Great video as always, thank you... your voice sounds great on the new camera setup...far better fidelity, love your voice :) enjoy the rest of the holiday season, regards from London UK
Also I wanted to comment I have been looking at your older videos. You came across some really nice stuff through the years and I appreciate how you explain troubleshooting techniques and taking the time to even test old capacitors. Back in the day in the repair shop they would test capacitors using a DC voltage Supply. And I must add you have very good powers of observation. 95% of the stuff that I own has not been repaired or restored because I know that people like to repair and restore their own stuff. From what I have seen in the past collectors like to get stuff that is attic fresh basement fresh garage fresh Barn fresh untouched as is condition. Keep up the good videos and thank you very much and a Happy New Year to you
Happy New Year to you and your family and your audience as well. Keep up the good work. This brings back fond memories of the TV repair shop I worked at in the 1970s.
Even the tiny speakers inside my laptop exceed the range of that Crosley and I can hear the difference between that and the Westinghouse. Thank you for fixing up that Crosley, however, and passing it on so someone can hear how it sounds without buying a new one. I'm the one, or one of, the crazy people, who stuck an FET pre-amp in a Crosley Cruiser and upgraded the speakers to improve the sound. (I called mine a Crosley Bruiser when I was done and subjected the members of Vinyl Engine to my antics.) Bottom line: Not worth it except for the entertainment value. The best thing you can do with a Crosley is give or sell it cheap to someone so they can see how they really are without buying a new one and causing another one to be made. Every Crosley that gets EOL'd instead of given away causes another one to come out of China. On the other hand, I have an older Crosley with a better matched amplifier, better speakers, and a velocity sensing stop mechanism (with metal parts and everything!), and I'd put that one up against the Westinghouse for sound, but not for longevity!
I bought a Crosley suitcase player ($17.00 on clearance at Walmart) to play 78's on. It gives horrible, tinny sound on it's own, and doesn't improve much when plugged into the aux input of my stereo. The other night I experimented by hooking it up from the headphone jack to the Magnetic phono input of my stereo. This should have sounded like a distorted mess, but to my shock it sounded really good! I'm guessing that because the impedance on the Crosley is so poorly matched and so quiet, that it's tiny amplifier did almost nothing and it worked really well. It did have a little hum (expected) but also had a lot of bass. If I had the right cartridge it would have sounded even better (of coarse). I just though that this was interesting. This is by no mean an endorsement of cheap suitcase players BTW. Love you videos. Take care...
I have an early Zenith "Cobramatic" turntable that is in beautiful condition, but doesn't work. It's part of an old console unit that originally had the turntable, an AM/FM radio, and a television. At some point in the late 50's, the tv failed, so the original owner built a new cabinet without the tv! It is definitely a one of a kind and I managed to get the radio working (the sound volume kept fading down the longer I played it) but I couldn't get the turntable to power up. Any ideas as to what to do with this?
Check the power switch on the motor-it's probably bad. If the switch is ok, see if the motor can turn. If it is stuck take it apart and clean out the old oil. Re-oil it with Zoom-spout oil. Don't use any other kind of oil.
A belated Merry Christmas to you too as well. I was glad to see this video with this comparison of the two phonographs. It would be nice to see more people educate themselves between a good vintage phonograph and the piece of junk Crosley Cruiser. As a matter of fact we were on the road few days ago and we stopped at Cracker Barrel of all places to get something to eat. When we were done eating we will looking at the Christmas decorations and stuff they had for sale. And what did I see a woman had some reproduction records in one hand and a Crosley Cruiser record player in the other she was online at the cash register with the items and I just cringed that's all I can do is like say to myself what a joke.
Sears' cheapest record player in 1959 sold for $18.50. That's $177.25 today. Yes, the "Crosley"s and the like are garbage. You get what you pay for. Keep up the good work. Love your videos.
I guess part of the issue is that most buyers today really don’t buy a Crosley record player expecting or even caring if it will last 25-50 years. Maybe because we have been conditioned not to expect anything to last; maybe because most of us would not be willing to keep anything that long after its out of style in a few years? The masses want the “latest and the greatest”. As far as serviceability, most people are completely incapable and/or unwilling to making any sort of general repairs or do general maintenance and are too cheap or impatient to take something like a TV or record player into a shop, wait for it to be repaired, then drive back to the shop to pay for the repair and pick up the machine. Most of them even have low tolerance for doing as such with something as expensive as an automobile (choosing to just trade it in after a couple of visits to the shop)… let alone something with such a lower value and importance. As long as low price and convenience is more important than quality and durability, thing will continue to move in this direction … and it seems like most people are ok with that?
