chicagozer
Active Member
I Saw another Nordmende console pop up recently
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=585723&highlight=nordmende
so I thought I'd share some pictures of the one I'm currently working on. I found it locally on Craigslist and figured it would be a fun project.
Fun yes, a little bigger bite than I first expected, definitely yes.
The console came complete, including the radio and Dual 1008 turntable. It had been with the same family for 50+ years. The cabinet is in very good condition; if it weren't currently buried in a corner of my garage I'd share a picture. He wanted $100 and I was certainly surprised it had still been for sale a few days before I had some time to come see it.
The radio was working, if barely, when I bought it. It would tune some stations but didn't have much sound at all from the right channel. Left channel was audible but not what I would call hi-fi. Turntable was pretty much a no go. It didn't seem to want to spin for more than a couple seconds.
I put in an order for some caps and started in a little bit on the turntable. I don't know too much about turntables but I have to guess the Dual 1008 is a model that was popular for basic consoles of that era. It's got a ceramic cartridge and mostly plastic.
Pretty simple, but plays three speeds and has an automatic changer. I assume the attraction was that you could pack it with a stack of records and let it play for the duration of your party.
The turntable is an idler and after several hours of fiddling with it I've reached the conclusion it probably just needs new idler wheels. Being a cheapskate I've resisted ordering rebuilt ones and maybe I'll get lucky and scrounge one up somewhere.
The radio is a beauty.
4 bands. Bunch of Euro tubes. ECC85, EF89, ECH81, EBF89, EF80 and EM87 magic eye. Glass face and not a scratch on it. The tuning wheels have enormous flywheels; they turn beautifully.
Bunch of pushbuttons for "features" like presence, brilliant, bass boost, speech boost etc. I'm still tracing the schematic to figure out what is all going on with the sound effects.
The amplifier is interesting. It's a separate unit connected by the typical eight pin pigtail. It's very compact and uses a pair of ECC83 triodes and a pair of ELL80 dual-pentodes. Even the output transformers are bundled in a single case. to save space. The audio comes in from the preamp/radio via DIN 3 connector.
The main problem I discovered, was that the selenium rectifier was shot. It was putting out about 70% of the voltage it should have. I replaced that with a diode bridge, recapped the main amp and we were back in business.
Unfortunately the radio did not respond well to the increased voltage. The reception I was getting before had vanished entirely. Most of the tubes did not look good on the Hickok tester so I went ahead and ordered replacements.
Thankfully, new tubes restored the radio to working condition.
Although it does say stereo, I discovered it's really only stereo for the phono. The radio is mono. They were generous enough to supply an output connector for a decoder accessory.
So I breadboarded a decoder based on a National LM4500A. Easy little circuit and there is a handy LED that comes on when there is stereo decoding happening.
http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/sites/default/files/ees/files/NI/pdfs/00/79/DS007973.pdf
There is a even stereo/mono switch on the radio that I wired into the circuit.
So at this point, I'm getting set to package the decoder in an accessory box. Trying to decide whether to power it from the heater or just add a 12V wall wart.
The amp is a bit noisy on both channels at baseline levels. It's got fresh caps so I am trying to sort out what is causing that. Thankfully that side of the circuit is pretty straightforward.
I also have the radio alignment instructions from radiomuseum.org (in German). Wondering if I should mess with that given the radio seems strong enough.
Lastly I have a Dual 1019 (purchased here) I'll be picking up in a couple of weeks. I am hoping it will be a nice replacement for the stock 1008 but I believe I'll need to add a magnetic cartridge preamp.
Oh...I also need to figure out what to do with the speakers. The mains are something like 13x7 ovals and a bunch of little tweeters. They sounded muddy before I had everything out of the console. I guess I can try them again with everything refreshed before I go sourcing something fresher.
The current speakers are 4ohm but it was nice to see the output transformer does have 8 ohm taps. Ultimately 7 watts doesn't seem like much to play with in that little enclosure so it will be interesting to see what I can come up with.
It's been a fun bit of gear to work with; definitely a new level of complexity from my previous endeavors and hopefully with a little more work we'll have a nice little showpiece in the house.
