Montgomery Ward Airline Wi-Fi Hi-Fi
We picked up this very cool Montgomery Ward Airline AM/FM radio with a record player on Craig's list from the son of the original owners. Every bit of original instructions, packaging, tags & paperwork were included. It was in great shape, and it still worked. The turntable didn't spin at the correct speed, but that just added to the drunken, Tom Waits vibe of the original piece.
While the tubed radio and amplifier both worked well, I really wanted to be able to play Internet radio streams and our iTunes catalog through the unit. I decided to leave the Hi-Fi in as original condition as possible. Since the Swankpunk way is to have both retro style and modern convenience, I immediately researched a new amplifier unit. I found this well rated, 20-watt amplifier on Amazon.com for $20. While this certainly doesn't look at all Swankpunk, with a footprint of less than 5" x 6", I would have no problem hiding this modern technology somewhere on the unit.
The Airline Hi-Fi has a single 10" speaker, which was undamaged. So I wired the amplifier outputs directly into the speaker inputs. I decided to join both left and right stereo outputs at the speaker. After asking Reddit whether or not I needed more electronics to do this, I decided to just wire them together for now. As more experts comment on the Reddit thread, I may end up adding some electronics to protect both the amplifier and the speakers.
We decided to mount the amplifier inside of the record player drawer. This way we can turn the unit on/off and adjust the volume by opening the drawer only a couple of inches. Since I never plan on using the turntable, I was able to hide the wires by channeling them under the turntable platform.
For audio input I purchased a $99 Apple Airport Express unit and mounted it to the back of the Hi-Fi. This generation of Airport Express is not only designed to support remote speakers (the black wire in the photo below), but it also can extend the Wi-Fi network in your house if you have a compatible Wi-Fi base station.
The sound is quite warm and more than adequate for our purposes. It is nice to be able to adjust treble and bass right from amplifier. It's a bit (very) mushy in the mid-ranges, but the large cabinet gives a great bass resonance that's full without being loud. True audiophiles would want to replace the speakers with something more modern, but the existing speaker is just perfect for our purposes.
That was it as far as hardware modifications. The unit would still work perfectly as a 1950s tubed radio and record player, but it also could now serve as external speakers for my iTunes library.
The rest of the configuration was in software. First, I downloaded the Apple Remote app for our iPad & iOS devices. This app allows you to play music through any connected speakers in the house and also adjust the volume of any speakers on the network.
I am quite impressed with the new remote app from Apple. We've taken quite a bit of time to convert our library from CD to iTunes, and this app really makes our iTunes library available to us without having to sit down in front of the computer. The interface is the most intuitive and easy-to-use I've ever used for remote music. And the way the app chooses background colors for the album tracks list directly from the colors in the cover art is both amazing and delightful.
We hope this little Swankpunk how-to inspires you to rescue beautifully crafted old audio equipment furniture and bring it into the 21st century with style. And if you're looking for the perfect soundtrack to play through your new Hi-Fi, you can't go wrong with SomaFM's Illinois Street Lounge. Cuckoo!
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