Presenting Prof. Emilio Zuntaras' Bi-Orbital Spectral Audiometer (CD Player MOD)

[Anaesthesius]

When I saw the video I got this huge goofy grin stuck on my face when you started cranking it...

I could imagine an ipod (or any kind of external contraption) version with the CD player porthole displaying either a spinning cog array or, if you want to dabble into high voltage, a "magical eye" wired to give graphical equalizer output.

I like that... if you opened a time portal to a Victorian inventor and threw in an iPod with a brief description of its function, the recipient might build something like this, with the "Atlantean Panmelodic Crystal" prominently enclosed at the center...

Motion to display on the front page Nth'd, with the recommendation for immediate post suggestion to Boing Boing.
Oh, and welcome!

*joins the ovation*
Ladies & Gentlemen, for the Professor - THREE TIMES THREE AND A TYGER!!!
HUZZAH!!  HUZZAH!!  HUZZAH!!

[Prof. Erwin Lindemann]

Sapperlot und Donnerwetter! That is phantastic! Great work. And it looks more advanced than that machine made by this young fellow - what was his name - Edison?!

[Prof. Zuntaras]

- what do the knife switches do? 

There aren't a lot of build pics but as far as the switches....each double switch gives you basically what I think of as two "channels" for an on/off switch.  So, as far as what they do, working from right to left



Switch one/right side.....Actually this switch is wired at the moment but the wires are not connected to anything.  Originally it was going to go to two small LED's housed in the fluid indicator guages.  As the project progressed, the idea of any electrical lights at all on the device just didn't seem right.  I went ahead an wired it in case I wanted to add something later like an external I-Pod dock....etc.

Switch one/left side.....Connects the motor for the brass bellows drive wheel to its 9V power source.

Switch two/right side....Connects the miniature amplifier/signal splitter to its 9v power source.  This was necessary because the amp keeps drawing power even if it is not currently playing any music so there had to be a deadman's switch in order for it to keep from burning through batteries like crazy.

Switch two/left side....Connects the CD-Player to its 3V power source.  It was originally two AA batteries, I just converted it to 2 D size batteries so that I wouldn't have to change the batteries as often.

[heavyporker]

 Bravo, sir, bravo. I love the metalwork you have done, very impressive.

[Herr Döktor]

ASTOUNDING!
ASTONISHING!
STUPENDOUS!
SUPERLATIVE!
STUNNING!
CONFOUNDING!

...and it's good too!

Absolutely first class, I doff my hat to you sir!

[von Brasswood]

*throws a bucket of superlatives at Prof Zuntaras*

There! That's all I had! This is glorious I especially like the actually working parts, like the volume knobs and such. Great craftsmanship!

By the way: Is the sound quality as ehrm.. "lo-fi" as it sounds in the video, or is that just the video sound?

[rogue_designer]

All I can say is very well done.

I had in mind a similar project - the scope of which I once saw as fanciful and now see now was woefully below the realm of possibilities.

I have to ask as well - is the cd motor attached at all to the hand crank mechanism? or was that element of it more decorative. I can imagine getting the gearing right for the read speed would be hard to calibrate - but not impossible.

Edit: Ah - I found your earlier response about the function of the hand crank and other wheels. Thank you.

[Prof. Friedrich VonHart, PhD]

WOW! I mean. W.O.W.. Words fail me. <joins standing ovation>

Huzzah!

[Wrath the Mad]

It's nice to have folks who "get it."

Indeed! For I am coming to "Get it" right now! Just as soon as I recover my jaw from the floor...  Beautiful work, simply smashing! I love the added touches of the knife-switches under glass.

[kommander]

Most Incredible. I would love to see some pictures of the inside.

[Prof. Zuntaras]

By the way: Is the sound quality as ehrm.. "lo-fi" as it sounds in the video, or is that just the video sound?

