I saw a guy in my neighborhood just vibing riding his bike with a Boombox on the back, and it got me thinking of getting one. So this is a dope video to come back to later. Edit: Totally would love to see you replace the CD player 😀
Thanks so much! You should totally get one, I will be showing more on my channel in the future, including mods like integrated BT 🍻 I will put the CD play replacement on my list of things to do, thanks for watching!
i still would have replaced the capacitors.. they are over 40 years old.. and capacitors are fairly cheap.. i repair boomboxes too.. i have seen many Sony CFD-5 boomboxes.. but had never owned one.. (owned about 300).. the build quality is way better than i would have figured.. good to see you bringing this classic back to life..
Yes, for a full rebuild all caps replacement is best but I will just fix as I go. I'm still very impressed with this unit, I own a lot of boomboxes now, and for some reason the high end Sony units are tough to beat, the only system I have that I feel is better is a FH-7 MKII, but that's hard to compare as it's much bigger and more powerful.
Very impressive effort! you handle him wholeheartedly until he agrees to get up. This video explains that 80s design does look more modern than its successors. Great video!!!
Nice, I have the CFD-5 fully restored by me and fully working. I also have the Sony CFS-W900, CFS-9000, CFS-9900 all fully working. Excellent quality from Sony.
When I saw the notification I was admittedly hoping it was an update on the cargo bike! 😅 But this was a fun watch too! Too bad you couldn't get the CD player working man! Maybe you could convert it to a "storage compartment" to mount a digital media player of some kind, or something like that if you can't fix or don't want to spend more time on repairing the CD player or doing a resto-mod!
Thanks man! New cargo bike update should be out within a week, I'm nearly done, just lagging a bit on getting videos out 👍Yes, it's unfortunate but these laser pickups don't last forever, and I'm quite certain that is the issue. I was thinking of using that to embed a BT module so that you don't need to hook up through the line-in, could be pretty cool. Thanks for watching!
@@hightech-lowlife all good man, I'll watch it whenever you get the time to put it out! Yeah but like you said, you're not likely ever going to use it anyway, so it isn't a huge loss! Especially if you can repurpose it to something more useful! I totally understand the frustration of not being able to get it fixed and fully functional though!
@@bbllrstv13 Thanks man! Yeah, this was more just an exercise in seeing if I could fix it, as it wasn't working at all before, so the worst that could happen was that it would still be broken, but it does actually work a bit better now. Still sad I couldn't get it fully reliable, but I have to limit my expectations just based on how old it is, pretty miraculous it works as good as it does still honestly. Thanks!
I worked in a music shop back in the 80's (Captain Bullfrogs Music...yes at one point it had a head shop in the basement, lol), and I remember when this unit showed up! It sounded amazing, and the square speakers really made a statement for styling. This one was the centerpiece of our portables for a while before it was replaced with the first removable (docked) CD player boombox. That one had a portable CD player that plugged into a dock on the top. What a great time period for portable tech :)
That's awesome, you must have some great memories from that place. This is a really great unit, it's very heavy and solid like a brick, sounds really good even by today's standards. I do know of those that had the detachable portable cassette decks and the ones that had a detachable portable CD player, there are even some with built in mini midi pianos that you can record on, they definitely were doing wild things back in the 80's and to me it was the golden era of technology. Everything was so futuristic! Cheers man 🍻
The D-50 cd player issue is yes its 40 years old, I adjusted the pots very slightly and mine play pre recorded cd discs all day but is fussy with copied discs. I do 2 x D-50 players and they play all discs fine. Seems to be hit and miss plus the environment they lived in especially is the owner was a smoker which clouds the laser lens.
I don't really listen/have CDs much anymore, most likely I will either swap with a modern disc player (restomod) or just embed BT. I have modded quite a few boomboxes since this one, just haven't edited/posted the new mods yet 🍻
What did you do to fix the eject button? Mine is somehow blocked as well, but I pulled the deck mechanism and it looks like there's a lever on the way at the bottom that's blocking it, but I can't figure out how it suppose to work.
I don't really know what was the problem, I took the deck apart like 20 times, and after the first time I took it apart and put it back together the eject button worked fine. It does this thing where it clasps shut over the top of the cassette, I would check that out. It's definitely something in the way it is reassembled, so take it apart and put it back together again and check the action a bunch of times to make sure it works. 👍
Please... For the love of God.. please no.. not another cool tech project that I learn at a granular level with days of research and hundreds in customization... Why, oh why do you do this to me RU-vid 🤛🏽
This is the only cassette tape I still own, and it's because my high school band's demo is on it! BigWig is incredible: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jLtRU9ANJ8o.html Unmerry Melodies was one of the soundtracks to my high school years, same with Stay Asleep: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KfKeuWCMUWA.html The other album on this tape is More Betterness from NUFAN: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F73heH3kRDU.html Cheers man 🍻
Maybe the issue with the cd player has to do with what kind of cds you're putting in, if it's an old enough cd player then it won't be able to play cds that you rip for yourself. Also, the Dolby noise reduction was a recording/playback option to reduce tape noise on cassettes that were recorded with the system
Thanks man! I actually tried with a few other discs and same issue, so I don't think that was it. What's weird is that burned discs are supposedly harder for older units to read, but all the retail discs from the 90's I tried, my CD-R I made from like 2002 was actually easier for it to read. I know it was made to reduce noise, but all it seems to do is put a high pass filter on, basically cuts out a ton of upper frequencies 😅 Thanks for your input!
I just got some X200 for $70 and they sound amazing. Some hifi guys on reddit were saying the APMs were just mediocre, they sound really good to me though 👍
Most of the caps on these do not need replacing. The through hole caps don't have the issue like SMD. Mind you that depends if "Elna" caps were installed then replace them all.
From my experience I haven't "needed" to replace a single capacitor on the multitude of vintage boomboxes I've messed with 👍 all the issues have been non-capacitor related.
Just got one of these myself. Sat on a shelf for about 39 years prior to me getting it (I don't think powered off once) and somehow every cap is fine and the only issue is a sticky CD door, staticky switches/sliders, and some rotted cassette belts. Appreciate the in-depth tear down and insight. Crazy that something nearly twice my age is still rocking with so few issues, shoutout Sony Japan of 1985 lmao
Awesome man! It's a great unit, sounds incredible for its size and looks amazing! I have a lot of boomboxes now, but this one is one of the best out there. Cheers on your acquisition 🍻
@@hightech-lowlife this might be a strange question, but do you happen to know what kind of amp is inside this system? I know the stock speakers are pretty tiny, but I thought it would be cool (and really nice looking) to use this as a bookshelf setup and am kind of at a loss trying to figure out what size speakers you can ultimately power from it
@@mirule07 The specs in the manual state 5W per channel (undistorted). It will probably do 30-40W total. Even with the small speakers this will get more than loud enough for a room in a home. Sure you won't get shaking bass from a large speaker or subs. If the power output isn't enough to drive speakers you want, you can always add an external amplifier to boost.
@@hightech-lowlife You're a lifesaver thanks for the info! Looking at doing some av123 elt 525's that I found for cheap on marketplace, so 30-40W should be more than enough with room to upgrade down the line if I really want to annoy the neighbors. I really appreciate you and getting back to me so quickly!
Cool project. By the way caps can read good to a multimeter but the ESR can still be off. Depending on how old the board is I just recap all the electrolytics
Hell yeah man! Hitachi's are nice, I have a lot of boomboxes now so I will be showing more on the channel, as well as everything else. Thanks for watching man 👍
