Making A Modern Console Stereo - Woodworking

[@JohnHeisz]

Experience deeper learning while supporting the work I do by joining my MAKERS MOB: go.themakersmob.com/john-heisz-i-build-it/?via=ibuildit See the project build article for more details: ibuildit.ca/projects/making-a-modern-console-stereo/ I wrote a blog entry showing how I designed the speakers for this project: ibuildit.ca/blog/designing-the-console-speakers/

[@JDCrae]

Surprised you didn't need any kind of filter for the drivers.

[@JohnHeisz]

That's the beauty of fullrange, you don't need a crossover.

[@JDCrae]

@@JohnHeisz Very nice. Some full range drivers need a notch filter to smooth out the response etc. Nice you found one that actually works well out of the box. Love the old consoles, but don't love how much room they took up. Very much like what you did here. Nice work as always sir.

[@GenoLoma]

@@JohnHeisz Some full range speakers have a little crossover type system built into them, usually a capacitor, small coil, and the like.. Oh and John, I've all but completed my version of your grey top saw.. all that's left is to make the support hinges for the drop-down table wing to the left side, which will house my router/jijsaw.. It's looking really good, and I'd like to email you some pictures if I could.. The only issue I have is a bit of sideways flex to the far end of the fence when it's pushed perpendicular. Seems it's moving from the fixing point to the T-bar where it sits on the clamping rail.. It flexes about 2-3mil if pushed, and I did consider the option of a far-end clamp by way of a rod and lever from the front cam handle, but now it's glued together, (with 3 stiffening blocks in it), that's not possible. I may just make a heftier fence if it gives me the shits.. I'm running a 2.5hp drop saw motor which does 4800 rpm, 1:1 2" pulleys with a belt, and a 12" blade.. Doesn't even slow down through an inch of Spotted Gum Aussie hardwood (2470 on the Janka scale). I get 94mil of cut depth at 90deg, and 65mil at 45 deg.. :D

[@AKA_Yo_Dude]

Very nice project i think something like this would look a lot cooler under my TV than the store bought thing i have. Any plans on putting that new table saw as a project on makers mob? am at the third motor on my current table saw but thinking about building the next one.

[@johnlanger7852]

I was born in the late 70's and remember console tv's and stereo equipment. I really miss seeing such sexy furniture as that.

[@michaelgriffith2954]

I love the stereo and I love the jigs you make, everything I see you make is quite unique and very useful. Thanks for sharing such great creative ideas.

[@JOATology]

Wow John, this is an beautiful throw-back to when stereos and televisions were considered furniture. I really like how the cherry accents the oak. Also, it is because of your miter saw station video that I went out and got a biscuit joiner a few weeks ago and it was really nice to see you use that in so many configurations in this video. I didn't realize it was so versatile. Thank you for another really great video sir.

[@JohnHeisz]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@momphard]

Super cool. I, too, grew up with a massive (for a kid) Fisher Stereo cabinet in our living room which facilitated my mastery of the air guitar.

[@MrFreakwent]

Somehow I found THIS in my subscription when I myself was searching console stereos ,which led me to Symbol Audio. Brilliant build !

[@H3xx99]

Using a hidden pico projector in the top, you could turn this into a stealth home theater system. I'm saving this video to my project list. When I'm finally moved into my forever home, I'm building something like this.

[@brrebrresen1367]

or an reverse-throw projector (also know as ultra short throw projectors), those don't need to be more than half a meter from the wall to make close to an 80" picture and since this system is ported in the rear it will need some clearance behind it anyway so half a meter from wall should not be difficult

[@er1073]

John this is a very professional looking cabinet and yes I do remember these back in the day I am probably a little older than you. Motorola, Sylvania, are a couple that I remember. Your work is most enjoyable you really enjoy your work but it probably isn't work to you but an enjoyment. Reading some of comments including yours I am glad you were pleased with the sound it produced.

[@n8sot]

WOW!!!!!! Thats all I can say!!!!! Not only great and beautiful work on the wood, but awesome work on the electronics as well!!!! You've inspired me again!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

[@thomaswiley666]

Awesome! I go around to antique/junk stores and look for garage sales with original stereos. I re-purpose them with modern components. I especially fix ones with built in TVs and record players. The tube TVs are junked and replaced with modern monitors. I would like to see how people use larger TVs with old consoles, though. BTW, this is an excellent demonstration -- well spoken and paced accordingly.

[@stanhegeman8751]

Very nice. An inspiration. I’m a leathercrafter with an interest in woodworking and find your vids informative, succinct, and concise. You have a plethora of fine tools as well. Thanks.

[@DeadKoby]

I like the concept. Being an electronics guy, I'd have done that in my own style, but that's the beauty of DIY anyway... each has the signature of the maker.

