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

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.
 
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.
ta VIv i remember them mom had one like this,as you say megga dosh:grinning:1606385724047.png
 
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.

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.
 
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.
yours was the GT model:grinning:
 
The thing about the early BSR autochangers, which covered 78s, 45s and 33 and 1/3ŕds, they were fine on the LPs OK on the EPs, provided you did not need an adaptor, but hated 78s, especially 12inch ones. I think it was to do with the weight of them. Can still hear Hamp and All The Things Ýou Are, blasting through the house and Dad saying...that bloke still practising?

Bob
 
We still have ten boxes of LPs & 78s that we brought over when we moved nearly 16 years ago and have never been opened since, together with several boxes of VHS tapes, and 14 Betamax tapes of stuff recorded from the TV, & the huge Betamax player. I tried one out a few years ago and it was mainly newsreels! I really don't want to waste a week of my life going through that lot. :)

Maurice :cool:
 
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.
Viv, I remember stacking the LP’s.......The problem I had was they took so long to play I would always be changing them if not the order they were in but what I wanted to listen too. We never played 78’s because my sister or I had broken them!
 
In 1960's we were into high density chipboard to build our own speakers with woofers and tweeters and I think a belt driven deck. Could it have been Gerrard?
I still have a JVC stack system with stereo speakers although the deck has been in the loft for twenty years. Going back to the 1950's portable in #14 above one Christmas I took it along to school where our maths teacher introduced us to "proper" music. Mendelssohn's Hebrides had a more lasting effect on me than maths ever did.
 
We still have ten boxes of LPs & 78s that we brought over when we moved nearly 16 years ago and have never been opened since, together with several boxes of VHS tapes, and 14 Betamax tapes of stuff recorded from the TV, & the huge Betamax player. I tried one out a few years ago and it was mainly newsreels! I really don't want to waste a week of my life going through that lot. :)

Maurice :cool:
Maurice, not sure where you are but in the US old records, in good shape or condition are quite valuable. New and old turn tables are showing up in many places, particularly where I am in the Nashville area!
 
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