A cheap way to play 16" transcription records - modified Gemini TT-900
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- The Gemini TT-900 is a cheap turntable that can be easily upgraded to play 78 RPM records with the correct 3 mil stylus, and even 16-inch broadcast transcription discs!
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:31 Features
2:50 Cartridge upgrade
4:29 Wrong way play
5:38 78 RPM test
7:50 16" modification
10:24 16" record test
12:53 Conclusion
Stylus and cartridge upgades for this turntable: • Finally an upgrade for...
Record-ology's video about 16 inch broadcast transcription discs: • 16” AFRS Transcription...
#vinyl #78rpm #broadcast - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Turntable manufacturers HATE him! See how this $20 thrift store record player can play 16" transcription discs with ONE WEIRD TRICK!
All it needs is the TH-cam "Reaction Face" thumbnail to be complete.
🤣
@@dennisp.2147 I was thinking more of a bad wordart-style text block declaring that alongside an extremely low-framerate gif of an LP growing into a 16" 😂
@@dennisp.2147 I cannot stand those reaction videos with those ridiculous looking faces being recommended to me. They are annoying.
(Comment Shadowed by TH-cam)
What a beautiful record and player
Looks like somebody REALLY wanted a fully manual record player.
Turntable build quality = hideous BUT repurposing abilities = A+++ Loved it!
You may be able to claim the title of the first person ever to play a 16" disk with the stylus on the wrong side of the record.
probably not because there are transcription turntables with 2 tonearms.. some even with 3.
I never knew 16" records existed! Thanx for showcasing this!
Me neither
they dont' show up often.. I've collected records since 1988 and only seen a few on the wall of some record store once.
@@SPINNINGMYWHEELS777 I can only guess there was not much need for them.
The 16" wide groove 33 1/3 RPM disc was introduced in 1926 by Western Electric and was used for the Vitaphone film sound process the discs could hold up to 15 minutes, and broadcasters started using it soon after for recording and distributing radio shows, by the late thirties many radio stations even had their own transcription recording equipment made by Western Electric, RCA or Presto. In NYC NBC and CBS had their own transcription recording services (NBC's took up the 7th floor of 30 Rock) then there were the independents like Mary Howard and Universal (Raymond Scott) who would record network feeds for clients for a fee, that is who we have a copy of Benny Goodmans 1938 Carnegie Hall performance.
With the introduction of the Ampex model 200 tape recorder, the writing was on the wall for transcription discs and they had mostly disappeared by the early 1950s.
Those kinds of Records would be much better for modern music as you can fit more audio or have more surface area for Bass & Treble.
The sound quality improvement from your modifications along with playing that broadcast quality, transcription record is nothing short of INCREDIBLE Kevin! I am amazed sir. Bravo!!!
I'll bet that's mostly because of the higher input impedance of the Realistic mixer. Ceramic (piezo-electric) cartridges output a fairly high voltage, but their ability to source current is very low, and much lower at low frequencies than at high frequencies, so only an input with a very high (at least 1 megohm) impedance will sound decent, anything lower will lack bass and sound tinny. But most garden-variety line inputs have a fairly low impedance to avoid noise pickup, so the generic amplifier they probably used in this cheap turntable sounded a lot worse with the ceramic pickup than it would have with a connection to another device. There might even be a way, by changing resistor values, to increase the impedance of this cheap amplifier since most modern cheap amplifiers are op-amp based, using chips capable of very high impedances. Back in the 1950s and '60s, some record players even took advantage of this quirk of ceramic cartridges by having the bass control simply alter the input impedance, saving money on capacitors or inductors; one Magnavox model managed to do this with one potentiometer for both left and right channels, saving another buck or two. The obvious problem with such a setup was that if you tried to play anything else through those amplifiers, the bass control would no longer work.
Agh! Seeing the tonearm go all the way round was like watching someone's knee bend backwards 😂
Something like this is exactly the kind of thing I would try. It’s cheap enough that you don’t feel bad about butchering it, but sounds good enough to make it a worthwhile project. Now if only it could be adapted to play 16 rpm records…
This is the best record player video I've seen in a while.
