is how awful panning or tracking shots look. Similarly, I enjoyed this quest to obtain a (the?) 43in Trinitron: https://youtu.be/JfZxOuc9Qwk?si=9XcP5-4lwzrvpvpF
Modern displays are better at this than those CRTs, you're playing back the wrong thing the wrong way. i.e. framerate conversion, badly streamed video or it's trying to sync to an external clock like your audio output.
I happen to have a 36 inch Trinitron in my garage. It stays there because moving it is impossible.
Yes, the cylindrically-curved screen is distinctively Trinitron. It’s easy to spot one at-a-glance, whereas the later fully-flat models look much more like those from other brands.
> I miss those buttery-smooth pans
This motion clarity is a big reason why CRTs are still the best way to play retro side-scrolling games.
> The Bang & Olufsen deserves a mention all of it's own. This was a luxury set that retailed at £1200 in the early to mid-90s... it can be nabbed for £10-£40 on eBay
They're going on the 'bay now for $1200. Time is a flat circle, etc. etc.
CRTs are literally particle accelerators smashing electrons into phosphors with high enough accuracy to make human recognizable images. And this was not just at some university science lab. We mass produced this crazy shit and put it in most homes on planet earth as new campfire our families would gather around, replacing primitive transistor radios.
And now people just leave these displays of humanities wildest engineering capabilities... on the side of the road. There is not a factory left on the planet with the experience or equipment to make them anymore, and these tubes have a limited lifespan.
I recently setup 30+ game consoles in my garage, along with a modular a/v synth and switchboard equipment and 30+ CRT TVs of every size ever mass produced in a big amorphous blob floor to ceiling. No one else wants these beautiful things? MORE FOR ME :D
It is glorious, and as a security engineer it is how I detox and remember that I actually do enjoy playing with technology when it does not require user tracking or the internet to function.
Do you wish CRT manufacturing would start again? Let's suppose there is enough market demand for that. What advantages could they bring back that we have since lost?
I don't, but I feel like GP was just expressing respect for the aesthetics of the engineering accomplishment, orthogonal to whether it was obsolete or not.
Something akin to how one might feel looking at the design of a clipper ship.
CRT advantages over modern displays:
- Blackest blacks. Deep detail in dark scenes.
- Lower latency.
- scanlines make everything look cooler. Especially pixel art.
- nes and arcade light guns! Making this kind of experience work on modern lcds means entirely different much more expensive tech.
Was working a Samsung exhibit where they were showing off their latest TV, some quarter million dollar beast. Part of the price tag was delivery and installation, as there was just no way a mere mortal could install this.
The problem wasn't that it was heavy -- it wasn't. Just fragile. The TV was made up of an array of much smaller borderless panels.
Think they sold a few to a coupla professional football players.
Samsung microLED required professional installation until a year or two ago. It’s essentially a mini-JumboTron made of individual panels. They’ve managed to reduce down to four panels on brackets.
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A couple of thinner "speaker tables" with a small subwoofer + plate amplifier built in and a pair of full-range drivers. Not really a full console but does keep the wires to a minimum [1]. Just add an amp and sound source. (Sub is down-firing and underneath — so not visible.)
I built a taller version with storage for albums underneath (now we're getting closer to a console stereo [2]. (Sub is also down-firing.)
Additionally I built one for the TV that has a mid (full range) driver as well. With the integrated sub it's fully 3.1 with no external wires [3]. (Like previous, sub is also down-firing.)
FWIW, the "cavities" allowed for the drivers within the body of the furniture were designed to match the drivers in terms of volume (usually sized for a bass port as well). So there was a little more thought than to just slap speakers on a box.
[1] https://imgur.com/nqTy6Bi
[2] https://imgur.com/RIVRfea
[3] https://imgur.com/a1tbhB1
Tried to find a build photo — this is the taller stereo version being built. Full-range drivers on each end, dual subs left-center, bass port in center, plate amplifier (for sub only) right-center: https://imgur.com/ZZtP2qp
I then emptied out the insides as with the lid it made a nice box to keep stuff in. A few years later I worked a 2.1 computer speaker amp and drivers in there (sadly I'd used the original speakers for a project), and added a Bluetooth receiver, an ipod touch and an additional aux cable - then mounted the whole thing on hair pin legs.
It is now a cute coffee table, chest and basic speaker system - but no where near as polished as yours!
So I already some wood-working experience before starting these. Still though, not a thing anyone else couldn't learn to build.
There were lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to buy one of these behemoths at the time (cost, weight, heat) but maybe the most significant was how bad NTSC video looked when you spread it across a 40" screen. I recently pulled out an old laserdisc player and connected it to a 65" OLED set and it looks absolutely terrible.
Short intro here https://www.retrorgb.com/upscalers.html , be prepared for endless ramblings of what is best why for what in countless other places.
Looks like this https://www.ukaudiomart.com/details/649142996-faroudja-vp250...
In my opinion, even though it was really quite a good set, you're absolutely right about NTSC looking horrible on big screens. From day one I noticed that the scan lines very much made it look like watching through very fine Venetian blinds.
Upscaling NTSC and putting it on a big flat panel isn't really so great either.
Deleted Comment
Last year I got bitten by the retrogaming bug and ended up getting now one, but two 17” Trinitrons, one for a MAME machine in our office's cantine, and one for my retro PC. Even after 25 years those beasts look gorgeous, old games really look great on them.
I really wish I had the space for another CRT. One day I hope to have a second for two player time crisis.
On the PC side, I had a Sony CPD-1304 Trinitron monitor, and later an Iiyama Vision Master Pro 17 (with a Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube) which was possibly the finest CRT monitor ever made.
Modern displays are better at this than those CRTs, you're playing back the wrong thing the wrong way. i.e. framerate conversion, badly streamed video or it's trying to sync to an external clock like your audio output.
I happen to have a 36 inch Trinitron in my garage. It stays there because moving it is impossible.
Yes, the cylindrically-curved screen is distinctively Trinitron. It’s easy to spot one at-a-glance, whereas the later fully-flat models look much more like those from other brands.
> I miss those buttery-smooth pans
This motion clarity is a big reason why CRTs are still the best way to play retro side-scrolling games.
Photos of it plus Trinitrons in my CRT buying guide: https://opticalgarbage.com/wiki/index.php/Gaming/CRTBuyingGu...
They're going on the 'bay now for $1200. Time is a flat circle, etc. etc.
And now people just leave these displays of humanities wildest engineering capabilities... on the side of the road. There is not a factory left on the planet with the experience or equipment to make them anymore, and these tubes have a limited lifespan.
I recently setup 30+ game consoles in my garage, along with a modular a/v synth and switchboard equipment and 30+ CRT TVs of every size ever mass produced in a big amorphous blob floor to ceiling. No one else wants these beautiful things? MORE FOR ME :D
It is glorious, and as a security engineer it is how I detox and remember that I actually do enjoy playing with technology when it does not require user tracking or the internet to function.
IIRC CRTs are still being manufactured in small quantities for military and aviation equipment.
Something akin to how one might feel looking at the design of a clipper ship.
Was working a Samsung exhibit where they were showing off their latest TV, some quarter million dollar beast. Part of the price tag was delivery and installation, as there was just no way a mere mortal could install this.
The problem wasn't that it was heavy -- it wasn't. Just fragile. The TV was made up of an array of much smaller borderless panels.
Think they sold a few to a coupla professional football players.
If you want to install your $200,000 143” TV yourself here’s a video: https://youtu.be/oSpX2aZDPng