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Stereos, Hi-Fi’s, Record Players, Gramophones

Vivienne14

Vivienne14

Kentish Brummie Moderator
Staff member
Remember them ? Over the years we had one or the other of these. Our very first one was a Decca record player. It was grey/blue tones and cream, and had four of those typical 1960s tapered legs. Loved to stack up the ‘singles’/45s - could you stack no more than 8 singles ? Our first single was “ My Old Man’s a Dustman” by Lonnie Donnegan. What a dreadful record ! But it was Christmas and the record player made that one a very modern Christmas.

Did I imagine it, or could you get a second speaker for this record player ? I feel sure we later got one, or maybe it was wishful thinking to turn the mono sound into stereo. The one below was the exact model we had. Viv.ED890070-74AA-491E-824C-6BD10C6AEF08.jpeg
 
In the late 50's we got an RGD gramophone. It had a great radio and Garrard turntable that was super when it worked which was almost never! We had the 45 adapter which was supposed to stack 8 discs but never worked with more than three...........

Now my grandchildren laugh when I ride an exercise bike with Bose headsets and an 80GB iPod! which has at last 5 books on it and cant think how many albums and only need to charge every four or five days. And only 30% of its capacity is used!

I guess we have come a long way! Happy Thanksgiving from the US.............
 
Vivienne14 said:
Remember them ? Over the years we had one or the other of these. Our very first one was a Decca record player. It was grey/blue tones and cream, and had four of those typical 1960s tapered legs. Loved to stack up the ‘singles’/45s - could you stack no more than 8 singles ? Our first single was “ My Old Man’s a Dustman” by Lonnie Donnegan. What a dreadful record ! But it was Christmas and the record player made that one a very modern Christmas.

Did I imagine it, or could you get a second speaker for this record player ? I feel sure we later got one, or maybe it was wishful thinking to turn the mono sound into stereo. The one below was the exact model we had. Viv.View attachment 150500
Click to expand...
no it was a record player with a little 2 valve and one condenser single channel amp, a speaker matching transformer to around 3 ohms driving the single speaker if you did wire another speaker in,you would still have mono, and very low volume. later models did have 2 channels. thats like 2 amps.1 for left speaker the other for right speaker.

At first we had a vanity case dansette. complete with 1 record of long john baldry.

Connecting multiple speakers to your HiFi amplifier
1606324695611.png
 
In the mid sixties records were so popular that when I worked at A T Gittins (Lucas Agents) in Irving st, we used to fit record players in cars. They were made by Radiomobile/Motorola. They were suspended under a car's dashboard on a multi-spring base. They were never successful.
 
Bob Johnson said:
In the mid sixties records were so popular that when I worked at A T Gittins (Lucas Agents) in Irving st, we used to fit record players in cars. They were made by Radiomobile/Motorola. They were suspended under a car's dashboard on a multi-spring base. They were never successful.
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last one i saw one in a car it was in Laurel and Hardys car.lol how did they stop the arm skidding Bob:grinning:
 
I had a red and cream Dansette record player for my 11th birthday.
Before that my Dad had an old fashioned cabinet gramophone which played 78s, I don't know what make it was. I do remember the needles had to be changed quite regularly!
 
Well at least there was a Birmingham connection with BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) with many of these autochangers, including Dansette, incorporating them. They had a factory at Cradley Heath and at one time employed over 2,000 people. Whether they had any premises actually in Birmingham, I don't know. Over the course of their life they acquired Goblin (vacuum cleaners), Bulpitts, and Judge (cookware). More details are here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Sound_Reproducers

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Well at least there was a Birmingham connection with BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) with many of these autochangers, including Dansette, incorporating them. They had a factory at Cradley Heath and at one time employed over 2,000 people. Whether they had any premises actually in Birmingham, I don't know. Over the course of their life they acquired Goblin (vacuum cleaners), Bulpitts, and Judge (cookware). More details are here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Sound_Reproducers

Maurice :cool:
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Great article Maurice, how swiftly the changes came after the mid seventies, I wonder where we are going?
 
I had a BSR Monarch record player in late 1954. I know I had four 78 records from Lewis's for just less than £1. I think one was Rock around the Clock, Bill Haley. When closed the case looked like a piano accordion which prompted our neighbour to ask if I could play it, a few days later she came around to see for herself, I plugged it in and put a record on. What else was I suppose to do?
 
sospiri said:
Well at least there was a Birmingham connection with BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) with many of these autochangers, including Dansette, incorporating them. They had a factory at Cradley Heath and at one time employed over 2,000 people. Whether they had any premises actually in Birmingham, I don't know. Over the course of their life they acquired Goblin (vacuum cleaners), Bulpitts, and Judge (cookware). More details are here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Sound_Reproducers

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...
Maurice
Thanks for that fascinating. One day Dad arrived home and a few hours later a brand new Radio Stereogram with a 10 record BSR autochanger. First LP played on it was Lionel Hamptons Paris Jam Sessions......for days.
Moved with me when I got married, then down to Devon and still working well, I sold it in 1975.
Bob
 
I notice that most adverts for record players didn’t have legs attached. Maybe it was an optional extra. Photos of young people of the time tend to show the record player on the floor. But the legs proved useful in our house because we used to prop LPs up against them. I remember my mums collection of albums from musicals sitting there; South Pacific, West Side Story, Oklahoma, The King and I - and I knew the words to pretty well all of those albums !

