Retro HiFi - The Missing Link

This is a video about two HiFi components that could do with making a comeback.
The video features two devices, The first is the Realistic APM-200 - an external add-on VU meter sold in the 1970s & 1980s through Radioshack and Tandy. The main subject of the video though is the Onkyo U30 - an RCA Switchbox/Pre-amp.
I really don't see why an enterprising manufacturer couldn't bring back either one or both of these types of devices. If they were to go a step further and add in a DAC, then we'd really have an handy all-in-one HiFi component. Perhaps I've just given someone the idea for a Kickstarter.

[id]

The amount of cables in the back of that cabinet could probably strangle a spider.

[kay]

i didnt know i needed analog VU metter in my life until i saw this video

[paulbennell]

I'm going to have to stop watching these videos. They just make me want things. I've already got a lot of things.

[Techmoan]

It's great that so many people want to help me out with their blue-film lightbulb substitute ideas...but on this occasion I'm really not at all interested in colouring bulbs blue. I am 100% happy with the non-blue bulbs.I have no intention of unwiring this sucker just to tint some bulbs so they look a little bit more white than yellow.

You can see all the previous comments on this subject...of which I've pasted a proportion (but not all) below....

1) the blue light covers can be purchased from any pinball repair or supply company. they have other colors as well.
2) The blue film around the bulb was likely a simple hack to change the colour of the meters, probably to match a previous owner's other equipment. You shouldn't have to import anything if you want to make it blue again, just some standard LEE colour correction gel from a good photographic or professional lighting distributor will be a more appropriate material.
3) The answer to your "blue film" is just theatrical gels. You can get a sheet (or a sample book for free) at a theatrical lighting supply. Or you could just drop by a local theater and beg a small strip from a lighting tech as it's all you'd need. The colors are almost unlimited so you don't have to just have blue. A bit of clear packing tape and you're set.
4) use a blue marker and color the bulb.
5) ever considered to replace some of those old bulbs with LEDs?
(just take some burned out bulbs, remove glas cap, solder in a resistor and a LED socket[/s <in case one LED isn't bright enough>] ... or solder the LED[/s] directly ... that way you would easily get the original bluish tint ... and making the light way more robust ... and no one is going to see the LEDs anyway)
6) You could use blue Kapton tape over the bulbs, as it will resist the heat yet is still transparent.
7) You can get that bluefilm from any place that sells DJ/lightning gear, like thomann.de. They are called lightning "gel". Thomann.de sells a set of 4 colors for 5.8€ and you can cut them to right size.
8) Use Gel Film for stage lighting for those light bulbs.
9) for the blue film, look into theater / cinema light filter film, they make it in every colour
10) You can buy high temperature marker pens that can write on glass and survive the heat. You'd basically just colour the bulbs in with a special felt tip. Personally, I prefer the natural look.
11) The yellowish-white light from the bulbs is alright, but to recreate the blue colour, I would consider substituting blue LED lamps, which didn't exist in the 1970s. It might not be 100% authentic, but with the cover on, nobody would know.
12) To tint those bulbs try getting hold of a gel filter from a professional music/lighting/PA store. If a gel can handle the heat from a PAR can bulb they ought to handle a few VU meter bulbs.
13) Your best bet will be to look at theatre lighting gels. Stage Electrics do colour swatch packs which might be enough, but if not you can find the shade you like and then order a sheet of it.
14) You might find that blue film in an automotive shop: it's used to color the dashboard lights...
15) You can get lacquer specifically intended for bulbs. Not sure where, but just have a look?
16) you can use light blue marking pen write it onto the lamp
17) BLUE BULBS! Check car accessory shop, boy racers stick blue sidelight bulbs in. I MOT cars and have thrown them away for the MOT. SOME have that same plastic shroud on.
18) re the blue film. Try searching for "PAR GEL" on eBay. That's the coloured film they used on the old fashioned theatre lights.
19) For coloured film ask a "Lampy" (light ingeneer in theater)for some leftover film.
20) To change the color of the lights just search for "flash gel" on amazon.
21) You can often replace the blue film by simply coloring the glass with a colored felt-tipped marking pen.
22) Blue sharpie on bulbs? :P
23) You could use some glass stain from your crafts store. Although you might want to reduce the voltage to the bulbs so it don't burn off.
24) You can get coloured silicone rubber caps for the bulbs or use coloured transparent paint made for the job. The caps will give the most balanced light. I've got a 3-way switch box which is enough for me. I've also got 5 multi hole power strips, all full and with a couple 3 way adaptors on those. Of course only a few are supplying any juice at any one time but they are an eyesore at best.
25) Instead of blue film try a blue quality street wrapper (ONLY IF THE BULBS DONT GET HOT)

[jskwk]

These VU meters ARE SO COOL! Todays tech is so boring.

[LGR]

This kind of mythical missing link would be a great thing indeed. I'd love such a thing for my setup, at least. Although I'd also be happy with that standalone VU meter, haha.

Just signed up to your Patreon too; happy to support what you're doing!

[klbird]

You should have your own BBC-TV program. Well done!

[wdavem]

Funny thing its actually a problem when you let steve jobsian design everything with that knee jerk reaction to visual clutter, you get stylistic uselessness and oversimplification, which admittedly are important to some people. But we don't live in the matrix yet at and it's ok to have actual buttons and switches to control real physical things... that actually work for more then 4 years, have replaceable parts, and are MORE FUN when you add it all up... if it adds up that way for you.

[ThingsWhichArentWork]

For blue film, I'd suggest you buy yourself a box of quality streets and eat all of the chocolates - After you've done that, you'll have a large selection of different coloured films to choose from. Hope that helps. Cheers!!