LOL, first off, this was the convoluted path to the You Tube video posting.....my ancient camcorder recorded it to VHS tape (yes seriously).  Then I copied the VHS tape to a DVD.  Then I copied the DVD to an NTSC file on my computer.  Then, the file was copied again into a WMV file.  Then it was posted to You Tube.  With that much "copy degradation" going on I am shocked you can still see the picture much less hear the sound at all.

That being said, the sound is rather "lo-fi" on purpose.  The sound quality went through about four redesigns.  The final design accomplished enough degradation to give it that "grammophoney" or "tinny" sound we are all so familiar with.  The redesigns and what I ended up doing are kinda involved, but this answers your basic question.

 If you really want me to go into the full explanation of the speaker system and how I got there, I will be more than happy to go into further detail,  however. 

[postmodernpirate]

An exquisite Job professor...You inspire 

...Soon...I Swear Soon I will have something to present in this forum..

[von Brasswood]

LOL, first off, this was the convoluted path to the You Tube video posting.....my ancient camcorder recorded it to VHS tape (yes seriously).  Then I copied the VHS tape to a DVD.  Then I copied the DVD to an NTSC file on my computer.  Then, the file was copied again into a WMV file.  Then it was posted to You Tube.  With that much "copy degradation" going on I am shocked you can still see the picture much less hear the sound at all.

Guessed that much

That being said, the sound is rather "lo-fi" on purpose.  The sound quality went through about four redesigns.  The final design accomplished enough degradation to give it that "grammophoney" or "tinny" sound we are all so familiar with.  The redesigns and what I ended up doing are kinda involved, but this answers your basic question.

Well, this was to be my next question. Though I love the thought of an old timer sound system, I myself, could never make one that had a "grammophone" sound, as the audiophile being that I am. But even so, I understand your design choices perfectly, and I still love the thing to death.

If you really want me to go into the full explanation of the speaker system and how I got there, I will be more than happy to go into further detail,  however. 

Well, actually, yes. Sort of at least Are the original (or other) speakers inside and the sound is being transferred through the grammophone horns, or is the sound transferring more "old-school" than that?

[Jake von Slatt]

Oh dear, more competition . . .

Brilliant work, Sir! Bravo! 

Jake.

[heresyoftruth]

I have have never been this impressed with a CD player.

[Robo Von Bismark]

BoingBoing have posted it now

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/26/steampunk-cd-player.html

Congratulations Prof!!!!

[Prof. Zuntaras]

BoingBoing have posted it now

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/26/steampunk-cd-player.html

Congratulations Prof!!!!

Thanks.  Some website in Japan has an article on it too LOL.  At least I think it is Japanese.....

http://www.bottlepets.jp/?p=1483

[Augustus Dayafter]

I left you a comment and rating on your video good sir. Good work!

[Jake of All Trades]

Good glaven, that is a true work of art!  How, pre tell, did you accomplish this "degradation" of fidelity?  RC filters and the like, perhaps?

[Rengeek]

Switch one/right side.....Actually this switch is wired at the moment but the wires are not connected to anything.  Originally it was going to go to two small LED's housed in the fluid indicator guages.  As the project progressed, the idea of any electrical lights at all on the device just didn't seem right.  I went ahead an wired it in case I wanted to add something later like an external I-Pod dock....etc.

  Just a note on the LED situation I wanted to share. Recently I built a small PC to fit inside a fake book. It was not intended to be a "steampunk" device but mainly an attempt to build a small, quiet, bedside PC that would look good on a bedside table. I used an antique styled doorbell from the hardware store as a power button and I used a little flickering LED "candle" I picked up from the local Walgreens. It was easy to cannibalize the LED candle and extend the yellow LED to the doorbell and use the 3V from the PC motherboard to power it. It could easily run on your batteries and would give a nice flame flicker to your fluid gauges.   
If anyone is interested in my little PC book I have pictures on my Multiply blog here. And a short video of the LED "flicker" here.