Love the Realistic mixers. So solid. I have three. One since 1985. Never a problem.
hell the only amplifier I use in the house now now are old mini RCA SA-155's... 15 watts a side of pure analog warmth :)
Great hack job. I had a reel to reel in the late 80's that took upto 6 inch spools. I found that if I took the top plate off, along with the tape guides, head cover and the speed control knob, I could just fit 7 inch reels onto it. :)
I thought this was a fun and happily unique record player / turntable. The speed on the one we reviewed was perfect out of the box and wouldn’t be half bad as a beginner setup. Guitar Center was selling them with the speakers for $84 last Christmas.
I like what you do, it is a little wistful as well as technically accurate and informative. I like the old music.
Very cool! I really enjoyed how you hacked it to play that kind of record when it wasn't supposed to. But I originally misread the thumbnail and thought it played 16rpm records instead of 16 inch. I had a record player when I was a kid that played 16, 33, 45, and 78 rpm records, and I've always been fascinated by the 16rpm speed - especially since I didn't know what it was for until the Internet came along. Maybe someday you'll look into that kind of record? I don't know if you have already, but it would be interesting.
Yes, I'm planning a video about 16 RPM records in the future.
I also thought he was refering to 16 rpm records and I was like "wow, that sounds really good for a 16rpm" ;-)
Yep I thought 16rpm. Never heard of 16" discs. It looks as though it's trying to avoid the issues with tracks near the spindle.
@@vwestlife I have one. A July 1972 issue of Newsweek!
I have a 1972 Goldring Lenco Turntable that can play 16RPM records. They were generally used for the likes of talking books or more to the point The bible :-)
I'm yet to find one in the wild. I get that I could purchase one off an online auction site, but where's the fun in that? ;-)
Just when I thought I've seen every kind of audio video, you come up with this idea. Genius!
I bought the same one you have for new last year ! I had been given a bunch of vinyl records and decided to try this beginner vinyl player with the small speakers... I then got real speakers and a car bass sub hooked it all up and now I have one hell of a setup ! And for very cheap ! Love this little vinyl player ! I love the Blutooth mode also ! Not bad at all ! Nice video dude !
Who would have thought such a cheap turntable would end up being so useful with just a few mods!
Many kiddie turntables from back in the day had a tonearm that could spin all the way around; I have such a turntable which can be seen in my 16-inch transcript video. However, I was intelligent enough to know right from the start that if I place the needle the wrong way, the record would still play forwards because the record is still spinning in the correct direction
Thanks for making this video! For years I've been thinking about getting something that can play 16 inch discs. Modifying one of these is the affordable and practical option I've seen!
Very interesting, nice to see a lower end turntable get some extra functionality! Since it was partially broken, it would have just been seen as ewaste, but now it’ll actually be better than before. Plus the cosmetics aren’t too important when it didn’t cost much to get.
The instrumental track at the beginning of the 16” disc sounds like it was used in a Bugs Bunny cartoon!
They likely did get their music from transcription discs.
A 16" record but still only has 5 tracks. Not any more than a lot of 12" LPs. I can't see any advantage for the extra size.
I found it fascinating that the worn 78 sounded way worse with the 3 mil stylus. I thought it was really cool what you did with the tone arm. I'm sure it changed the correct tracking angle for regular records but just what you did is so cool. I misread the title. For some reason I was thinking it was going to play a 16 rpm record and not a 16 inch record. I enjoyed this one. Thank you for sharing.
I love that red glow given off by that 16” disc.
Amazing. That transcription disc is wonderful. Nice memories of old cartoons from the '40s and '50s.
Your conclusion about the needle size is also my experience. I digitized many 78's with an LP needle with very good results. Later I switched to a dedicated needle and while the overal sound is much better, specially on clean records, the sound on old worn out records is better with an LP needle! This is because the detail low in the groove is lower then on the surface, but the groove is cleaner down under!
This is like watching Joe Pera review audio equipment. Definitely not being mean, it's one of the most soothing things on the internet! Thank you!
I used to have the Realistic mixer you have there. Great little mixers. I think the sound is very good from your demonstration of a $20 player.
It's a bare bones Realistic and good enough in some manner for general use.. .. I tested one out back in the day..but I bought the 1200 series Realistic with the true crossfader back in 1990... a superior mixer that was actually $10 more than this one in the video. Had proper cueing as well. It's still a functional mixer if one HAD to use it Djing ..but it's rather noisy compared to a Rane..but no one would probably notice in general.