[tael]

Pardon me, I'm American, so I'm not 100% sure on this. Quid is to pounds as buck is to dollars, right?

[tripsadelica]

Can't agree more... Modern hifi units are boring.

[Mentorcase]

I have never lost my fascination for the dancing VU meters. Real needles real jumping a thing of beauty.

[bradburyrobinson]

You sound like my kind of guy. A mate used to buy all this stereo equipment, black boxes with one led and two buttons or so. My issue was there just wasn't enough going on for the money, I wanted things to look like an 80s portable stereo, knobs, dials and meters everywhere!

[notyourrealfather]

All of your videos make me miss the receiver I grew up with before my dad jumped to Dolby digital surround. It was a Sansui Model 881. I used it in my bedroom for a while until I went surround. My friend loved it and my dad gave it to him under the condition that he gave it back if he stopped using it. He got robbed, and now I pine away seeing only broken ones on eBay that are still expensive... well for me anyways.

[warriordrum]

Your retro system is a joy to behold. Thanks especially for your willingness to put some time into editing...your videos are never boring or camera challenged....I am a grateful subscriber!

[gearheadwes]

I've been junking for several years and scored all kinds of "old" stereo equipment in Germany. Some finds were 1960' 8mm video camera and projector, Marantz 2210 scope display amp tuner, Marantz amps, syntheticizer, Sasui turntables, Pioneer R2R just like Techmoan's, Akai R2R and much more. Unbelievably that people were throwing out these great quality made products. I cherish and use them to this day! Thanks for all the great Videos you make and doing all the research!

[TinkertubesLab]

I was confronted with that switching problem many times in the past working as a radio television technician as well as on my own home stereo. That was the Reason I thought about developing a piece of equipment like that and sure enough it would work - actually, it DID work, at least my prototype which i build into an old hifi case that time. Sadly, at least in germany, there are things like WEEE that prevent you from starting a company manufacturing stuff like that. The manufacturing wouldn't realy be a huge problem, but the WEEE, ROHS, CE and other regulatory stuff makes everything realy expensive for a "one product company" idea like that :( If you like I could send you a prototype PCB without a case to take a look at, but as I said, there is no way to manufacture it in series.
However, keep up the good work, I love your videos!

[grahambooth]

Hi, what a fantastic channel. I have been a follower now for perhaps 2 years and I am guessing we may be of similar vintage. I grew up in Bradford, 2 miles from the Wharfedale speaker factory on Highfield Rd. Locally we had Sugden in BD11 and Castle Acoustics in BD21 making speakers. I became interested in music in 1971 and in that year I helped my Dad fit car radios and the new cartridge players. We had a few reps who would bring in their Mk II or MkIII Cortina's to be fitted with the next latest thing and sometimes I would be given the old units which I bolted under a shelf in a 10 foot square bedroom that was shared with my brother. In the early days I had an old 12v lead acid car battery at the foot of my bed and old car radio ariels for a signal. As stereo units came in we made wooden boxes and used car radio speakers for that twin channel sound. My Dad took me to the HiFi show in Harrogate in about 1975 and I was hooked...walking around all the hotels and listening to hifi that was so far above what we could even think about, Rogers, Tannoy, Boothroyd Stuart Meridian, and the eastern stuff from Rotel, Trio, Audiotechnica and hundreds more. I used to collect all of the catalogs and dream. I loved the transcription turntables and I was at the show in years that displayed turntables that cost more than our old car, Dunlop Systemdec, Thorens TD 124 and TD160, Michell Prism, Focus and Gyrodec, Rega Planer and I saw my first Linn Sondek . In the late 70's I was at college and fell in with the wrong crowd who has stereo's and on one Saturday I spent my entire summer job earnings at a variety of hifi shops buying an amp, tape deck and Wharfedale Shelton speakers. As it happens they were all outgoing models and I paid about 60% of RRP. I still have the tape deck and amp today and the tape still works. I see that you concentrate a lot on the Japanese side of things but what I yearned for was the understated British stuff that was way more expensive. In fact the more it cost, the less button and dials it had. In 1995 I had been married to my school sweetheart for 12 years and we moved to a larger home. She knew of my love of sound and had stashed some money that she used to buy me an entry level Linn system which I still use today. I have seen a lot of your shows, possibly all of them, but I have never seen you demagnetize the heads in all of your tape machines, is this not a thing anymore. I still have my original Sony HE2 head degauser in its original box but I haven't used it in 20 years. Going back to the mid 1970's I was reminded of your need to switch multiple inputs. In those days I would bum around all of the HiFi shops that I could get to in Yorkshire and visited Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds and Skipton ( Castle Acoustics) to listen to kit on a Saturday. nearly all of these places has demo rooms that had a switch box that could switch different amp and speaker combinations so you could A-B-X listen to a source or even do the same for different sources. One of these boxes would suit all of your kit. I suspect that they probably degraded the signal path as these days they never use them. Thanks for all of the great content that you provide. Graham

[LandNfan]

I love the big analog VU meters. It reminds me of the old RCA and Gates stereo broadcast mixing boards I used in the early ‘70s. The coolest gig I worked was weekend shifts of WLAC-FM in Nashville, TN. The air and production studios and the transmitter were on the 31st floor observation deck of the Life & Casualty tower, then the tallest building in town. Quite a view across the city doing a midnight shift. It was a “good music”(Sinatra, Streisand, etc.) format. And it wasn’t unusual to get some pretty freaky phone calls in the wee hours. I still can’t watch Clint Eastwood’s “Play Misty For Me” without having nightmares.

[elfboi]

I'm using a 16 channel stereo mixer to connect all my audio devices to my hi-fi stereo set. Most of my audio devices are electronic instruments like synthesizers and samplers though.