[@tjacksonwoodworker3726]

Fantastic. I have grown to like the simplicity of the 60s also. Loved the video.

[@leaturk11]

Lovely to see real skill and craftsmanship.

[@SmR8008]

That is a beautiful piece of kit. I brought a 1960s Ferguson Radiogram (here in the UK) back in the early 90s. It cost me about £20, made of walnut and still had the original price tag hanging on the back. It had the owners manual too. I used it as an alarm clock (attached to a timer) whilst I was at Uni. I still have it to this day, but although it lives in my loft now, I could never part with it.

[@bonniebarber6114]

That is a work of art. Would love to hear how it sounds. ❤️

[@JohnHeisz]

Thanks Bonnie. It sounds great, better than I expected.

[@spikeafrica4652]

What amp did you use?

[@finnthehuman4928]

@@spikeafrica4652 I think this is D Class amp, something like Sure TA2024

[@Hobbiekip]

It sure isn't difficult to get a little envious of his woodworking skills and assortment of equipment. Respect! It looks like a lot of work went into the design with the Dayton audio drivers. They have a good measurement microphone too for little money. Combine that with measurement software like Arta, VituixCAD and Equalizer APO or a DAW and you have a lot of powerful tools to make it sound exceptional. If you'd want to make a smaller version of this, Vifa (Peerless by Tymphany) TC9's are hard to beat. Do make sure you have the 8 ohm spec.

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

@@finnthehuman4928 I'm more leaning towards the typical Breeze Audio style amps that are based on the TPA3116

[@josephpetty5096]

Just incredible! Thank you, John. I have learned so much watching your videos over the years. This build highlights your shear talent and skill in woodworking. If anyone leaves ones of those "if I had the tools" comments, just block them. This build took talent, experience, and the skill of a craftsman who has clearly mastered his craft. Great video.

[@terencegillespie6675]

You’re something, John. You have my total admiration.

[@crossgrainwoodproductsltd9230]

Hey John! The console came out beautifully! I was born in the early 60s also And I had a Pioneer System. A great record collection From Cat Stevens to the Rollings stones. The Alman Brothers Eat a Peach was played so many times, I wore it out! I regretable sold my collection when Cassettes tapes were the thing. I upgraded the system to discs when they came out. I was given a Bose System which I mainly use now in the shop. It's funny to see trends like albums coming back around again. Cheers.

[@craigmonteforte1478]

Very nice john your design is way better than the old Consoles we grew up with

[@jeffbeck6501]

Thumbs up immediately for the goal of reducing the number of vables on the floor that are connecting a bunch of equipment spread out all over the place. To put many functions in one cabinet, so you don't have a nest of dust cellecting cables that basically can make your place less sanitary. And less sane. I have not even watched the video yet, but I know I am going to copy this idea in some way with cable reduction as a primary goal, along with ease of use.

[@matthewperlberg]

The way you butterfly'd those panels looks really great.

[@bones007able]

Nice ... a year ago I was given the guts and speakers including the boards they were mounted too from a old Fisher Ambassador... once I got it all working I built a cabinet as close as possible to the original .... it was fun...

[@Wordsnwood]

First Jon Peters, now you... i'm really beginning to like the idea of running the sapwood down the center. I should try it sometime. Turned out really nice.

[@JohnHeisz]

It's a bold look, for sure. I think it has to be the right project to use it on,

[@Shane-Singleton]

I grew up in the 80's and my parents had an old console stereo with a combination tuner & record player in it. The sound was deep and glorious. It wasn't near as fancy or mid century modern looking as the one you built but it was pretty cool. It was a piece of furniture more than anything. It was a monster. What you built is real artwork! I love it.

[@dalaljamshed]

lovely craftsmanship and video mate... rock on

[@FatClumsyGoat]

Never commented on one of your videos but have been watching you for years. Love your videos and your work.... I guess that means I love you hahaha. Keep up the great work, thanks for the entertainment and education!

[@nerop]

Very beautiful. I love the dark stain colour

[@franconero181]

Amazing craftsmanship! Thanks, John. I always watch all your videos.

[@PhilDeGuzman]

Love the style, love the project idea, love that you worked with roough lumber! So many good things in this video.

[@louisfkoorts5590]

Good to see again, that You care about musical equipment. Thanks for your continuous presence, John. 👌🏻👋🏻

[@bernarddt]

Thumbs up for still being part of the HTPC era! With SMART TVs and NETFLIX being common these days, the concept has died off.

[@claudiomenesesc]

What a great memory lane console! And of course one thing takes to the other and now I´m preparing to hear music from the late 60s and early 70s, Thank you again John.

[@JohnMGibby]

John, I knew it when I saw that gaff tape. You're still a sound guy at heart. Awesome video. Awesome project. That is one fine stereo!

