EEVblog 1513 - Dumpster Tossers Have No Shame!

A surprising dumptser diving find that might prove we live in a simulation.
A Sony GTK-X1BT bluetooth enabled party jukebox Hi-Fi speaker system.

00:00 - Dumpster Diving find, a Sony GTK-X1BT
03:44 - Does it work?
06:04 - Sound quality
07:02 - Teardown
09:58 - Power Amp
14:00 - The ethics of dumpster tossing
17:46 - Could this be turned into a Jukebox?

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#ElectronicsCreators #dumpsterdiving #Sony

[Rob]

I can explain how that would go where I work:
At some point in time, "we need a presentation room". People ask around, and someone from ICT or Facility orders some stuff from the local webshop.
Like a TV, such a speaker, etc. It is put in a meeting room and in itself it works fine, but after a year or two the management tells us "we need something more professional".
So a specialized company is ordered in, and they rebuild the room, install some professional equipment like dimmable lights and speakers in the drop ceiling.
They come in without notice to us, so they start working in the room when the equipment is still there and it all gets dusty from the plasterboard cutting etc.
When they are finished, they ask where the old stuff should go.
Now here, it becomes a little different from what you observed. We don't have such a dumpster room, but we have seemingly endless storage.
So it would go into some storage area, to be left there for 10 years, until it is all obsolete. Then it would be carried to the recycling center.
However I can well understand that in your case it would have been carried to the dumpster room in unknown state. The people who bring it there do not know why it was replaced and if it is still working.

[kev]

I've repaired a fair few of these over the last few years - similar models, interestingly most are Sony, a common problem is that the fan doesn't come on and the amp either keeps cutting out or just overheats and dies. They're one of the few remaining companies that will supply you the parts you need as well as a service manual and schematic

[landrec]

My parents threw out a whole, complete, early 80's silverface pioneer system that was 100% functional, a real beauty and worth a lot of money today. Great speakers too. On the curb... Its been years I still remind that they threw out thousands of dollars. I wish I had that system... It looked so cool, illuminated analog meters, every knob and switch was heavy nicely milled aluminum. All together 100-200 pounds of top-tier luxury cast aside to the curb.
"hey you guys moved the stereo?"
"we put it in the garbage"
"you're joking?"

"I've been admiring that stereo openly and repeatably for the last 10 years, you're joking and you're gonna give it to me right?"
"...the garbageman took it"

"did you want that?"
"Are you serious?!" etc etc

fucking hell. This obviously still bothers me years and years later.

[jessicav]

I like seeing high quality caps on the secondary and normal ones on the mains. Given the typical failure modes, it shows good use of budget while still keeping the product as a whole high quality.

[russellhltn]

The answer is simple:
Manager: We need to clear this out! Dump everything!
Minion: Yes, sir!

[gblargg]

13:53 Open the grommet and pull the AC cable in a couple of inches so the part that got lots of bending is safely inside, and new cable is the bend point. Extend the life.

[PelDaddy]

As usual, Dave has the best dumpsters.

[motionsick]

I'm watching this on a 65" LED TV I dumpster dove for 5 years ago. Still works great. Have to hit it every now and then but that's about it.

[McTroyd]

Commercial audio engineer here. Most of the time, I've found that the Bluetooth interface/device is "bad" because of two (very inclusive) possibilities: 1) Old/crappy smart phone with bad Bluetooth support, or 2) not understanding Bluetooth has limited range. (One customer couldn't figure out why the Bluetooth wouldn't work from across the floor of an office building. 🙄) I'd bet good money there's nothing wrong with that unit at all, and any perceived issue had more to do with the source device. Re: Jukebox, I love Huxley's taste. You should totally build out a jukebox with all the blinkenlights. This Sony might be an excellent base to start from.

[SeanBZA]

Chipboard is PVC veneered, they route the V groove into the big sheet, all the holes, then the sheet is taken and bent to shape. Glue used is a 2 part urethane, used because it expands and fills the gaps to make the cabinet air tight, then wrapped up to make the cabinet. The ends are plain board, also milled out with a CNC machine, as this is both fast, accurate and easy to update for new styles, plus you make the parts to minimise sheet waste.

