Old Newcomb phonograph memories

[lordkenmore]

This might be of interest to some here. I once had a Newcomb tubed phonograph. Possibly an old school phonograph. I just wrote and posted an piece talking about it on my audiophile audio equipment blog.

Remembering my old Newcomb phonograph

A "Throwback Thursday" memoir. When I was growing up, my mother and I often visited thrift shops. You never knew what great treasure mi...

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[joeekaitis]

Newcomb, Rheem Califone, . . . How many more have faded into the sunset?

 

[toploader55]

WOW !!!

 

Haven't thought about these since High School and Grammar School.

 

[lordkenmore]

>Newcomb, Rheem Califone, . . . How many more have faded into the sunset?

Well, Califone exists--at least the name does--and they have a phonograph on their site:

http://www.califone.com/products/1005.php

But yes, the school phonograph has probably mostly faded into history. I assume many schools have a record collection of precisely zero now.

For that matter, they almost never used the phonographs in my schools (mid/late 70s-late 80s. I have vague memories of them playing audio versions of children's books when I was in early elementary school. After that, I think they mostly collected dust. Records were almost never played in even music classes.

 

[tolivac]

The Caliphone and Newcomb machines bring back memorys!!!They had such a nice,clean sound.And the ones I used were tube.I especially liked a Necomb Stereo record player-PA that a square dance caller used when taking square dance lessons.It was tubed and really sounded better than many Hi-Fi systems of the era.I think its amps were like 35W per channel.Early DJ system??Would love to have one of those-Guess their grand deluxe.And Newcomb used to make very nice PA amps and sound consoles for schools,too.Today on YouTube we see comparisions of older Caliphone and Newcomb players against the JUNKY Chinese made "Crosley" players so pushed today.The old Newcomb or Caliphone,Rheem will beat any of those HORRIBLE new players!!!And last much longer-and to top it off-you can fix those older machines.Stereo records.Just put in a stereo cartridge and connect the channels as mono.You can then safely play your mono records.Or you can use a mono summing pad after the cartridge.That can give better sound.

 

[Dewey643]

Brings back memories for sure! We had both tube type units and later solid state units! The single speaker units had that huge 6x9 speaker,and I believe the stereo units did,too!

 

[cfz2882]

1983 caliphone

I have a brown caliphone made in 1983-it the same or close to the same as the one I used to listen to kiss,the cars and blondie on 1978/79 in school on certain days when we could use the recreation corner that had a couple beanbags,books and the caliphone phono.My caliphone has a 6x9"speaker driven by a little IC amp~1.5w I recon,amp runs on an aux winding on the motor field coil as is common for these phonos.Also have a few similar non-school,non ruggedized,late 40s/early 50s versions-tube amps of course,single big octal tube and a selenium rectifier

 

[brucelucenta]

Take a look on ebay, there are lots of them listed.

 

[lordkenmore]

I looked at eBay out of curiosity, and yes, a number listed. The surprising thing was that the prices on the completed auctions don't look quite as bad as I thought they might due to commentary elsewhere. I suppose it's all a matter of timing, though, and the current market conditions...

I've seen a few newer Newcomb phonographs pass through Goodwill. Not sure about the exact era, but they are brown case/solid state electronics that look similar--if not identical--to what my elementary school had in the 1970s.

 

[cfz2882]

played the califone

played some cars and blondie on the califone for old times sake model 1420k,1983 vintage.I had recalled that it had a 6x9 speaker,but actually appears to be a 5x7 behind a grille at the back(some of the ones at school were slightly larger than my model and had a 6x9 behind the perforated front panel.one cool feature I had forgot about is the little bulb under the end of the tonearm Made in LosAngeles,Calif.

 

[tolivac]

Califones,Newcombs-would love to have some of those-yes,school memories!!The idea of a "Q" light on a tonearm isn't new-Something that DJ's love!!Many commercial/broadcast tables sold today have such lights.--Or when these were sold-broadcast supply catalogs list FEWER TT's!!