Some vintage gadget enthusiasts have come up with a home-brew chemical gel that can be applied to yellowed plastic which restores it to its original colour. This wonderful sounding product’s called Retr0bright.

“We have now proved on several forums that plastics yellowing can be completely reversed in hours without damage using our mixture.”

There are a number of recipes on their Wiki. Thankfully all of the chemicals involved are easily obtainable (at least here in the UK) and all are safe apart from Hydrogen Peroxide, which is the main ingredient in hair bleach and is to be treated with respect. Be sure to wear gloves and goggles and work in a well ventilated room.

I was initially concerned about any chemical solution affecting the printing on the case, but then I saw this Lego piece in the Retr0Bright gallery, which is painted. The paint appears unaffected by the process:

Although the Problems and Pitfalls page on the site does show some examples of label fade, the printing on the PS-F5 is generally of good quality with a heavy black ink, so hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue, especially if the Sony’s not too yellowed, and therefore doesn’t require many applications.

There are other examples in the gallery with stickers and paint too, all of which suggest that it should be safe. Something I’m not sure about is whether the smoked transparent plastic on the front of the case would need to be removed prior to applying the gel. Maybe masking would be safest, attempting to remove the glued in smoked panel may cause breakage.

I’d like to give this a try, but would really appreciate it if anyone out there has a spare case (or piece of case, ideally one with some printing) for their PS-F5 that they’re willing to experiment on and report back to the site so I can let everyone know for sure that this works on our Sonys and is safe.

“There were an incredible number of people at first that said this was impossible – that was until they saw the pictures, then tried it and proved it for themselves. The usual reaction was ‘No way!’ then ‘WOW!!’.

“We’ve finally finished our shop move around which has made space for our lovely new expanded vinyl racking (a customer told us this morning that he’s no longer afraid of the vinyl section as it is now possible to browse without getting stressed out – so spread the word!).”

The revolution that killed Soho’s record shops

Thankfully, Brighton & Hove in the UK (where I live) seems to be going against the grain as usual (which is one reason it’s such a great place to live) and I have recently discovered two new record shops that have opened in the last year: Up Tight Records on Sackville Road in Hove (01273 774 832) and Monkey Music Emporium on Baker Street in Brighton (07814 955 217). Monkey Music is also selling a great range of quality turntables and Hi-Fi. Resident Music on Kensington Gardens in Brighton has also started stocking vinyl again.

Crosley announced that their Revolution was imminent back in January. They had a nifty animation on their homepage, but that was about it. Now it’s mid May and they finally have a product page for it with some further information and a price, but it’s still not available for purchase.

Points of note

• Costs US$149.95
• Belt driven
• Black
• Manual (you have to lift the arm off the record when it gets to the end of a record)
• Auto shut off (it stops when it gets to the end of a record)
• Body is made of ABS (plastic)
• Plays 7s & 12s @ 45 & 33
• Output is through 2 x 3.5mm audio jacks (like the PS-F5) with the addition of an internal ADC providing USB output
• FM Transmitter, so you can tune any FM radio into the turntable for use as an amplifier (much like the PS-F9 does)
• Software provided for ripping vinyl to PC/Mac
• Powered by 6 AA batteries (no mention of an AC adapter socket)
• Included carry case

Thoughts

Initially I thought it looked like it was made from painted pressed steel, which would have been good for durability, but sadly that’s not the case (did you know that both halves of the PS-F5′s chassis are pressed steel, with the outer plastic shell covering them?). Be interesting to read the reviews and real life reports once this has been used in the wild for a while.

Surprising Exclusions

Considering the market for these is likely to be largely made of second-hand-record-shopping-collectors and thrift-store-diggers, many of whom DJ, I’m surprised they didn’t include a pitch control for portable party action. The Vestax Handy Trax sported one and can be used to great effect:

It’s not like these are ever going to replace a pair of Technics, but a pitch control is a cheap and easy addition missed out on. It may well have an AC adapter socket, but there’s no mention in the current spec. Another cheap addition which it would be strange to exclude.

It’s good to see that there are people who think there’s still a market for a wide range of turntables. The market for vinyl is certainly refusing to roll over and die. Some are even hoping to take cues from the mighty PS-F5 and create something similar. I think that coming close would be a tall order in today’s “make it as cheap as possible” throwaway world, but you never know. Who would have predicted 20 years ago that there would be a Soundburger II released in 2010?

Update (2/6/10): Crosley have now added that the Revolution has a built in FM transmitter (just like the Sony PS-F9. Added the info to the bullet points above.

This looks to be a mighty fine example. I’ve seen worse go for more money on eBay. If you’re looking for a clean PS-F5 with all the trimmings (apart from a case & power supply) and have a spare 500 bucks to spend, this could well be for you.

The description reads “comes with original box,manual,rca cables,sony mdr-30t headphones,it plays record and sound good,clean battery compartment”

View the ad here

Need a new or better stylus for your Sony PS-F5 or PS-F9? Patrick Radzewitz has researched the options and written up his findings which are now available on the new Styli Page. Thanks Patrick!

Update (30/4/10):

Record Store Day a huge success

A PS-F5 on eBay in the USofA. The feet look like they might be broken (they shouldn’t be at different angles like in the photos) and the seller says that there’s no stylus to test it with, yet is looks like there’s one in the last picture.

1983 SONY PS-F5 LINEAR TRACKING STEREO TURNTABLE SYSTEM on eBay (end time 14-Apr-10 21:52:03 BST).