** A huge Yamaha PC-8 joins the pile - local find ** :-)

Hi Guys & Gals,

Been a bit quiet around here lately Re Boombox finds. All that changed when I stumbled across a local Ebayer seller clearing out his hi fi and boomer collection. The only catch with this guys' auctions was that all successful bidders were only allowed to pick up their purchase from his house on one particular day - today!!

He had a Yamaha PC-8 (1984 approx) for auction for a while but no takers bid with a $100 starting price. He dropped it to $50 starting bid with a $75 BIN.

I threw him a cheeky offer of $40 which was accepted. The Yammie sure is a big beast and super heavy too!! All controls needed cleaning. The deck ffwds and rewinds fine but play is slow so a service is obviously due.

I always thought the PC-9 was the PC-8s big brother but the PC-8 has almost twice the output power and is a speaker box width wider than the PC-9!

I pulled it down enough to spray the switches and sliders. The tipless antenna was replaced with an identically sized RX-C45 antenna.

The tuner is now working great. The phono in sounds great too.

Just got to get into the 3 motor deck to see what's what. Thankfully the speakers have cloth surrounds so no rotten foams! The 10 D cell battery compartment looks unused and corrosion free.

Any of you guys rebelted a PC-8?? Any advice on the best access method would be appreciated.

I'll update this thread with full internal pics etc when I sort out the deck. You've got to see to believe the huge alloy heat sink in this bad boy.

Here's a few pics prior to a full detail:
View attachment 23721View attachment 23722View attachment 23723View attachment 23724

Very nice! I've always been interested in that model. It's pretty powerful (minimum of 15 watts per channel between 50Hz and 20KHz, into 4 ohms at 10% THD).

Be interesting to compare it with a Telefunken HP800

Dear me, you did extremely well there so congrats. I feel you bouncing around the room from here in UK!

The best thing is that unlike some of the competing products of the time, it takes 10 Ds (not 8) so it can still crank 13 watts RMS per channel on DC. Pretty close to the 15 watts on AC!
With 80 watts draw, I don't think batteries are going to last long though!

It's sounding better the more I use the 5 band equaliser and volume controls.

I was thinking for $40 bucks with local pick up, it was worth the risk.

James....

What a cracking way to spend $40! I think thats about £30 here, a steal! Quite unusual to and the tape deck looks quality.

Gratz mate.

I wouldn't want to try and carry it loaded with batteries!

$40

Cleaning and re-belting is to be expected with everything I buy, but a full logic system in that condition....I will say it again

that's a great radio , almost like it more than the pc 55 , 55 has too much electronic bullshit to go wrong .

The sound has been improved markedly since servicing all the sliders and switches. The only 'problem' is that the sound was distorting a little too early when turning up the volume. I knew this model had a powerful amp so these speakers really should be thumping.

I hooked up the original speakers to a tri path amp to see how they would sound with a brand new amp driving them. Well they sounded exactly like they did with the Yamaha - distorted.

I then hooked up some 6 ohm Sony home speakers to the Yammie for a quick test - all I can say is WOW!!! - massive bass, crystal clear highs and massively loud. No distortion was heard until the volume was up to 8/10! Fantastic amp in these PC-8! The huge top mounted heat sink really pushes some heat out of the top vents:View attachment 23738
View attachment 23734View attachment 23735View attachment 23736

After pulling the original speakers from the cases, I noticed the foam surrounds looked to have been replaced - the glue looks a bit messy - can't imagine Yamaha leaving it like that! I'm thinking the new foams are causing the distortion or maybe the coils were damaged by someone running them with perished surrounds!?

Replacement 12 cm speakers are never going to sound as good as the Sonys but I'm going to have to replace the factory speakers. I prefer to keep things original but the PC-8 deserves better sounding speakers.

The originals are 4 ohms but the PC-8 is driving the 6 ohm Sonys with ease so either a 4 ohm or 6 ohm replacement should be ok. View attachment 23737

thats a bad ass radio and i would not feel one bit bad about finding better woofers especially in the 4ohm range because there are a few good ones to choose from. these are awesome boxes , i mean if anybody ever saw the pc 55 transformer its big enough to choke a dinosaur .

Geeze, look at how bent that speaker is....

I have never had the pleasure of hearing one of these units. I'm sure with the correct replacements, it's going to ROAR!

hell i would cut out the holes and put bigger speakers in , you can trim the face plate hole to match or just mount the speakers to the face plate .

The only correct size speakers I had lying around that had any chance of pushing some bass were a pair of 3.2 ohm drivers from a Hitachi TRK-9140. After comparing the two speakers, I found that the Hitachis were almost twice the weight (550 grams v 300 grams), and had bigger voice coils.

The Hitachis don't have the chrome caps and all but they are literally a drop in replacement.View attachment 23746View attachment 23747View attachment 23748

The power handling specs on the Hitachis is a little under what the Yamaha amp is capable of despite the more robust construction!?

Well how does it sound with the stealthy all black drivers? - simply amazing!!!!!!!!! These speakers never sounded this good in the TRK-9140!!

So far superior to the faulty Yamaha originals it's not funny. Big bass, clear highs - it even beats the RX-DT680 for bass and overall loudness!!

I think the previous owner let the PC-8 go cheap because of a suspected poorly performing amp in need of at least a recap. I must admit though that it is very rare to have the speakers the sole cause of poor performance.
So here she is after the transplant:

View attachment 23749View attachment 23750

With the all black speakers, the eye is drawn to the outer chrome rings that in turn makes the speakers look bigger than they really are.

Man, these really are a hairy chested, no bull crap, take no prisoners type of box. The amount of heat radiating from the heat sink is comparable to a home audio amp! ( Don't worry, it was pushing the heat before the speaker transplant)!

Guys, if you see one of these things around cheap, grab it. This Yammie is definately the best $40 bucks I've spent in a long time.

Crank ya later.

James....

jimmyjimmy19702010 said:

Man, these really are a hairy chested, no bull crap, take no prisoners type of box.

Click to expand...

in my opinion ****ing knight rider boombox , i love it!.

Thanks guys and gals! Here is a size comparison with an Hitachi TRK-9300:View attachment 23751
The Yammie with it's natural competitor the RX-DT680 - guess which one cranks harder and louder?
Although the 680 does have the tallest handle!

View attachment 23752
View attachment 23753

Time to take this thing outside to entertain the neighbours - I'm lucky even my elderly neighbours up the back must really love Hip Hop cause they've never complained!

Congrats for this good boombox!

Great job on that speaker swap, I like the look better with the all black woofers, I'd love to hear one of these in person. It looks like a quality built radio, congrats on the price tag too!

Tuner string pics as requested:

Jimmy are you able to read the code number on the amp chip(s) ?