My wife and I are smack dab in the middle of a full home renovation, and part of that renovation includes getting a bunch of new (to us) stuff for the house. SWMBO has wanted an antique/vintage console stereo/record player for one of the rooms, and so did I, because that frees up my current stereo rig for my future game/rec room. We've been on the hunt for the right one for months. These things typically come in two flavors:
-Ones that have the Mid-Century Modern vibe and look tasteful
-Ones that look like they belong in a brothel's bedroom somewhere in Madrid circa 1976
The MCM ones are more sought after for obvious reasons, and typically sell for a lot more than the later ones. Setting a budget of $100-less for one, we searched and searched, and kept missing good ones or getting shot down on offers.
Last night, minutes after the thing got posted, we secured a deal on one, and we grabbed it early this morning.
It's a Westinghouse H-M1711 from 1961. All-tube electronics, with an AM-FM receiver and a stereo turntable. Seller couldn't get the turntable to function, but he tested the power section and everything else works. While it doesn't have the crazy MCM designs we really wanted, it looks tasteful, and it's in incredible shape for the age. Westinghouse made a bunch of them in this style out of different woods, and this one is made of mahogany. It even came with all the original paperwork, warranty card, and manual.
And it's on the smaller side, and perfect for where it's going!
Check out the details:
The controls all work, and the pots aren't even scratchy!
See the triangles between 60 and 70 and 110 and 140? This is old enough to comply with the old CONELRAD broadcasts that would happen if the Cold War ever escalated into Global Thermonuclear War. I've seen these on cars, but never on a home stereo. Cool!
Not sure what brand turntable this is, but it's interesting. It has RPM speeds of 16, 33, 45, and 78. I've never seen anything with 16 before, and apparently, 16 RPM records were indeed a thing for a very short period of time in the late 50's. People also would play spoken word LPs at that speed to slow it down as well. Interesting. That said, the seller sold it cheap because it didn't function as it should.
At this price point, the stylus and/or cartridge are usually MIA, but both are present. The stylus is either reversible for 33/45 and 78RPM records, or at least hot-swappable. They desparately need a deep clean, as you can see, but touching the needle makes sound, so that's a great sign.
I wanted to see if the turntable belt was smoked, and to my surprise, there is no belt! I have only ever seen direct drive and belt-driven tables, and this was new to me. This has a friction disc that sits against the motor spindle and the platter. Adjusting the RPM drops the disc down to a different part of the motor spindle, multiplying the speed. Definitely an interesting way of doing things.
Problem was, the friction disc wasn't making proper contact with the motor spindle. I messed with it for a bit and the return system for the automatic record changer setup seemed to be the culprit. I popped the platter back on, and all speeds were present and accounted for!
And here's some pics from the seller:
As you can see, the tube chassis is super clean, and after messing with things, everything works. The one curious thing is that these had an optional FM "Multiplex" unit that this doesn't have. FM wasn't as prevalent as it is now, but if you had this unit, you could get broadcast stereo sound. It only gets mono sound over the radio. I think the only way to get one of those units (which plugs into the plug you see in the top of the pic above) is a time machine, but at least the turntable plays in stereo.
And where the LERN ME comes in: This is my first piece of electronics with vacuum tubes. It's also a "hot chassis" unit, and has a non-polarized plug. I want to be safe when working on it if I have to, and I know these things can severely hurt someone if you touch the wrong thing. I'd like to add Bluetooth to it somehow, but also don't want to mess with it too much, so I may explore just getting a FM modulator and broadcast it to the unit. Looking forward to learning more about this thing; it's cool!