Revisiting 1959 Silvertone Bluetooth Speaker

[J. Frum]

Back in ‘15, I found a Silvertone 9315-T stereo extension speaker (powered speaker in today’s parlance) with a push-pull 6V6 amplifier. A buddy rehabbed the amp. I built a resistor-based stereo-to-mono converter and installed both a Wondom Bluetooth adapter and EV Wolverine LS-8.





It was super-cool, but never got a ton of use, and at some point the Bluetooth adapter died.

Now that I was working from home, I was going to need some tunes in my office, and the Silvertone fit the bill.

I swapped out the dead BT board for a WiiM Mini, and my DIY stereo-to-mono box for a transformer-based product from Edcor. The knobs from Parts Express were jettisoned in favor of big gold ones robbed off a Fisher console.




I don’t know of it’s the WiiM, the transformers in the Edcor, or the knobs, but the sound is dramatically better than I remember.

Big smiles, and more use this week than this system has seen in years!

 

[MikeyFresh]

Back in ‘15, I found a Silvertone 9315-T stereo extension speaker (powered speaker in today’s parlance) with a push-pull 6V6 amplifier. A buddy rehabbed the amp. I built a resistor-based stereo-to-mono converter and installed both a Wondom Bluetooth adapter and EV Wolverine LS-8.

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It was super-cool, but never got a ton of use, and at some point the Bluetooth adapter died.

Now that I was working from home, I was going to need some tunes in my office, and the Silvertone fit the bill.

I swapped out the dead BT board for a WiiM Mini, and my DIY stereo-to-mono box for a transformer-based product from Edcor. The knobs from Parts Express were jettisoned in favor of big gold ones robbed off a Fisher console.

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I don’t know of it’s the WiiM, the transformers in the Edcor, or the knobs, but the sound is dramatically better than I remember.

Big smiles, and more use this week than this system has seen in years!

Super cool, and Bluetooth circa 2015 categorically sucked, so it has to sound better even if you are using it via Bluetooth '24, though there is no reason not to go lossless with the WiiM unit.

 

[J. Frum]

Super cool, and Bluetooth circa 2015 categorically sucked, so it has to sound better even if you are using it via Bluetooth '24, though there is no reason not to go lossless with the WiiM unit.

At least until I get the massive achive of VBR & 320 kbps MP3s up and running again on a server (which is all fairly anachronistic these days), I’m pretty much just using my WiiMs as AirPlay endpoints for Spotify 90% of the time. The WiiM Home app is very worthwhile, though.

 

[Thermionics]

Back in ‘15, I found a Silvertone 9315-T stereo extension speaker (powered speaker in today’s parlance) with a push-pull 6V6 amplifier. A buddy rehabbed the amp. I built a resistor-based stereo-to-mono converter and installed both a Wondom Bluetooth adapter and EV Wolverine LS-8.

It was super-cool, but never got a ton of use, and at some point the Bluetooth adapter died.

Now that I was working from home, I was going to need some tunes in my office, and the Silvertone fit the bill.

I swapped out the dead BT board for a WiiM Mini, and my DIY stereo-to-mono box for a transformer-based product from Edcor. The knobs from Parts Express were jettisoned in favor of big gold ones robbed off a Fisher console.

View attachment 76612


I don’t know of it’s the WiiM, the transformers in the Edcor, or the knobs, but the sound is dramatically better than I remember.

Big smiles, and more use this week than this system has seen in years!

It's gotta be that schmantzy interconnect.

I am not familiar with the BT adapter, but I would lean towards the Edcor as being a large part of the equation.

 

[MikeyFresh]

At least until I get the massive achive of VBR & 320 kbps MP3s up and running again on a server (which is all fairly anachronistic these days), I’m pretty much just using my WiiMs as AirPlay endpoints for Spotify 90% of the time. The WiiM Home app is very worthwhile, though.

Well done, lossy Spotify at 320kbps is good enough for 9.9 out of 10 people. AirPlay 2 is a train wreck however, you should just use Spotify Connect. Stepping that game up would involve Amazon Music, Qobuz, or TIDAL.

 

[MikeyFresh]

It's gotta be that schmantzy interconnect.

Yes I think the audio science police are going to need to investigate that IC, way too schmantzy. Obviously someone is both delusional, and easily wheedled into parting with cash. 🧐

 

[Spinner45]

Nice!

In the mid 1990s I ran a pair of Ampex 6V6 powered suitcase speakers in my office.

 

[J. Frum]

It's gotta be that schmantzy interconnect.

The blue one? The connectors are 100% metal! 🧐

 

[mrgoodsound]

If you haven't already - try skipping the summing and just listening to one channel of the stereo source. I do this in my own mono system and don't feel like I'm missing anything.

 

[MikeyFresh]

The blue one? The connectors are 100% metal! 🧐

In that case the Audiophile Police are opening an inquiry, their summed mono special investigations unit. Use of a 75 Ohm video cable in an analog audio application is illegal in many jurisdictions.