PCB scrap used as holder with the writing is because normally the panel scrap is thrown away, somebody likely got a bonus in the design team for this small job, saving Sony 4c on the cost of the unit, by using a part of the PCB panel that they normally would toss out, as it was for a shaped board, and use it to hold the BT board down. 2 extra holes in the NC file, and the changed silkscreen layer, and saved 4c per unit. His bonus, plus photo on the team board, was likely 0.1c of the cost saved for the first year of production....

SMD capacitors on the board are very likely Sony in house, hopefully they have finally fixed the (in)famous Sony capacitor failure mode, though I have no doubt that in 15 years all of them will leak to some degree or the other, but the Nichicons will still be perfect, even the Samxon one, seeing as it has little stress, aside from voltage keeping it formed.

[UncleWalter]

Man. Class D really has changed the game for power amps. Now that in more recent times they've gotten Class D to be pretty transparent and low distortion, a lot of pro audio has moved over to it. A few years back, I was upgrading the power amps at a venue, the PA system was driven by two EV P2000 power amps. These took up 3U each, weighed a tonne, were noisy and didn't really have the usable headroom they needed, so I replaced it with a Lab Gruppen D 40:4L. Replaced 6U of noisy heavy boat anchor and 1U of system processing with 1U of DSP and 4000W Class D power amp in one. Happily drove the entire PA off that one rack unit. It sounded better, noise floor was basically gone, way more headroom and it had built-in Lake processing.

[tomnorman]

I can't say it enough, it's amazing what people will throw away. I've been 'dumpster-diving' since I was a kid...the stories I could tell. "One man's trash is another man's treasure" still holds true to this day! Bobs your uncle!

[christophermorin]

Some people just do not want other people having their stuff. Even if they just threw it out. I have had people come up on me when dumpster diving and MAKE me put it back. And when I came back later after they left, the items were smashed.

[ralfbaechle]

Dumpsters are full of surprises. But sometimes you have to wait for the right thing to turn up. I rcently needed system with support for two floppy drives, one 5.25" and one 3.5" to resurrect old media. Turns out my last antique, an HP with a BTX board has a floppy connector but the BIOS only handles one drive and crazier, there only seems to be a single drive select line on the mainboard so only support for one drive. I don't want to switch drives all the time so I had to wait for the right kind of vintage PC to turn up in the dumpster.
Oh and I have two similar size entertainment systems on the usrgery table in the lab, one blown power supply and the other has a input producing 100Hz humming sound after subjected to overvoltage. Expected total repair cost < 5€.

[richierich]

You should make a video of you putting items with notes in the dumpster room and keep checking on it to show how easy and appreciated by someone it is . Love the content .

[christatler]

They say that the mica reinforced cone is for undistorted audio, but I would suggest it’s actually to help reflect the light from the LED’s.

[thomasunsworth]

Hi Dave I have suggested this before why don't to put some notices around the walls of the dumpster room and on the inside of the door simply asking people to let you know if they are putting any electrical or electronic item or items in there. They could knock on your workshop door, push a note under it or simply send you a text message. You may even be able to do a video with the people in the dumpster room who are throwing all this stuff away to find out why they are disposing of it.

[kanicaras]

In a significant number of companies, people (workers) cannot take or sell the assets belonging to the company. And the companies themselves simply do not sell inexpensive items --> time is money, so it is easier and cheaper for them to throw everything away.

[WooShell]

Two years ago, I picked up a whole home cinema/hifi set at our local recycling center. Denon AVR, a pair of JBL speakers, DVD player etc. Sure, the AVR was a 2012 model and didn't do fancy stuff like Dolby Vision yet, but who cares? Takes the 5.1/7.1 stuff that Netflix serves just fine, and saved me roughly 1k$ of investment into my home cinema. Thankfully, our recycling center team is smart enough to put such devices next to the containers, and letting people take it home for repair or reuse for a few bucks.

[stusue]

Gumtree can be a PITA. ."Will you swap it for a iron that doesn't work and a toast that burns the bread?" "yeah I couldn't make the pick up time we arranged and didn't bother to call but can you hold it for a week mate?"