[@bgrigg07]

Ha! Back in the 70s I used to earn a bit of extra money converting old console HiFi into home bars. One speaker would be a bottle rack, the other became glass storage and where the turntable was I built a bar tub. Nice to see the concept updated!

[@longleaf0]

A lovely piece, looks beautiful!

[@teemukaik]

Wow! I have to say that I nearly never comment any videos that I watch on youtube, but this your build looks very beatiful and useful! I wish I had time, skill and place where I could build things :) Keep doing videos!

[@kristonrolf1433]

Stunningly beautiful John. What a wonderful thing to have in your house.

[@brianwood5220]

Lovely job. I always look forward to watching your videos. You make it look so effortless.

[@Maker238DeLoach]

Awesome job John again beautifully made film spectacular woodwork and I love the commentary you’re a true artist sir thanks again for the awesome content!!!!!

[@Wakko92]

Very beautiful. Would have been nice to incorporate a Sub-Woofer into the stand. Wish I had the space and money to do wood working, seems like such a relaxing hobby.

[@alflud]

Groovy man! She's built like a brick house!

[@FullSendPrecision]

Really nice work John!

[@nordyfamily]

Great work! Thanks for taking the time to make, film, edit and share.

[@aliciabarrios-]

Excelente diseño.. eres muy detallista y tus publicaciones son muy inspiradoras... Gracias por compartir tu trabajo..saludos desde Argentina 🇦🇷

[@jbb5470]

Very nice piece of furniture John! Enjoyed the build and video, great as always

[@DJlegionuk]

Adding the cherry to the front of the speakers was worth the extra time as it looks beautiful !

[@mtozzy11]

Lovely job will be doing the course. Joined the makers mob the other day

[@mtozzy11]

A question for you John, what brand of speaker do you go for? It's been a long time since I played in the audio world (15 - 20 years), and back then I did a lot live production gigs and used mainly Bose and turbosound love the old Bose 802's and 502's

[@JohnHeisz]

Full details are in the build article: ibuildit.ca/projects/making-a-modern-console-stereo/ and blog entry on designing the speakers: ibuildit.ca/blog/designing-the-console-speakers/

[@mtozzy11]

Thanks will have a look at it 👍

[@mtozzy11]

That's funny I was looking at the Dayton's rs100-8

[@tomj528]

Beautiful project. I regret that I missed my window on the classic console stereos as I could have had several for free about 15 years ago when elderly people were downsizing. They never really sounded very good though. Instead I scored an old Yamaha receiver from a relative after they upgraded to a new one that has HDMI and I bought a pair of Polk Audio book shelf speakers from Craigslist for $35. It sounds fantastic and I took an old laptop, installed Ubuntu and use it to stream music, podcasts, play videos, old radio broadcasts and it's an incredible MP3 player. No records, cassette tapes or CDs taking up room either. I've got them on a nice sideboard but I like what you've done and I'm tempted.

[@tinolazaroff3681]

Excellent and beautiful. Speaker building is one of my hobbies so I enjoyed this.

[@agoodballet]

I want to make one of these now. I’d make the base a subwoofer enclosure and audiophile quality mid/high range speakers up top with some vintage tan speaker grill cloth or maybe a guitar amplifier type mesh cloth to cover the drivers. Thanks for sharing, this is an awesome idea.

[@PhilDanyew]

Wow! Absolutely stunning work John!

[@buffyvanburen8688]

Quite beautiful workmanship and I'm envious of your skill! You've tempted me to start with a smaller task in the hope of eventually working up to something on this level. Thanks for sharing so many visual details of the entire project. -Buffy

[@wolfgollnitz899]

Thanks John! So much one can learn from this build and apply elsewhere.

[@Mucram-17]

Absolutely beautiful John you are incredible at what you do thank you for the videos

[@17allen17]

I love the finished product, looks awesome! I am glad to see you also knew how to design the enclosure for your drivers. I used to be in the audio business and so often, people would just put together an enclosure that looked ok and sounded terrible because they failed to understand the importance of the driver requirements. It seems woodworkers pay attention to detail no matter what the project; audio, video, photography, computers or woodworking.

[@MikeTheSith200]

Beautiful build. I love pcs inside of pretty much any wood project. I built my pc into my desk , similar to this.

[@JimDockrellWatertone]

Beautiful! Grew up with those myself. All you need now is a digital recreation of an 8 track when is switches tracks in the middle of a song...lol.

[@JohnHeisz]

It's a wonder those are back in fashion today. The way it worked was the most interesting part, with just a single reel.

[@jamesgardner2101]

I had "Best of the Doobies" on 8-track, cassette, and CD. Sounded by far the best on the 8-track and the songs all fit so there were no interruptions.

