Anyone here into vinyl?

[63getelevision]

Bundtboy, I have the same record changer in my 1963 GE Custom Decorator 19 inch TV-radio-phono. The same changer with the vacuum in it can be seen on "Leave It To Beaver" in a Danish console in the living room, to the right of the dining room entrance. June is playing a classical record on it, and Wally thinks it is funny that June is listening to music. That same console showed up on eBay and in our Fort Pierce GE dealer, used, or unsold stock, I saw it in the early '70s. Frigilux, I have the Collaro changer in three of my Magnavoxes, one portable, and two consoles. I love them. I want to get three GE ceramic cartridges, one for my GE, and a couple for the two consoles, if I can get a fair price on them. Yeah, I know they're no longer made, but I think $20.00 a shot would be fair. I'll get pics of the GE when I can get to it. Does anyone have any info on them? I've seen ads, and I saw another Custom Decorator in an antique mall in Ft. Pierce.

 

[drmitch]

Great machines! Bundtboy, where did you find the Perry Mason music? Heres a small one. I have a panasonic with a BSR turntable that I bought in highschool and I still use it to play my records.

 

[washabear]

Here's my Garrard Zero 100, with the infamous tangential tracking tonearm. What a contraption! It actually works pretty well, but the auto mechanism makes a clackety-clack as it goes through its cycle, as with most Garrards.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

I Forgot I had this!!

Yamaha P520 Fully Auto Direct Drive . I think I bought this
about 1989. A bit dirty; it's been on loan.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

It looks like I have another Voice of Music

Also on loan; A stunning Fidelis Console 566 A

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Stunning to Me, anyhow

Oh! I almost forgot! let me lift the lid for you~

 

[veg-o-matic]

Oooh, love that Fidelis!

veg

 

[whirlcool]

One of the most common questions I get asked on my turntable website is about 45 RPM records.

Some of them play fine and the automatic return rejects the tonearm when the song is finished playing. But some 45's will reject the tonearm early. Usually this happens with long songs put on 45 RPM records. The Rolling Stones "Satisfaftion(I can't get no)" at 5 minutes is one of these.

The cure? Back when 45's were made, the record companies didn't really care about quality, just making a buck. So the lead out grooves weren't always in the same place from record company to record company and song length to song length. On some higher end turntables, the reject adjustment screw is not easy to adjust and you can really knock a turntable out of adjustment by moving it. My advice is to live with it. Usually a person only has two or three 45's like this in their entire collection. Fortuantely on cheaper turntables, it's an easy fix.

Has anyone here encountered these problems?

 

[djmjlcst]

vinyl junkie!

Hey - I'm a vinyl junkie from way back when. I have over 5000 45's and several thousand LP's/12" singles too! The 45's go nicely in the jukeboxes that I have! Why worry about changing records when you can just punch buttons to hear your favorite tunes! I've also been reading the threads on this topic! Seems that there are several of us that still own record players/stereos/turntables, etc.! I agree that the Magnavox Record Changer from Collaro was the Rolls-Royce of all of them out there! I still have three component Magnavox turntables and several years ago I gave my parents a nice 1969 Astro Sonic console stereo with AM/FM and record changer. It still works well! I'm a DJ and have the typical DJ set up of two Technics SL-1200MK2 turntables, one Technics SL-5350 turntable, a Numark DM-1900 mixer, a Denon DN-D9000 twin CD player, a Denon DN-770R double cassette deck w/pitch controls for each deck, a Tascam CD-RW2000 recorder, a QSC MX-1500a amp, a QSC RMX-2450 amp, a Carver PM-1.5 amp, 1 pair of JBL 100t3 speakers, and 1 pair of Becker/Peavey DJ speakers.
I know you'll all want pictures so I'll see if I can get some taken and uploaded. Mike

 

[63getelevision]

Mike!!

Show me your Magnavoxes! I collect Magnavox from the '50s to the early '70s. I can't repeat that enough! Here again is my '59 Collaro in my Magnavox stereo tube set.

 

[tolivac]

Sometimes you see Technics SL1200TT's in radio stations-have set up and repaired many.Also SP-10's and Sp-25.Sometimes the radio stations still use them.And the TT's are still sold by broadcast equipment suppliers-IE Broadcasters General Store-still list TT's in their catalogs.In the agency I work at installed and tested all of their Technics SL-1200TT's in their studios-lets see 48 studios-2 TT's per studio-thats 96 of em!Was fun!played records to test them and used test records with test tones to set levels and tracking.As far as I know the TT's are still in use-installed them about 15 years ago before coming to the transmitter.Sadly no TT's out here at the transmitter site.

 

[63getelevision]

Adeste Fidelis

Hey Fronty, great VM console, is it on loan to you, or did you loan/lend (?) it out? I really dig the VM site, because of my numerous VMs. My favorite is like Bundtboy's "Larchmont". GE/VM changer in the later models has "Tonal 1" floating pick-up, larger than the one on the "Micro Touch" 2 gram tonearm.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Loaned To/From

Alan it is loaned out. I obtained it when I was in a transition period living with the parental units about ten years ago. My personal space was limited so I asked a friend to keep it for me ; I happened to be spending some time at his place earlier in the week. He has the Yamaha too.
NEXT UP : MORE ???

