I spent last Friday with the amazing Mister Jalopy of Hoopty Rides and he showed off his latest build: a wireless computer / hi-fi system built in an old stereo cabinet. It's a fantastic device — you can play LPs on the turntable and convert them to MP3s with the built in Mac Mini. Mister Jalopy has written an article about the making of this thing for Make, and it will appear in the next issue of the magazine.
It all started when I wanted to hear Dinah Washington's version of Drinking Again. And I hate buying iTunes songs as I know the DRM will eventually bite me in the ass. De-authorizing. Phooey. And why spend $13 on a CD when you could build a wildly complicated mega machine to digitize records? This is what passes for logic at Hooptyrides.
Inside that $15 Farnsworth radio cabinet is a Sansui tuner, a replacement Panasonic turntable, a Griffin AirShark, an 8 port USB hub, a cheap-o LCD panel, a Griffin iMic, a Griffin Powermate, a Logitech wireless keyboard transmitter, a power strip, a Griffin AirClick, a Sony bookshelf speaker, a Mac Mini and enough patch cables to encircle the world 7 times.