[@Nono-hk3is]

Good to hear from you, John.

[@robertsoncletokoerner7012]

Parabéns, belo trabalho e ensinamento, obrigado!!! Robertson (Brasil)

[@vladg5216]

Love all of your audio projects John!

[@catbear4404]

Hi John, long time viewer. Thanks for always having great quality content. While I know I will probably never build this since its before my time, but it has inspired me for my own build that I am working on. Thank you, keep them coming! :)

[@thistledownwoodcraft3426]

John, what a great build. I would however mirror that hard drive. I wouldn't want to lose any of the stuff I would put on it when the bad thing happens.

[@IAmKyleBrown]

beautifully and thoughtfully done!

[@carforumwanker]

LOve it >And thank god you put a nice quality speaker in

[@AZdroptop]

Your videos are always interesting, full of helpful tips, and your editing is next level these days! Thank you for the excellent content.

[@IEnjoyCreatingVideos]

Nice work on the modern console John! That really turned out very nice :) Thanks for sharing the video with us!💖👍👌😎JP

[@ryanholmes1970]

This is the first video I've seen of yours. Thank you

[@ATAVMJPRO]

Very Very nice,... it's like a marriage between carpentry & audio. This unit could be modified to accommodate a TV - - with or without a sub in the bottom support, the middle be used as the center speaker. Either way it is fabulous.

[@KipdoesStuff]

Well worth the wait, it looks great. Here I am stressing about my next project, a stitching pony that I plan to leave rough.

[@airuiz2]

Beautiful work John!

[@jean-marclabonte2844]

Absolutely Beautiful !! That is one nice looking unit. I bet it sounds great too!! Thanks for posting the build.

[@neathway382]

That thing is stunning. Well done.

[@bentcountershaft]

I dig it. Cool looking speakers too. Never seen cones like that.

[@jimthesoundman8641]

Parts Express and MCM Electronics sell a lot of cool speakers like that.

[@quikspecv4d]

I’ve been talking about doing something like this for years. I can’t fit a console in my place so I never did it. This is awesome. I might try and upgrade the internals on an antique radio if I find a nice looking one for cheap enough.

[@kentonkirkpatrick5225]

Beautiful work! Wish I had room for all those tools!

[@vasiliyivanishvili9025]

It's amazing! Retro style rules!!!

[@wolfparty4234]

I really like this build John!!! Great job!!💪🏼👊🏼👍🏻❤️

[@ronaldcrain8760]

Really beautiful piece, John. Love the precision of your work.

[@petrkisselev5085]

As a concept, I love putting modern technology inside vintage style enclosures. Magnificent execution ! Just a word of warning: desktop computer parts can be very capricious with regards to cooling. Be sure that if you cram high end parts inside an enclosure like this, you also give them enough airflow, intake and outtake.

[@WarlonWinterheart]

Cool build, but the airflow could definitely be improved a lot. The intake looks too small and it's in the same end as the outtake. On the other end it would have allowed the air to flow through the whole case. Now it's probably circulating partly the same heated air on one end of the case. Wood insulates more than a metal case would and this adds to the importance of a good airflow. That small intake fan probably is quite noisy too at least if it's spinning at a sufficient speed.

[@citicolina]

Sexy looking stereo! I really admire the attention to detail you put on everything, including the filming.

[@FredMcIntyre]

Turned out great John, awesome work! 😃👌🏻👍🏻👊🏻

[@Yackhammer75]

Beautiful work as always

[@MOUNTAINEAGLES]

Cool project!! 👍

[@AlphaMachina]

Wonderful design. I'd like to see another, even more futuristic iteration of this but with a touchscreen monitor flush mounted into the top of the console, turning it into an actual console. Some incredible things can be done with a program called Rainmeter to create a custom touchscreen interface for controlling media selection, weather reports, etc.

[@AlSiguenza]

Amazing job. Makes me wish I had some of your talent!!

[@infadeldog13]

Absolutely beautiful - subscribed.

[@Kiz027]

Beautiful work

[@matthewjoniec9000]

Beautiful work!!!

[@KyleMerl]

Awesome job, on both the console and the video editing

[@UreWildo]

It's an excellent job buddy, I wish I could see it working!

[@donaldpowell7762]

That is stunning. Great work.

[@RBallarddesigns]

Beautiful John.

[@simoncushman1013]

Always such interesting projects and fantastically presented. Thanks John!

[@marcelodiaz9705]

beautiful

[@CharlesLumia]

Looks awesome! Nice job man

[@mr_torx]

Just great job, John!

[@billdodson207]

really cool functional ideas

[@iannesbitt2986]

That's a good looking piece.

[@DadzorRules]

Beautiful job! Thanks.