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Korting Constellation 33/88?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 3:53 pm
by humeurs
OK,

After an exhaustive look on the wide world of web, I cannot find an answer. Perhaps I should have looked closer to home first?

Anyone here ever see tube with a VU meter (piece of tape?) right on the tube??
I am the proud owner of an old 60's Korting Constellation tape Deck. Reel to reel 1/4 tape with speakers built in and two input tubes.
I didn't know these were tubes when I first looked at them. The machine has a slit cut open enough to display this piEce of tape, but once I opened it up I realised the VU was ON the tube.

Understandably, the hotter the tube, the more white the tape VU gets, but has anyone ever seen this sort of thing before??

Does anyone know if attachments are available for those oldschool input types? 5 prong and 3 prong 60's style Microphone inputs? I would like to try using some of my own mics as opposed to those old plastic ones.

:)

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:40 am
by Mathieu Benoit
This is an Alain or Thom kinda question... Let me email this to Alain to see if he can respond.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:10 pm
by Jef
Drumwaiter wrote:This is an Alain or Thom kinda question... Let me email this to Alain to see if he can respond.

I shall also forward to Thom.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 12:27 pm
by humeurs
Thx guys!
The tube thing is actually pretty neat - OH! On hold and just got a musak version of Michelle byt the Beatles. Awesome. - anywho, yeah the tube thing is neat. As for the inputs, I could take a whack at replcing them with XLR and 1/4 outputs, but I just wanted to see what was out ther before hacking at it. My soldering skills are minimal at best.

I think I'm going to wrok at getting an avatar for this site. fun!

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:15 pm
by Jef
Got email back from Thom:
oddioguy wrote: The tube is a new one on me. I'd suggest further investigation....pictures or perhaps even a part number??
As for the sockets, sounds like you are describing circular DIN connectors which were fairly common on European gear even into the '70's. As for a wiring convention, I'm unfamiliar with any standards, so here's a Wiki link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_connector
I'd say "experiment"....you can't hurt anything.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 4:23 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
Pics would help us, help you.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 6:51 pm
by roachie
I don't know anything about this section of the forum... just wanted to let y'all know.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:26 am
by Malcolm Boyce
E-mail from Gordie Miller:

Gordie wrote:I have seen these tubes before, mainly on old grundic tape decks. Dont know
if I have any but will look.
Those old mic inputs I used at cfbc and cbc in the 60s. (Canon connectors)
They had to be big cause the wire was monsterous/
you had to have a 2000 watt solder iron to make the connections. The
solder then was at least 1/8th thick.


Any of this help on the connectors identity?

http://www.soundfirst.com/xlr.html

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 9:41 am
by humeurs
Pics!

Here's the beast in it's glory. Dusty and smells like an old suitcase.
Image

This is the tube VU I was talking about. These white strips go from gray to pink depending on the amount of input is being sent to the tubes. One for each channel.
Image

Here are the mic inputs...
Image

And the headphone etc ... I don't have a pic of the back, but the outputs are closer to the 3 prong that is in a link above.
Image

**add*** I'll take the top off and get the tube models. They appear to be working nicely, but I have never seen the likes before. I'm looking forward to trying to get this working up to speed! I feel like I should be recording my pals with a fiddle and banjo with it at a flea market.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:56 pm
by Malcolm Boyce
Those do look like DIN connectors. Are they all 5 pin, or some 3 and some 5?

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:14 pm
by macrae11
Definitely DIN connectors. They all look like 5 pin to me. If they're anything like most DIN wiring these days pins 2, 3, and 4 are the only ones doing anything. The other two are either redundant, or not even hooked up.

From memory it's 2-cold 3- hot 4- ground.

That could be way off though.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:55 pm
by humeurs
macrae11 wrote:Definitely DIN connectors. They all look like 5 pin to me. If they're anything like most DIN wiring these days pins 2, 3, and 4 are the only ones doing anything. The other two are either redundant, or not even hooked up.

From memory it's 2-cold 3- hot 4- ground.

That could be way off though.


This makes sense! Some of the crappy plastic mics that I have for it only have 3 pins-male!

Malcolm Boyce wrote:Those do look like DIN connectors. Are they all 5 pin, or some 3 and some 5?


The only 3 pin-female connections that I can see are the ones on the back for the outputs.

I recorded (poorly) some acoustic ramblings to it the other night and it certainly has it's own sound.
This weekend if I have the time I may try to fit these two inputs with XLR conenctions. This sort of thing can be done , right ?

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 3:59 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
humeurs wrote:This weekend if I have the time I may try to fit these two inputs with XLR conenctions. This sort of thing can be done , right ?


So long as you know the pin-out, shouldn't be a problem. You just have to make sure that your hot goes to hot, ground goes to ground as so on. I can't see the pictures of what you are talking about at work. But I'll have a look when I get home.

I'd offer a hand or a shop, but I think Alain and I are busy this weekend testing/troubleshooting our onboard patchbay.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:28 pm
by humeurs
Drumwaiter wrote:
humeurs wrote:This weekend if I have the time I may try to fit these two inputs with XLR conenctions. This sort of thing can be done , right ?


So long as you know the pin-out, shouldn't be a problem. You just have to make sure that your hot goes to hot, ground goes to ground as so on. I can't see the pictures of what you are talking about at work. But I'll have a look when I get home.

I'd offer a hand or a shop, but I think Alain and I are busy this weekend testing/troubleshooting our onboard patchbay.


No worries, I'm appreciative for the help on this forum in general. My knowledge on this stuff exists, but it's far from forte yet.
If I even get the cahnce I'll likely to a trial and error scenario and learn a ton by doing this.

If I'm ambitious enough I'll post pics of my progress if anyone cares to see that sort of thing.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:30 pm
by Mathieu Benoit
humeurs wrote:If I'm ambitious enough I'll post pics of my progress if anyone cares to see that sort of thing.


Please do!