[Justavis]

アンティーク調のボディにCDプレイヤーの機能を詰め込んだもののようですね。どことなく、昔の蓄音機を思わせるようなデザインがいい感じです。↓に動作中のムービーがありますので、そちらもどうぞ！

OR:

This antique-style body CD player is just brimming with functions. For some reason, it reminds me vaguely of a gramophone from way-back-when, which is great. Below is a movie of the movements so by all means go have a look.


I can't believe this is my first post. But I happen to speak Japanese and this CD player inspired me to come out of my own closet--though being in Japan myself, it's one of those sliding door closets. Well-done, I'm seething with envy.

Cheers,
Justavis

EDITED: "the movements" not "his movements," confound those pronouns! *shakes fist*

[Professor Nicodemus Hawk]

Goodness, I'm so impressed I created a new account just to add my praise to the pile.  Most excellent!  I'm working on my own project at the moment, and this has given me a ton of new inspirations.  Time to go find some knife switches!

[Hikaro Takayama]

That is one SWEET CD player... If you ever decide to start up a production run, I'd be more than glad to buy one

But where, oh where, did you get those speaker horns?!?!  I've been toying around with stempunking my stereo system (which doubles as my computer sound system), but haven't been able to find reliable, low-cost sources for such....

[Prof. Zuntaras]

アンティーク調のボディにCDプレイヤーの機能を詰め込んだもののようですね。どことなく、昔の蓄音機を思わせるようなデザインがいい感じです。↓に動作中のムービーがありますので、そちらもどうぞ！

OR:

This antique-style body CD player is just brimming with functions. For some reason, it reminds me vaguely of a gramophone from way-back-when, which is great. Below is a movie of the movements so by all means go have a look.


I can't believe this is my first post. But I happen to speak Japanese and this CD player inspired me to come out of my own closet--though being in Japan myself, it's one of those sliding door closets.

Thanks so much for the translation.  I used the Internet Explorer automatic translator on the same text and got this...LOL.

"Distressed CD player's body stuffed like features.  Somehow, the old phonograph-like design reminiscent of a good thing. may work in the movie that you, too! "

So much for the Automatic Translator.  Your is so much better. The automatic translation text makes me a little nervous and I don't know why....... Something about "bodies stuffed with features" maybe.

[Prof. Zuntaras]

Good glaven, that is a true work of art!  How, pre tell, did you accomplish this "degradation" of fidelity?  RC filters and the like, perhaps?

Actually this kind of follows with the speaker question above.  The sound comes from the CD player in stereo and goes into the AMP which amplifies it and sends it out as a single MONO signal (this was the trick here).  Then that single mono signal is split into three separate but identical mono signals.  These signals are sent to three small speakers located the base of the pipes inside the box so that there is nothing electronic outside the box in the speaker tubes.  I did not want visible speakers anywhere. 

This also gave the benefit that the tubes and speakers were movable and removable for POLISHING! (Oh God .......the polishing...and then there's more polishing). I just can't find a decent scullery staff nowdays (or is that the downstairs maid's job, maybe the "girl of all work..?") but I digress....

Now here is the part of the process that is either science or the fevered perceptions of a slightly twisted mind (or both), so I will need some help from those of you who are more musically inclined to tell me whether this is true or not.  I used the different size speakers for a reason.  I was thinking that when you look at musical instruments made of metal it seems like the smaller the horn, the higher the notes are that the instrument plays.  I figured this theory was supported by the fact that tubas have a really long run of pipe and are really big and play really low notes.  I made the pipes to speakers as long as possible, and here is the part that I want validated by musical types.... It seems to me that the higher notes come out of the smaller speakers louder and the low notes seem to come out much more clearly from the bigger metal horn in the center.  So in effect it is taking the mono musical signal and splitting it back into a kind of low tech stereo signal (with two "high" channels and one "low" one).   Like I said I could be totally imagining this but when you hear it close up it sounds like that is what's going on. 

Musical types is my theory valid?