Record changer
Encyclopedia
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.
History
The record changer with a stepped center spindle design was invented by Eric Waterworth of HobartHobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, in 1925. He and his father took it to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, and arranged with a company called Home Recreations to have it fitted in their forthcoming gramophone, the Salonola. Although the Salonola was demonstrated at the 1927 Sydney Royal Easter Show
Sydney Royal Easter Show
The Sydney Royal Easter Show, also known as the Royal Easter Show or simply The Show, is an annual show held in Sydney, Australia over two weeks around Easter.It is run by the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales and was first held in 1823...
, Home Recreations went into liquidation and the Salonola was never marketed. In 1928 the Waterworths traveled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where they sold their patent to the new Symphony Gramophone and Radio Co. Ltd.
Eric Waterworth built three prototypes of his invention and one of these was sold to Home Recreations as a pattern for their proposed Salonola record player. This prototype is now reported to be in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
The second prototype went to England with Eric and his father and was sold as part of the deal with the Symphony Gramophone and Radio Company. The fate of this machine is unknown.
The third prototype was never fully assembled and lay in pieces under the Waterworth home for something like sixty years. After the death of Eric Waterworth, his family found the dissembled parts of the machine and offered them to the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania. The offer was accepted and an enthusiastic member began the task of reassembling the prototype. It was found that a few small parts were missing but enough remained to complete the assembly to a crude working condition.
The prototype record changer is now on display at the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania resource centre in the Hobart suburb of Bellerive.
The first commercially successful record changer was the "Automatic Orthophonic" model by the Victor Talking Machine Company
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
, which was launched in the USA in 1927. On a conventional gramophone or phonograph
Phonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
, the limited playing time of 78 rpm gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s meant that listeners had to get up to change records at regular intervals. The Automatic Orthophonic allowed the listener to load a stack of several records into the machine, which would then be automatically played in sequence, providing a long uninterrupted listening session.
By the late 1950s, in the USA, Garrard and Dual dominated the upscale record changer market. From the late 1950s through the late 1960s, VM Corporation (Voice of Music
Voice of Music
Voice Of Music was the premier brand of V-M Corporation, an American audio equipment manufacturing company .-History:...
), of Benton Harbor, Michigan
Benton Harbor, Michigan
Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan which is located west of Kalamazoo. The population was 10,038 at the 2010 census. It is the lesser populated of the two principal cities included in the Niles-Benton Harbor, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a...
, USA, dominated the lower priced original equipment manufacturer (OEM) record changer market, in the USA. Most VM (Voice of Music) record changers were sold to OEM audio manufacturers, such as Zenith, placed in consoles, portable, and compact low to mid-priced stereo and mono systems. VM record changers, sold to original equipment manufactures, were not labeled with the Voice of Music trade mark on the record changer. Only VM record changers, retailed by VM Corporation, either as a component, or as a part of a VM phonograph, were labeled with the VM (Voice of Music) trademark on the record changer. Outside of the USA, VM record changers technology was licensed to several record changer manufacturers. Telefunken, of then West Germany, was one such company to sign a licensing agreement with VM Corporation. By the late 1960s (1968), BSR
Birmingham Sound Reproducers
Birmingham Sound Reproducers was a British manufacturer of record player turntables.Daniel McLean McDonald founded Birmingham Sound Reproducers as a private company in 1932 in the West Midlands of England, UK...
displaced VM as the world largest record changer producer, and dominated the OEM record changer market, also, in the USA.
Record changers were provided in most mid-priced consumer record players of the 1950s through 1970s. Record changers became rarer in the 1980s, mainly due to the introduction of the compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
.
