Month: September 2024

The Panasonic RX-DS20 was an awesome stereo in its day. With two 4 2.7ohm drivers it could belt out the tunes that could be heard two blocks down. It works on batteries or plugged in. How cool would it be to host a barbecue with this retro piece of audio history playing your game day playlist out in the backyard? It’s bound to be a great conversation piece forevermore. Besides, the Japanese make all the best stuff (as Marty McFly stated to Doc in the third Back to the Future movie). And it’s true! This model was designed to last pretty much forever, with maintenance. Over time the tape deck belts and some gears go sour. My favorite part about the Bluetooth functionality is that it allows you to record custom mixtapes from any device! That means you can take your killer Vietnam Rock playlist and stream it to the stereo while recording it on a cassette tape for later playback! I pulled out the almost three pounds of D cell batteries and replaced them with 6000MAh Lithium Ion rechargeable units and added an onboard charger with charge protection. You don’t need to do anything different. Just plug it in to the wall and the batteries will automatically recharge. The indicator light coming out of the back ventilation grille will turn red while charging and will turn green when fully charged. I ran the stereo on battery for a full day without going flat. Even ran the tape player for several hours with this setup. I estimate about 10-12 hours of continuous use with tape playing included. I believe it will easily last a full day at the park. NOTE: Because of interference produced by the charger, the radio is distorted when the stereo is plugged into the wall. You can get around this limitation by simply unplugging the stereo and run it on battery power. All other functions sound perfectly fine. I spent way too many hours replacing the belts and lubing the sliding parts in the cassette deck, replacing gears and cleaning all the surfaces inside and out. I also deoxidized the volume control and tone slider. I replaced most of the capacitors in the main audio/power circuits. After decades of use they tend to dry out and cause issues. This way your stereo will last decades into the future. Sourcing the Parts Through a lot of trial and error I was able to find the exact right bluetooth board that I liked (went through three other contenders). It’s very well built with quality materials and programming. The pairing process is idiot proof and will come with instructions on how to pair/unpair and troubleshoot. Bluetooth Switch I included a physical on/off switch located on the top of the stereo so you can avoid accidental pairing with your device when the stereo is turned on. It also allows for perfect audio when using the wired aux hookup in the back. After some regular use I noticed the range on the bluetooth wasn’t great. So I installed an external bluetooth antenna which sits on the upper back panel opposite the FM antenna so they don’t interfere with each other. The range I tested is about 100 yards now! I installed a voltage step down board to avoid voltage spikes protecting the bluetooth module and a ground isolator to prevent ground hum/static coming from the bluetooth board in the speakers. In all this thing has replacement parts and components sourced from as far as Slovakia to Canada. A truly international effort. I even sourced an original undamaged antenna as these things notoriously break if you don’t retract them properly. This original Panasonic ghetto blaster boom box is the perfect blend of retro coolness and sound combined with modern features that will always find good use. I use it myself every day but I knew I was going to sell it going in so I can’t be too sad. Flawless Bluetooth audio playback retrofit. Cassette tape player / recorder. External Bluetooth antenna for extended range. Cleaned and polished exterior. Guaranteed to work for a good long time. I see a lot of people modding their stereos to play bluetooth but they end up just ripping out all the guts and install a modern bluetooth speaker into the body. This, I believe, is lazy and disrespectful to the engineering that went in to these old devices. I meticulously restored this stereo and added some awesome playback features which are sure to impress. I know you are going to love this stereo.