Rephil3
Rephil3 is a departure from the boxy, battery-powered models I have used in the first two iterations and the first model based on a record-playing chassis.
The shell is from a 1948 "Bing Crosby Special" model 1201, that required a lot of tender care to bring it back from the dead. Here is how it looked when I first acquired it.
The radio dial was shattered, the frame had a substantial crack, and the finish was scratched, pock-marked, and otherwise fouled up. The good news? The hardware mechanisms were intact, meaning both the drop-down front which reveals the record loading slot, and the hinge which opens upward.
I knew right away that the phono part of the chassis would have to come out. I needed that space and it was long dead. In its place I will put a mini-itx motherboard and a slot-loading cd-rom for ripping and occasional playback.
Here is how she looks now, after dozens of paint coats and several coats of stain. She cleans up nice, doesn't she?
The rectangular area in front now houses a pair of quality full-range speakers and a touchscreen interface. Onboard tripath amp can be re-directed to external speakers of your choosing. The original knobs have beeen repurposed: the left turns on the cpu and the right turns on the amp and controls volume. A new radio dial rounds out the face.
Rephil3 will come with a 200GB hard drive, capable of storing approximately 20,000 songs in mp3 at the highest resoulution setting, or many more at variable bit-rate. Wifi is included, as well as 2 USB ports. An onbard cd-rom drive is capable of both ripping and playback.
As an extra special bonus, RePhil3 will come with two frame-worthy vintage ads that are sure to make wherever you place this beauty in your home a real conversation starter.