Operation
The purely mechanical mechanisms of record changers were often very complex. Changers typically had an extended central spindle that the records were stacked on, and an extra arm designed to hold the stack steady. Some units had feelers that could detect the size of each record (standard sizes 7", 10", or 12") and position the tone arm accordingly. Some, including the changer pictured, used a variable size sensor which allowed sizes other than the three standard sizes to be played. (Note that the pictured Dual 1003 has four sizes loaded, and records sizes can be mixed in any order.) The more basic models required the record diameter to be set manually, and hence did not allow records of different sizes to be stacked together. The following devices were the most popular (with examples):Three size sensors:
- Size selector knob - no size intermix (BSR 1968 to 1973)
- Size and speed selector knob - no size intermix, some types can't be played automatically (Garrard after 1969)
- Rising feelers in or alongside turntable - no size intermix, but automatic sensing of size (PE after 1970)
- Falling record sensor - random intermix - sizes mixed in any order (BSR before 1968)
- Rising and falling record sensors - Intermix 10" and 12" records, 7" played separately (V-M 1950 to 1970)
- Unplayed stack sensor - Arranged intermix - large records before small (Webster Chicago 1950 to 1953)
- Unplayed stack arm tip sensor - Arranged intermix (Collaro/Magnavox after 1967)
Variable size sensors:
- Pickup arm scan of unplayed stack - Arranged intermix, odd sizes (Collaro/Magnavox 1954 to 1967)
- Pickup arm scan of lowered record - Random intermix, odd sizes (PE 1957 to 1969)
- Arm tip feeler wheels (feel only top record on turntable) - Random intermix, odd sizes (Dual 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006)
- Arm top feeler Wheels (feel only bottom record on stack) - Random intermix, odd sizes (Miracord 9 and 90)
- Pickup arm scan of separated record - Random intermix, odd sizes (Thorens TD-224)
Record changers were met with disdain by audiophile
Audiophile
An audiophile is a person who enjoys listening to recorded music, usually in a home. Some audiophiles are more interested in collecting and listening to music, while others are more interested in collecting and listening to audio components, whose "sound quality" they consider as important as the...
s because of the perceived compromise in fidelity resulting from changes in tone arm angle with the height of the stack, and concerns about changers' seemingly rough treatment of discs, particularly slight but cumulative damage to the spindle hole, as the records were effectively dropped from a height of a few inches onto the record platter. Additionally there is some sliding and rubbing of the discs which scratches the record labels, due to the dropped disc not immediately accelerating to the rotational speed of the spindle or discs below it. Most of these fears are unfounded in changers made after 1953. More advanced changers, such as the TD-224 model from Thorens
Thorens
Thorens is a Swiss manufacturer of high-end audio equipment. They are historically renowned for the range of phonographs they produce...
, and the ADC Accutrac+6, went some way towards addressing these problems.
Automatic sequencing
The numbering of the sides of the discs in many doubleDouble album
A double album is an audio album which spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically records and compact discs....
and triple albums (and boxed set
Boxed set
A box set is a compilation of various musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related items that are contained in a box.-Music box sets:...
s of LPs and 78s) is explained by the fact that they were designed to be played on record changers. After the discs were stacked and one side of each disc played, the entire stack would be turned over as a complete unit and replaced on the changer. Thus, to be heard in the proper sequence, the discs of a four-disc set would contain, respectively, "sides" 1 & 8, 2 & 7, 3 & 6, and 4 & 5 - a practice known as "automatic sequencing", "changer sequencing", or "auto-coupling".
The above is the "drop-automatic sequence", for record changers which drop records. These record changers do not reverse the stack as they go through them. But other record changers, including some made in the 1930s by RCA and GE, and also the Thorens TD-224, reversed the stack. The RCA and GE ones kept the stack of records on the turntable, and slid the top record to the side after playing it. A separate sequence, the "slide-automatic sequence" was made for these changers, with sides coupled 1 & 5, 2 & 6, 3 & 7, and 4 & 8.
There were also some record changers which played both sides of the records. The manual sequence works with these. Examples are the Markel 75, Capehart turnover changers, Fisher/Lincoln changers, and Garrard RC-100.
During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Victor released 78 rpm record sets in all three sequences, because they had sold players that needed all three kinds.
In addition, some radio station copies were released in a "relay sequence," so the records could be played by a DJ on two turntables without a break between sides. The side couplings were 1 & 3, 2 & 4, 5 & 7, and 6 & 8. These are rare, so no record changers play this sequence. The slide automatic sequence also works for uninterrupted play by DJs.
External links
- Stack-O-Matic Turntables, a retro-style record player with the changer feature manufactured by Crosley Radio Corporation, an article about a predecessor of the record changer
- V-M Audio Enthusiasts, a 1999 company that took over after V-M CorporationVoice of MusicVoice Of Music was the premier brand of V-M Corporation, an American audio equipment manufacturing company .-History:...
was liquidated. This company was founded by Gary Stork, who also published the "Collector's Voice" Newsletter, from 1996 through 2000. Several ex VM employees were interviewed. This newsletter contains historical information about VM Corporation. - midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/changers.htm - Record Changers, an article on the history of record changers.
- vxart-work-RECORDCHANGERS In Sweden