Never mind expected to see a Realistic mixer. When I was a teenager in the 1990s, I purchased my friend's one and I still have it, although it doesn't get much use now.
I might even have the same model but it's not as pristine looking.
That 720° tone arm spin. For the records with reaaally freaky run out grooves ;)
This is fascinating. I’d never before heard of such discs.
Great 78 record :) interesting you can play with the LP stylus . Never seen a transcription disk here in uk, not sure if they were ever here . It's got great sound :) Thanks for posting
I’ve watched thousands of TH-cam turntable videos. This is a first! Good job, @vwestlife 👏🏼
When you played the record "backwards" with the stylus going into the grooves, I believe that's also how the old Record Runner and the RokBlok work.
Songs played on the turntable
4:47 Rusty Dean - Your Broken Heart Is Showin' Through
5:23 Rusty Dean - Hey Jude
6:04 Johnny Marvin - Under The Ukulele Tree
10:46 Richard Maltby Orchestra - Samba Caliente
11:18 Richard Maltby Orchestra - Summer Serenade
11:47 Richard Maltby Orchestra - Boom-Dee-Ay Boogie
12:22 Richard Maltby Orchestra - Spider Dance
13:08 Richard Maltby Orchestra - We'll Meet at the End of the Rainbow
one of the coolest things ive seen someone do with a turntable
Great find! Aside from the modern niche (expensive) turntables advertised as being made for ET playback a couple of the old British idlers, the Collaro 4T200 and Garrard 4HF had sufficiently long arms mounted far enough away from the platter with narrow arm mounts that would permit a transcription disc to play. Unfortunately the prices of good examples of those tables are starting to rise.
Entertaining from start to finish! Thanks Kevin!
I can imagine a 1970's Prog Rock band wanting to use those 16" albums, especially Yes.
I used to have a DJ mixer like that one - bought from Tandy - the UK equivalent of Radio Shack!
Worn and scratched old 78 rpm record is the reason that the current optional styli for newer and current magnetic cartridges are 2.5 to 2.7 mil, to play lower in the grooves below the scuffs and minor scratches on the surface of the records.
Good and interesting video!
seeing accessible ways to play 16 inch records makes my archivist heart flutter!
Wow, never saw one of these transcription records before! VERY cool! AND it plays 78s. Very nice find, this cheap thing!
I love it when you take trash and hack it into something with a purpose again. I have never encountered a 16" disc (nor a 16prm record for that matter) in the wild but I always knew about them.
What an awesome repurpose of a cheap, messed up record player! Also, I saw you added some videos of German Perpetuum Ebner (PE) 2000s series of turntables in your "favorites" playlist on your record channel. In fact, these are very interesting and specially constructed masterpieces of engineering. They're able to play a stack of up to 10 records and even repeat a record if wanted so without an overarm! And it has a very clever trick of detecting record sizes - there's a little pin that gets pushed down once a record is being placed and moves a spring-loaded lever assembly back (indicating there's a record on the platter). And there's a little feeler that bumps into the edge of 12 inch records if they're being played (platters are about 10 3/4 inches big) and if it doesn't detect anything it'll play a 7 inch. You may think that it sounds pretty simple, yet it still has another trick up its sleeve! As the platter mat has a higher outer edge, if a 10 inch disc is being played the pin won't be pushed through all the way and the PE knows to put the stylus down on the 10 inch position - what a clever quirk! And yet it still doesn't stop with highly unique features; the cueing is done by pushing a pin that lifts up the entire tonearm assembly (including the resting post) and js activated by pushing the selection lever over to the left. That pushes a second leverage which hooks onto the drive gear and "pulls the pin up" as it rotates. Perpetuum Ebner carried this exact design from their crystal cartridge models like the PE 2001 (which I own 3 of), all the way to the 2020 which was considered "the most reliable audiophile record changer" and is still highly popular amongst vintage hifi enthusiasts. If you ever see anything labeled "PE 20xx" or "Telefunken TW/Musikus 509" (90% shared parts to a PE) you should definitely pick it up and do a video about it! Even the low end models had great sound quality and if properly cleaned and lubricated they'll last you a lifetime. It's great to know that even the cheapest models were made to last. But be aware that the mechanism might seem scary (as it's 100 times more complicated and thought-out than a BSR) at first, but once you understand the purpose of every lever and linkage you'll truly understand just how impressive a record changer could be at any price point! Cheers from Germany.