Jim
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=585723&highlight=nordmende
so I thought I'd share some pictures of the one I'm currently working on. I found it locally on Craigslist and figured it would be a fun project.
Fun yes, a little bigger bite than I first expected, definitely yes.
The console came complete, including the radio and Dual 1008 turntable. It had been with the same family for 50+ years. The cabinet is in very good condition; if it weren't currently buried in a corner of my garage I'd share a picture. He wanted $100 and I was certainly surprised it had still been for sale a few days before I had some time to come see it.
The radio was working, if barely, when I bought it. It would tune some stations but didn't have much sound at all from the right channel. Left channel was audible but not what I would call hi-fi. Turntable was pretty much a no go. It didn't seem to want to spin for more than a couple seconds.
I put in an order for some caps and started in a little bit on the turntable. I don't know too much about turntables but I have to guess the Dual 1008 is a model that was popular for basic consoles of that era. It's got a ceramic cartridge and mostly plastic.
Pretty simple, but plays three speeds and has an automatic changer. I assume the attraction was that you could pack it with a stack of records and let it play for the duration of your party.
The turntable is an idler and after several hours of fiddling with it I've reached the conclusion it probably just needs new idler wheels. Being a cheapskate I've resisted ordering rebuilt ones and maybe I'll get lucky and scrounge one up somewhere.
The radio is a beauty.
4 bands. Bunch of Euro tubes. ECC85, EF89, ECH81, EBF89, EF80 and EM87 magic eye. Glass face and not a scratch on it. The tuning wheels have enormous flywheels; they turn beautifully.
Bunch of pushbuttons for "features" like presence, brilliant, bass boost, speech boost etc. I'm still tracing the schematic to figure out what is all going on with the sound effects.
The amplifier is interesting. It's a separate unit connected by the typical eight pin pigtail. It's very compact and uses a pair of ECC83 triodes and a pair of ELL80 dual-pentodes. Even the output transformers are bundled in a single case. to save space. The audio comes in from the preamp/radio via DIN 3 connector.
The main problem I discovered, was that the selenium rectifier was shot. It was putting out about 70% of the voltage it should have. I replaced that with a diode bridge, recapped the main amp and we were back in business.
Unfortunately the radio did not respond well to the increased voltage. The reception I was getting before had vanished entirely. Most of the tubes did not look good on the Hickok tester so I went ahead and ordered replacements.
Thankfully, new tubes restored the radio to working condition.
Although it does say stereo, I discovered it's really only stereo for the phono. The radio is mono. They were generous enough to supply an output connector for a decoder accessory.
So I breadboarded a decoder based on a National LM4500A. Easy little circuit and there is a handy LED that comes on when there is stereo decoding happening.
http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/sites/default/files/ees/files/NI/pdfs/00/79/DS007973.pdf
There is a even stereo/mono switch on the radio that I wired into the circuit.
So at this point, I'm getting set to package the decoder in an accessory box. Trying to decide whether to power it from the heater or just add a 12V wall wart.
The amp is a bit noisy on both channels at baseline levels. It's got fresh caps so I am trying to sort out what is causing that. Thankfully that side of the circuit is pretty straightforward.
I also have the radio alignment instructions from radiomuseum.org (in German). Wondering if I should mess with that given the radio seems strong enough.
Lastly I have a Dual 1019 (purchased here) I'll be picking up in a couple of weeks. I am hoping it will be a nice replacement for the stock 1008 but I believe I'll need to add a magnetic cartridge preamp.
Oh...I also need to figure out what to do with the speakers. The mains are something like 13x7 ovals and a bunch of little tweeters. They sounded muddy before I had everything out of the console. I guess I can try them again with everything refreshed before I go sourcing something fresher.
The current speakers are 4ohm but it was nice to see the output transformer does have 8 ohm taps. Ultimately 7 watts doesn't seem like much to play with in that little enclosure so it will be interesting to see what I can come up with.
It's been a fun bit of gear to work with; definitely a new level of complexity from my previous endeavors and hopefully with a little more work we'll have a nice little showpiece in the house.
Jim