So that’s why I just got a Victrola 8-in-1 stereo system that I just got for Christmas. It has the same cheap turntable that it was used in a Crosley. The tonearm is a bit wobbly but it does okay. And also, after just coming home, me and my parents got rid of everything including my Concord 220T and my GE Show & Tell phono viewer, because I’m too old for that. The Concord 220T was a mono only reel-to-reel tape recorder that I got back in 2017. So I have to stick with my Akai 1721W, because it sounds better than the rest.
I don't have enough experience with repairing these type of units but has anyone here noticed that the A/C motors on these and the A/C motors on bathroom vent fans look similar? Just wondering if they can install the motors from the fans to repair a phono motor?
Maybe, but it's a long shot. Depends on shaft diameter and motor RPM, as well as correct rotation. Most motors are bolted together,so they could be reversed, but you can usually just clean and re-oil the old motor. Even a motor with slightly worn bearings will run, if you use Zoom-spout oil on it. I don't know what oil RTPN uses-probably same or similar.
Yes I have done my bathroom fan in the last few years, it definitely looked like a record player AC motor. They would not be set to the same speed probably (even at the shaft would be too much for 78) and are not adjustable as they're fixed to AC frequency.
@@realgroovy24 All of these motors "want" to run at 3600rpm (or 3000 in 50Hz regions) because they are basic two-pole motors. In reality they'll run slower because of slip but they would probably end up pretty close to the same speed. I wonder if anybody has actually tried this.
The DC drive isn't really the problem. Most of the high quality turntables of the 70s and 80s were also DC belt driven drives. The difference is they used good quality DC motors and good quality belts which did not produce a lot of wow and flutter. The platter can be plastic so long as it's a good thick plastic platter and there is a good heavy rubber turntable mat. Those AC motors are nice and chunky and last forever, but they also aren't very accurate. They almost never run at exactly the right speed. Not having the proper bias is absolutely inexcusable. The tiny tinny speakers are a major problem too. The physical build quality of the cabinet is equally bad or close to equally bad on the old one tube wonders. They are made from paper of some sort, a glorified cardboard with some vinyl stapled to it. At least the ones I remember. I think it was just compressed recycled paper, probably newspaper. Most had plastic tone arms and no isolation. The real problem is back then, there were good equivalents. They made dirt cheap radios from poor quality plastic, but they also made wood cabinet radios still in the mid-late 60s and good plastic stuff if you had the different tastes. . Today, you simply cannot buy any stereo or radio equipment that is portable that isn't made to extremely low manufacturing standards. It's not just consumer electronics. The throw-away mentality is everywhere and infects all consumer products except cars. Cars are really the only thing you can buy today made as well as or better than the cars in the past.
@tarstarkusz, Yes, with those old AC motors..... they are synchronous motors so their speed is dependent on how accurately your electricity supplier can maintain a stable frequency. 50 Hz in Europe, 60Hz in the USA. Record player manufacturers made two sizes of multi stepped capstans to fit a common motor depending which market they were selling into. But you are correct on may point but, if you want good quality portable audio equipment you either have to make it yourself or pay someone with the skills to make it for you. I find people enjoy wanting a record player... but don't enjoy having one. Records need maintenance and cleaning, correct storage, tone arms and stylus need setting up correctly cleaning and maintaining and treating with care. Most people just want press play and walk away.
@@janedoe6350 That's funny because I think it is the complication that draws in many of the people who love records. I think you are correct in the sense that records are now bigger than just those people and that there are normal people who want it to "just work" with no hassle. There are people who couldn't enjoy it if you didn't "have to" vacuum the records. These are the people who spend hours setting up their turntable and who have different head shells for different kinds of music. This is especially true with "audiophiles." They just LOVE trying different cables to see which one sounds the best (despite the fact they all sound the same). It is the over-complication that draws them in.
@@tarstarkusz It's true, often, Audiophiles spend more money on reproducing the "original sound" than the original musicians spent on recording the sound. Go listen to "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker, the first international hit recorded in Jamaica... they were broke at the time and couldn't even afford to have the piano tuned (hence D note is being slightly flat), but you can here it... even on a crosley cruiser. I hope you are right, i hope people do put the work in on vinyl as it is a perfect copy of what happened on the day, rather than just a digital representation of history.... it's just too easy, to when it comes to digitally remastering, to go sharpen that slightly flat piano note with "Avid Pro Tools"
@@janedoe6350 As far as I know, anything recorded in a mainstream studio in the last 20 years have been recorded digitally. Early CDs sounded so much better because they were using the analog source. They basically wrote out their final analog cut meant for records and tapes to CDs. It was only later when the "re-mastering" thing started happening and they were cutting the record with the CD in mind when all the dynamic range was lost and you started to get that "digital" feel to the music. If you find an early CD released in the mid 80s of an old album. what those CDs delivered is what was promised.
