OK Boomer Melds Old and New Tech...

I still have an old school type stereo. AM/FM receiver amp thing, dual cassette deck, turn table and big old speakers mounted on the wall. Those big old speakers are the only original component left from 1978 which was the year of purchase. 

!978 was a year where I was a single guy with a good union job making long green buying big stereos  and seemed like things were probably never going to change and then just like over night things are all different. One of the things that got different over the years besides the fact that we got a piece of plyboard, hung it from the ceiling with swag lamp chains and put the turntable on it so the needle wouldn't jump around when we did was music and the technology to listen to it.  

I'm pretty good with that Bluetooth technology where you link a speaker up to your phone and listen to music. Most of the time I use it to listen to my favorite radio station WWOZ. I had another portable speaker, battery powered or plug it in that had a radio transmitter antenna that would broadcast a signal from the home stereo for outdoor listening of records and cds. At least I used it outdoors and it was not a good weather proof apparatus but it did service for an embarrassing number of years. Before this I had wires tucked here and there running all around to outdoor speakers. A hardwired system. 

So I gets to thinking, can I convert this old system to Bluetooth? Can I listen to all my Jo Stafford and Chet Baker records outdoors? You can with this little thing in the darkened photo by a company called Misscus that plugs into the headphone jack of your AM/FM receiver. It costs $40 and transmits anything played on the home stereo, records, cds, cassettes, Astros games and so on to the Bluetooth speaker.  

Here's the Bluetooth speaker. Weather proof, water proof, indestructible, rechargeable, leave it outdoors it embodies the reasons I don't buy expensive Martin or Gibson guitars. Be aware it does seem to do it's best about 20' from the receiver. I don't know if being in contact with the house itself has anything to do with broadcast but in addition this location is 20' from where I stand to fry fish so like back when I had that union job seems like nothing needs to change at least for right now.  

A camera shot from the backdoor where the speaker resides into the music room to give you the idea of range. At least I call this the music room. I don't know what the grandkids call it. They spend a lot of time in here because this is where all the various drums are kept and those not yet big enough to sit on a stool and pound the skins can at least amuse themselves with pulling all the cds out of the racks. 

With the kids jumping around in here maybe I need one of those hanging turntable things to keep the needle on records from skipping but with the price of lumber today it would probably cost more to make than the $40 Bluetooth transmitter.