 

[63getelevision]

1958 RCA Victor Living Stereo Promotional

Do you have seven and a half minutes to spare? This is pretty interesting. You could get a "Sounds In Space" stereo LP from RCA Victor to show off your new Victrola.

 

[jasonl]

The only thing so far in my "collection" is my Magnavox stereo and a box full of 45s. The most "Vintage" I've seen so far here are the 70s BSR equipped stereos. Yeah, that's good if I want to play my records off speed. Hopefully another Maggie, or VM might come my way so I can make it sing again. I'll move my computer out of the laundry room to make way for a console if I find one.

 

[63getelevision]

More record changers

I also have a non working, complete 1953 Zenith TV radio-phono that I've been trying to give away for two years. It has a 10 to 85 rpm Stroboscopic Cobra Matic changer. I can't keep it, it was abandoned in a wet house for 23 years. It is salvagable or restorable. I've repeated the whole story 5 times, no takers. Not trying to give it away this time, just telling the story. Here's a pic:

 

[whirlcool]

Speaking of front loading record players, back in the 50's you could buy a record player for your car. It had a strong spring suspension, and would play fine, until you hit a pothole!

Great idea, but not too practical!

 

[63getelevision]

Hi way Hi Fi

In '56, Chrysler Corporation offered a 16 rpm record player, that could be what you're thinking of. It went through '59, then they offered an RCA Victor 45 rpm player.

 

[bundtboy]

DORMIPHONE

It's a clock phonograph - not a clock radio. This is a 1951 model with a 1955 changer in it. Voice of music, and I think they only used that arm in '55. The flocking had come all off the table and I used stick on felt dots to form a mat, which actually works great.

This has one of those GE Telechron clocks with a set lever at every minute around the dial which turns on or off the device.

b

 

[bundtboy]

BSR POLK AUDIO PROJECT

Here I show you a 1960 BSR record changer. With this set I decided to replace the entire amplifer and speaker system with a 10 dollar thrift store Polk audio computer subwoofer & speaker system. It was easy, and the end result is a phonograph without 60 cycle hum that has much wider frequency response than before and is much more pleasant sounding than new. I was quite pleased with the organ transplant and would do it again.

This is a stereo phonograph, by the way, and uses a Ronette stereo Ceramic pickup, which has line-level output directly compatible with the analog input of the Polk system.

60 cycle hum has always annoyed me in every tube amp phono I've ever own since I was 5, and now I've got a nice phonograph from that era with no hum at all.

B

 

[bundtboy]

'muscular' tone arm

I've always thought this particular arm from BSR looks 'muscular'. I dig it, anyway. It's exactly like the one my pop bought for me used in 1968, only mine was in a Westinghouse phonograph.

b

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Bob Do an overhead of the DORMIPHONE

when you get a minute, please.
I would like to see that Tone Arm full on.
I've seen a few Dormiphones in my day, almost always with
Voice of Music changers. I missed out on one a few years
ago, but it had a manual changer; I had never seen one of those.

 

[bundtboy]

Dormiphone Arm close-up

This is the 1955 arm I was thinking is one year only. It has a typical looking VM rear end but the head shell area is rather square and large looking, with 3 stripes across the front end and a round knock out plug in the top which would accomodate the GE Variable reluctance pickup with the push and turn type stylus changer.

I also changed out the table because the 1951 version did not have a record hold down arm that would accomodate the 45 spindle. The original stabalizer arm fit over the small spindle and could not be used with the 45 adaptor spindle.

B

 

[bundtboy]

tri-O-matic

You can see this is basically a VM tri-O-matic changer.

B

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Thanks Bob

It never occurred too me that the little circle below the
lines was the knock out for the GE cartridge , but it makes perfect sense. I have several changers with that tone arm ;
I'm not sure that they are all 1955 though. I'll post some
soon.

 

[63getelevision]

Bettie Page

This record album would be worth several dollars if it were mint. Cats shredded the upper left corner. Fabulous 1950's phenom Bettie Page models on the cover of this tepid toe-tapper.

 

[bundtboy]

my only magnavox

That's a cool looking cover, GE. How's the music? Is that a low budget label like Colortone or Golden-Tone hi-fi? Looks like a fun one.

My only Magnavox is this 1926 Loudspeaker, which I do believe was the first dynamic loudspeaker offered from Magnavox.

B

 

[bundtboy]

ad for the magnavox

Here's the original Saturday Evening Post advertisement for the same Magnavox speaker.

b

 

[63getelevision]

Bundtboy, is the GE Larchmont a stereo console with what looks like a bookcase cabinet on top with the drop down player and radio? There are some of those on eBay. I have a BSR changer in a '60s Westinghouse stereo with swing out speakers. I know it is possible also to wire a stereo pickup into a mono set, to safely play stereo records, monophonicly, of course. I almost died when the Westinghouse handle broke and it went crashing into the terrazzo floor. Only thing that broke was the handle. I wish I had my first GE stereo back, I got it from my best friend about 35 years ago. Had the Tonal 1 floating pickup, what a great VM changer. The set in the center is a Philco, part of the right speaker is included. Need a period Philco/VM changer in factory base. Cheapie Westinghouse 1970 on top.

 

[rickr]

1965 Magnavox

Here it is. Bob requested a pixs. I had a shot of the interior, but cannot seem to find it. Will post, if I can locate.