McMicheal 481U with an MP3 Player

[Morayfirthaudio]

Hi Again
Well firstly a massive Thank You to Brian who managed to get my Mum and Dads old McMicheal Radios up and running, the man is a Genius
Im truly Grateful
So The Old 481U, Working a Treat, but I tend to try and rig up an MP3 Player to make it work.
This has a strange system where you plug in the MP3 Player in the back, you tune it to I Think its MW, and then tune the radio until you find the signal. Ive never seen this before. But it doesn't sound great at all.
Ive done the Mod with my Bush Radio and the clarity is fantastic considering the age, but the McMichael really falls short. IS there anything you can think off which may tidy up the sound?
Because this is a live Chassis, I have a Capacitor on the + & - Sides, 630v 103J, to stop anything live from coming back into the MP3 Player.
Id love any help with this one if you could.
Thanks again
Glen

[Wellington]

Originally Posted by Morayfirthaudio

This has a strange system where you plug in the MP3 Player in the back, you tune it to I Think its MW, and then tune the radio until you find the signal. Ive never seen this before. But it doesn't sound great at all.Glen

Where exactly are you plugging in the MP3 player, Glen? Are you plugging into existing sockets or has the set been modified in some way? A photo would be good, if you can get one.

[Morayfirthaudio]

On this picture there are 2 hole to the left marked AE and E, Thats what Im plugging into

[Nuvistor]

If those AE and E sockets are marked correctly then it won’t work.
The safest answer is a pantry transmitter, a very low power transmitter that will only work a few meters from your set.
You would tune the radio into it and feed the transmitter with your MP3 player, no physical connections to the radio.
The 630v capacitors are not good enough, you require Y type for isolation but they are not the cause of your problem.

This is one .
https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=98221

[Wellington]

Hi Glen. On your McMichael radio, the 'AE' socket is for an AErial and the socket marked 'E' is for connecting the set to a convenient Earthing point. For example, your average listener may have had a long piece of wire connected to the 'AE' socket as their aerial, and the 'E' socket connected to a nearby water pipe as an earth. As you have discovered, connecting your MP3 player to these sockets will not produce good results (in fact, I'm surprised you heard anything)

When you connect your MP3 player to your Bush AC11, I imagine you do so using the 'Pick Up' sockets. 'Pick Up' or 'Gram' (short for 'Gramophone') sockets were a feature of many old radios, and allowed people to connect their gramophones or record players to the radio and listen to their records. MP3 players can be connected to these sockets, and as you have found out, you can experience the lovely sound these old radios are capable of making.

Unfortunately, your McMichael radio lacks a 'Gram' or Pick Up' socket. I'm not sure, but I think that this was probably done for safety reasons. I see that you're aware that your McMichael has the potential to have a 'live' chassis, and you took the precaution of connecting your MP3 player via 630V capacitors, but as Nuvistor says, these are not good enough.

It is possible to play your MP3 player through your McMichael radio, but it would involve a bit of soldering and would be difficult to do safely, I think. If I were you, I would stick to playing my MP3 player through my Bush AC11. Or you could go down the low power transmitter route described by Nuvistor.

[Morayfirthaudio]

Thanks Guys, Really appreciate all the advice. Believe it or not it actually works!! but its not an overly clean sound.
But I think your right, a small MW Transmitter is the answer
Thanks Guys once again.