Thats insane. the ridiculously cheap multi-record system from gemini! Great video as always with the turntables and Audio equipment!
I am currently on a hunt for a Realistic clairnette 114 turntable stylus or whole cartridge. I can find styluses for it, but the whole cart is another fiasco- or even finding something that compatible with it... at least documented or noted anywhere. WHAT FUN!
This is outstanding news! I’ve had a stack of 15” transcription discs for decades and have been looking for a cool hack to play them. Well done! I’ll have to give this a try. Thank you!
Lucky duck!
Very cool modification. A great affordable way to play the transcription discs.
This was my first LP record player I’ve got and that got me in to vinyl
Brilliant as usual, great job!
Cool find...I never saw this model. I was surprised to see speaker outs on this player. I would have picked this up right away for $20. I laughed at the 360 degree tonearm at first....it almost seems like it was supposed to be like that. Kudos for playing Jawbreaker's Dear You for a second....that is a great album!
Hell yeah, Jawbreaker's "Jet Black" at 4:20 in the video
The place where the majority of Fallouts music came from. I love it.
Nice a new video about turntables it's like Christmas when you upload a new video !.
Well Done! Myself, I have refurbished, and gathered parts for at least two turntable projects; maybe I'll make a 78 RPM, or Transcription turntable since you, and this TH-cam Channel has motivated me.🔉🎵🎶
I have the same Tandy mixer. I was using it briefly 25 years ago to make sound on sound recordings before I could afford a 4-track recorder. Will have to dig it out (it's under the bed!) to see whether it improves the sound quality of my turntable.
I wish I had this player back in the 80s because I had a toy that had what's called an ozen box which contains a small record inside for the toy's sounds and I could have used a player with a tone arm broken like that to record the sounds of the toy to digital.
On the 78rpm disc, give it a wash first, then play it while still wet. That should clean up the sound. (6:50) As for having the auto-stop disabled, that's a "plus" for the unit as sometimes the auto-stop can stop the platter prematurely before the stylus has reached the run-out groove.
If this record player is easily accessible, would you recommend it otherwise for basic home use?
That music on the 16" transcription record sounds like music you'd hear on the original Tom & Jerry series!
Amazing, very well done.
Interesting! Love your videos!
Pretty certain the previous owner had a modded cartridge on this. It's some sort of crazy DIY scratch turntable, I think.
Definitely fit for purpose! A great idea for using a budget turntable :)
I love this! Good work!
Playing the 78 RPM record with the LP stylus lost some volume, But man, did it clean up the audio! TIL: If you have worn 78s, give them a go with an LP stylus! Who knew? Software might clean up some of the "hiss" for archiving digitally.
Its not a bug its a feature!
Sounds great and it looks pretty 😻 use a spring on the support post on the rear of the tone arm. Wide round one to slip over the post to hold the arm up. 😊
that's really cool how you modified it to play the transcription disc.
OMG! That sounds excellent!
That record is bigger than my car's wheels, awesome! X^D
i think the 78 still is better with the 3mil needle because the signal sounds (to me) like it's got a wider frequency range; the LP needle is crushing it. sure, it's got more crackles, but i think if you were making a digital recording, it would sound better to edit out the crackles, because at least you'd be starting out with the basic recording intact underneath
Techmoan has just done a piece on this very thing!
Techmoan just did a video on getting a decent budget 78 setup about a week ago, as well; he even did a demo on the 1 mil 33 1/3 needle/groove vs. the 3 mil 78 needle/groove.
Nice to see what can be done with a little creativity with something that might have ended up as e-waste otherwise. 👍
Always brilliant but you've outdone yourself here 👏👏👏👏
Can't wait for the 21"s to arrive. Playing the record the other way round just looks so painfully beautiful!
Now that made me think: is there a turntable with two or more tonearms? Hope that idea didn't awaken something from a storage area somewhere!
There are players with two styli, the ones for “binaural” early stereo discs, but they’re usually side to side rather than one swung all the way on the other end of the spindle. Though in theory it could’ve been set up that latter way.
A lot of crazily high-end, more-money-than-sense turntables have seperate tonearms for 33 and45, probably totally seperate outputs so both can be routed to entirely seperate setups, too. As I said, more money than sense.