I don’t remember being able to stack LPs on the auto-changer. Was that possible ? Don’t think we ever stacked them.

I don’t remember ever playing 78s on our record player. Maybe mum got rid of them when we got the Decca record player. Viv.
 
A Sparks said:
I had a red and cream Dansette record player for my 11th birthday.
Before that my Dad had an old fashioned cabinet gramophone which played 78s, I don't know what make it was. I do remember the needles had to be changed quite regularly!
Click to expand...

gosh that brings back memories sparks...we had one as well same as this one HMVrecord player.jpg....we didnt bring it with us when we moved from villa st mores the pity..
 
sospiri said:
Well at least there was a Birmingham connection with BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) with many of these autochangers, including Dansette, incorporating them. They had a factory at Cradley Heath and at one time employed over 2,000 people. Whether they had any premises actually in Birmingham, I don't know. Over the course of their life they acquired Goblin (vacuum cleaners), Bulpitts, and Judge (cookware). More details are here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Sound_Reproducers

Maurice :cool:
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yer our maurice you could buy a brand bsr new deck for a tenner from a shop in hurst st
 
i remember there was a wind up one in my grandads shed in derby. i took it apart for the motor to play with.
when i was a child and i and still wrecking things....,if it aint broke leave it alone:(
 
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sospiri said:
Well at least there was a Birmingham connection with BSR (Birmingham Sound Reproducers) with many of these autochangers, including Dansette, incorporating them. They had a factory at Cradley Heath and at one time employed over 2,000 people. Whether they had any premises actually in Birmingham, I don't know. Over the course of their life they acquired Goblin (vacuum cleaners), Bulpitts, and Judge (cookware). More details are here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Sound_Reproducers

Maurice :cool:
Click to expand...

Well done Maurice you have just answered a question I have been pondering with since my mom bought this record player back in 1965. The make was Fidelity, but it said BSR on the deck: BSR - Birmingham Sound Reproducers.

It had several settings setting too, 78 and a few others that I cannot remember.
 
Pete,

Yes, and if you shopped around a bit, you could get them for nine quid odd! And moving slightly off topic, the Collaro tape deck was about £14 if I remember right, but with cheap asynchrous motors, they soon developed lots of wow & flutter.

But not a good idea to stack records, Viv, a bit of accidental dust and grit soon put scratches on them.

Yes, Mort, 78 rpm for the old shellacs, 45 rpm for the 45's, 33 & 1/3 rpm for the LP and when the talking books first came out they they were on 16 & 2/3 rpm, but it was rare to see that speed included on the cheap players.

Maurice :cool:
 
I remember having to move a button - I think on a slider - to play singles or LPs. We had a choice on our Decca of 33 and1/3 rpm or 45 rpm. Don’t remember a 78rpm. We had a few EPs - at that time I think distinguished by having a photo cover. Singles were in a paper sleeve. When the paper sleeves got worn or ripped we bought cardboard sleeves for them. Viv.
 
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That reminds me of a ‘Music Centre’ we had in the 1970s. It had a turntable and a cassette player all on one deck. Think it might have been a Sony (I know it was very very expensive at the time). The big plus about this was you could easily make cassette tapes from records. So you could mix your own tapes direct from the records of your choice. I made loads of tapes of all my favourites and of course you could exclude those tracks that you didn’t like on an LP. Then played them on the Walkman. Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
That reminds me of a ‘Music Centre’ we had in the 1970s. It had a turntable and a cassette player all on one deck. Think it might have been a Sony (I know it was very very expensive at the time). The big plus about this was you could easily make cassette tapes from records. So you could mix your own tapes direct from the records of your choice. I made loads of tapes of all my favourites and of course you could exclude those tracks that you didn’t like on an LP. Then played them on the Walkman. Viv.
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ta VIv i remember them mom had one like this,as you say megga dosh:grinning:1606385724047.png
 
sospiri said:
Yes, Mort, 78 rpm for the old shellacs, 45 rpm for the 45's, 33 & 1/3 rpm for the LP and when the talking books first came out they they were on 16 & 2/3 rpm, but it was rare to see that speed included on the cheap players.
Click to expand...

Thats it Maurice thanks. I never found a record that played at 33 1/3 so did wonder about this.
 
Very similar Pete ! Ours had a lot more silver trim. Looked good, even by today’s standards. Had a great sound to it too. Never really understood how to get the best from the graphic equalizer thingys, just used to press a few buttons and twiddle a few knobs ! Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Very similar Pete ! Ours had a lot more silver trim. Looked good, even by today’s standards. Had a great sound to it too. Never really understood how to get the best from the graphic equalizer thingys, just used to press a few buttons and twiddle a few knobs ! Viv.
Click to expand...
yours was the GT model:grinning:
 
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