Modern system in Old RCA Victor Chassis

Hello friends,

First I would like to tell you that it is a great honor to find a community of makers, I tried in another forum to capture ideas for this project, where I didn’t know where to start, but I believe this is the right place.

I recently bought an RCA Victor Victrola from classifieds such as Craigslist or OLX.

Disassembling the equipment, he discovered its components, it is a valved system from 1954, unfortunately the system was all destroyed by rats, making repair impossible, due to the difficulty of finding parts and exorbitant costs. Besides, I’m not so hipster or nostalgic to the point that I only listen to vinyl records and OM frequency radios…

Well my friends, what I would like in this project is to build a system based on Raspberry Pi where I have all Hifi sound in this huge case.

What I thought and would like your contribution in choosing the components:

  • Raspberry Pi 3 or 4b
  • HiFi RCA or Toslink Optical Interface
  • Bluetooth APTX HD Interface
  • Class AB or D amplifier
  • RCA IN interface to connect a stereo vinyl player
  • Wisecoco or similar 13 or 14“ touch screen, my space in chassis are 33 cm X 10,5 cm to fit a screen in Old dial window.
  • Cables
  • Active Subwoofer in a future upgrade?

Things I already have:

  • Vinyl Player, RCA 1954, but considering buy a stereo from 80’s to replace.
  • M&K Bookshelf LCR55 MKII and Central Channel of this kit…

Front face of chassis, place to mount a LCD Screen

Interior of valved system destroyed by rats and rusty…

1954 RCA Victor Victrola Vinyl Player…

Original Speaker of old System is a Peerless, from Denmark, already in good condition!

I believe that screen fits perfectly in my window:

Any friend have this screen? Other recommendations with this size?

I saw magic eye tube above dial window. This can be repurposed as vu-meter.

Yes Marko, this is one valve or something similar, if a can put any analogic like this in the system I think is a very nostalgic, have other original red lamp in front of chassis, close of wook sculpture detail…

My wife now removing old paint and wrong retouch in wood of chassis.

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Maybe I place a remote sensor in this place, to system play with doors closed…

How nice it would be to keep the original glass, a motor moving it down at turn on - to reveal the new screen.

It would have to make a very robust gear to have the LCD well fixed to accept the touches on the screen. Any tutorial as a suggestion?

Wondering to where Old_Duffer would move the glass or screen. As space on top and bottom is limited and occupied with knobs and the eye?

Hi Wheaten, you are right, don’t have space in top and bottom to place a motorized system…
A triangle-shaped system would be needed to fit these two displays, making development very complicated.
The correct thing is to insert this 12-14 Inch ultra ultra wide screen from Wisecoco, and if possible try to make a radio module FM, AM, OM with the interface of this old glass.

yeah, but that means movement in 2 directions, rotating and back-forward. For playing you can easily create a screen with the use of peppy_meter and a clear picture of the glass.

I try create in Adobe Illustrator one reproduction of this glass design

Friends, thinking in my amplifier system… What would be the best way to mount the case I already have? A dedicated amplifier on a separate board, connected via an rca/toslink cable?

Or a board that integrates with the raspberry, like the one in the link below, it has the Infineon Ma12070 chip that allows two 80w channels…

Friends, finding on local classifieds I’m find a Aiyima A03 for only 35 bucks, and I buyed this little amp for the project! And I happy with results, this model support a passive subwoofer and have controls for volume and frequency exclusive for these out.

Any friend have disassembled one of this class D amps to replace the buttons for old models?

I have desoldered the potentiometers from a similar amplifier. Then I soldered on 6 x pin headers (angled). I soldered new potentiometers from Piher with shielded cable. I connected the 5 shields to a ground star.

The potentiometers already installed in your amplifier (mostly ALPS) are, in my opinion, insensitive to interference radiation. You can also use them.

Thank You for your answer, bellow are my original knobs from old RCA Victrola, you think is a possible use this Olds? These have a multifunction, volume, fader, select imput!