@@worldcomicsreview354 Glad they didn't market those "so you can listen to two tracks at the same time!" or something like that
There were record players that were sold with two seperate tone arms. They were 78 RPM . They were called record cutters. One tone arm did the cutting. The other did the playing. There's video's out there with people that have working ones. They made playable records out of anything and everything. Pretty cool!
Wonderful video, Kevin! No doubt you've just saved a lot of people a lot of money. I don't have any 16-inch transcription discs, but I do have some 78s (mostly late-40s, early 50s) and have noticed the sound improvement sometimes when playing them with the wrong stylus. I appreciate you confirming what I suspected.
1:24 - Altec-Lansing had 'jumped the shark' by then :(
Altec Lansing is a brand of some Chinese company these days, like with Sansui and Nakamichi.
Got that right, as my eldest aunt before she died couple years ago gave me an Altec-Lansing branded mini Bluetooth speaker as a Christmas gift that was so badly made, and with no rough usage(this was supposed to be a rugged speaker according to the package), and by the end of the day the speaker grill was coming off, the paint on the grill was coming off on my hands, and you could not get 3ft from it before it started dropping signal 😅
@@michaelturner4457 It's a shame that some of the old well-known and respected brands are now just hacks for chinese junk manufacturers. AKAI used to make some really good hi-fi back in the 70s and 80s - now it's used on cheap chinese toasters and rice cookers (something the AKAI of old never made).
I actually did something very similar with a cheap crosley suitcase player to play my transcription discs. Far far cheaper than a transcription turntable and sounds pretty decent with a better cartridge.
3:50 - Hmm. I was guessing that the the height of the pivot needed to be raised (overhang adjustment).
UPDATE: I believe the pivot got smashed in somehow and the height you set it at is was what it was originally!
Great video- I have one of those giant red records with old Pepto Bismol commercials on it. I played it on my Kenwood KD-500 turntable by removing the entire Sumiko tone arm assembly and holding it in my hand, propped on the table. I made a short video, I'll post it if I can find it.
I love that 78. Very few of my own 78’s are as good
That really sounds nice using the radioshack mixer !
very interesting video, like ever!
That doesn't sound to bad at all. Even with the youtube conversion. Nice modification! I don't think the transcriptiondiscplayer industry is gonna be glad with this video 🤣
You made that transcription disk sound NICE. I _love_ how you managed to eke deep sizzly warm silky delicious golden age vibes out of my tiny anker soundcore 2 over youtube compression *and* bluetooth SBC with that ludicrous setup. (Btw does that make me an audiophile?)
I had the same mixer. Garbage picked it as a kid. Used it to fade music in and out doing a film slide to vhs conversion.
Great job vwestlife
That 16” is super neat.
This is fantastic.
Great video!!!!!!
Great job
That's the best way to modify a cheap turntable.
My expectation when you played the record on the wrong side of the spindle: "The stylus is so sideways from the groove, it's going to sound all distorted." Looks like I was partially correct, not nearly as bad as I expected.
I was wrong about it playing backwards too, Then I thought Oh, Yeah: Geometry is weird! LOL. It's all the same to the stylus, Just backwards from OUR visual perspective. On a side note, playing 16" records is cool, BUT it would have been EVEN better if 16 RPM was ALSO tossed in!😜
You might want to explore how you combine the two audio channels. My memory says that the groves of transcriptions were recorded vertically instead of side-to-side like consumer records. Therefore, a simple monoing may not give the best results. There's also a good chance they didn't use the RIAA curve for tone. I tried doing a bit of records, but couldn't find much technical information about them.
Excellent!
Cat and mouse chase music and mel blanc era. Amazing and educational
When you put the tone arm on the wrong side, I would guess the left and right channels would swap.
Nice hack; I didn't know about 16" discs at all!
The thrift store classifying this as "furniture" seems about right.
Yeah, like most turntables in the 2000s, it's mostly an accent piece. haha
Don't know where to start, okay, let's give it a try.... Very creative, love it! But the needle is at the wrong angle or doesn't matter because the recording is mono? The flippy stylus, that is great! I love the looks of the Realistic mixer and the pre-amp sounds better (less hiss) comparing to my Alecto Pro-33 mixer. Again, entertaining video and interesting subject.
I had no idea that a 33rpm stylus would sound better on a worn shellac record. Cool!
Great use of cheap machine :)