Hello All

I've been reading a lot of the discussions on here since I've joined up and I want to thank all of you for all the information I've found. The end results are me now owning a 777 in almost mint physical condition. However, after going through many of the wonderful tutorials and experiences you've all posted I've fixed up all the internal issues (and learned to solder in the process) as well as replaced the woofers as the right one was blown. As per below:



The new speakers are Blaupunkt THc-172's. The end result is one I'm really pleased with and that most importantly sounds very, very nice indeed.

I've decided now that it's not 100% original stock parts to mod it further for mp3 playback. I've heard of mixed successes with using FM transitter adaptors and those cassette adaptors seem to have too many design flaws to be a really usable option.

The current plans I have involve making custom replacement grills for it that allow for either a 1st gen Ipod nano or an Iriver s10 to be mounted down the bottom where the grills meet. By making a small bracket to hold it in place and then making a hole inbetween the mic and heaphone sockets (made to look just like the others), then soldering a headphone wire to the internal Line-In connecters on the back and running the headphone plug itself through the newly made hole. Sorry if this sounds complicated and rambling, but it's the best I can do without pictures.

I've trawlled around ebay and lots of other sites that sell mp3 players and the designs just don't fit with the 777 at all. Theres little room up the top and I don't want to forfeit a cassette deck as they're in wonderful condition. The big question is whether it's worth hunting for some old 777 speaker grills (the ones I have are incredibly mint with zero dings or scratches, so they're to be left alone) or if I should make some custom ones. I can't imagine it being exceptionally hard (especially with my boosted confidence of successfully soldering the new speakers), but picking up some cheap less-than-perfect condition grills (if they exist) might be less bother.

I did have some grand designs of having replacement grills with some beautiful old skool graffiti on them, but that then contradicts the whole idea of making the mp3 player blend with the existing aesthetic.. still thinking about that.

On a big plus side, the iriver s10 has a wonderful spectrum-analyser type screen saver that would look very nice moving up and down to the music... the static ipod album art isn't nearly as interesting by comparison. I'll stop now so that I don't go on forever, but any suggestions in regards to making the custom grills/buying them 2nd hand or incorporating a semi-permanent mp3 player would be really appreciated.

Rock on.

Those Blaupunkts look gorgeous in that box! Keep an eye on eBay for the grills. Every now and then, one of the sellers from China will put a pair up for auction. Heck, it might even be a good idea to contact one of them and ask for help.

Welcome aboard!

Thanks very much Fatdog, I really appreciate your comments. I really wanted to 'carry' some of the silver from the top of the box down to the darker section to give a bit more balance to the look without being distracting. Very happy to see the decision worked.

I'll keep an eye out in my ebay travels, I'm in Australia so hopefully the postage won't be too diabolical from China. Thanks very much for the information. If I think of anything new, or bite the bullet on making the custom grills I'll post it up here.


Rock on.

If you ever think of putting reproduction labels on the grills, I can supply you with the necessary image files or ship some to you already printed.

hi there just buy one of theese it will save you modding the box with an unsightly mp3 player, it does pretty much the same thing, you just place it in the cassette compartment, best of all there are no unsightly wires in the way.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&it...=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=020

The new speakers on your sharp look great, i bet there is a great improvment.

And most of all welcome to stg.

Thanks rimmer36!

Are those cassette/mp3 dealies really useable? I'd have thought it'd pretty useless without a display or any way to program tracks or navigate what's on there beyond skipping to the next song. The quality of the build didn't seem too brilliant from the review on dealextreme.com either.

I'll keep it as an option, but still would prefer something a bit more functional. Thanks for the help.

Gluecifer, welcome and you did a great job with that Sharp. The blaupunkt's look awesome!

yes this cassette adaptor as shown on earlier reply are very very good great sound and yes you can skip tracks buy just pressing forward fast on yout sharp gf 777 , i have 2 of these cassette and they are really amazing , great sound quality , you wont tell it apart from a real mp3 player like ipod
at £10 its a must

mick

Welcome aboard Gluecifer. Now you have me wanting to switch out my stock woofer on my 919 for better bass response. I'd really like to hear the difference on someone else's box before I try it though. It looks superb. Very smart by staying with silver.

Man that looks great!!!
I would love to see them drivers in the center as well.
I wouldn't modify the grilles tho.
Fm transmitter or the digizette is the way to go.

Those have gotta be the best looking 777 replacement woofers I've seen so far!!