The cabinet is fiberboard... Masonite or MDF. You could call it some sort of hardpaper if you want, but it's actually a decent material. More durable than particle board of the same thickness, and many high quality speakers are made out of it because it dampens cabinet vibrations. Of course there it's at least 1/2" thick and not as flimsy as those cheapo record players.
As a kid in the 70s me and my brother had the tube type record players and hi fi's. There's nothing that beats them. Still prefer tube amplifiers to solid state but is hard and expensive to get now days. I can remember the toughest issue when i was little was invariably the stylus would get broke and no one would help to fix it. No one would buy us kids new stylus and or help replace them. While for me now to know how to do that,- at the time, no one would and I couldn't. I remember alot of those ac motors were recovered by us kids often because the player was deemed junk from needles that weren't fixed. I remember when cassettes became more popular mid to late 70s onward through the 80s. To a kid they were indispensable. Had my share of time with reel to reels although the ones I owned personally were pathetically horrible. My grandfather let us use his VM table top reel machine which was decent. The cheaper battery operated ones didn't have a capstan and pinch roller. They ate batteries and were very unstable. The cassette tape opened up the door for a durable way to enjoy music. Also remember the 8 tracks and their not so good quality. I did like that they would run non stop until it was pulled but their quality quickly deteriorated and they weren't so "Hi-Fi" as I'd liked. Rewinding back to a song wasn't possible. And unless you had the expensive machine to record you couldn't. Audio quality was no match to records or cassettes.
its sad how throwaway things are these days and back in the day even low end stuff was fairly decent quality. but now no one realy cares about quality any more they just care about keepin up with the joneses.
A Crosley from 2015 can play a 78rpm record but more modern models can't. It actually sounded OK but would I buy a fake Crosley made in China, heck no. The Westinghouse model was geared for teens to listen to records . It could handle all speeds including 16 rpm. Merry Christmas Bryan and have a great New Year.
i agree people will pay more for junk and keep throwing good money after bad and keep replacing junk rather then doing the smart thing and spend a little more for vintage audio and components or a single all metal construction unit but it is all about styl;e and vanity and modern i only have a dvd surround amplifiier and and all the rest vintage and great sounding gear wishing you and your familyy all the best for a merry christmas and a very happy and healthy and prosperous and blessed new year and may only great things happen for you all
IF you know what to look for, there are some GOOD Crosley suitcase record players. Most people have never seen or heard of them and they are no longer made because they were higher priced.
Try using the line-out from the Crosley and put it through a HI-Fi Amp and a 2 or 3 way speaker system and you will be surprised of the sound quality. Yes, wow and flutter will still be poor, that said... I have repaired / restored some of these old tube record players using the Crosley circuit as a pre-amp between these Chinese Ceramic crystal cartridges and the old record player tube amp with some very good results. I think you will find the line-out from the Crosley will give you about 4.3volts in order to drive the tube stage of the old record player. Also if you find these new Ceramic cartridges a little strong in the treble... shunt them with a 500pF (0.5nF) disk ceramic capacitor. Put the cap in parallel with the cartridge as an input filter before any amplification stages.... I think you will be much happier if you gut the Crosley to improve the Wesinghouse. Anyhow, good luck! And keep on keeping this old stuff going... someone has to. PS: I'm in Europe (Bulgaria) so the circuit design of this old tube stuff is very different. We use 240vAC mains. So usually 1:1 isolation transformers for the HT and with a 6.3v tapping for tube heaters (all tube heaters in parallel). I usually find enough air space in these old transformers to put about 20 turns of new enamelled copper wire giving me a new AC tapping to rectify and smooth in order to power the Crosley Pre-amp stage. That way i don't have to put the wall-wart inside the record player cabinet. :)
Merry Christmas! BIG difference to my ears, and my hearing isn't all that great either! Cheap crap is all anything from China is made from anymore. That's why I love restoring History one piece at a time. Thank you sir, and have a Happy New Year!
Radio: A bit long winded warning here: Recently a collection of approximately 300 LPS from the late 60's to early 80's has come my way and placed in my care. What's unique about this collection is that over 98% of these have actually only been played once when originally purchased and after examining them ...all doubt to the contrary has been eliminated. Now, my hope after cleaning and sorting is to digitally record & reproduce these for posterity sake only. Afterwards, they will again return to their original sleeves & jackets and be properly stored as before. Notwithstanding, do you have any suggestions as to what brand of turntable and cartridge you'd recommend for this adventure, hopefully within a $200 - $400 range? My plans currently: I am about to restore an inherited 1958 Columbia Record brand all tube combo console with a beautiful push pull amp ....and retro mod it with a modern turntable if possible. Using that, I'll output that either to pre-amp / mixer and that into DVD Recorder or PC for further mixing and duplicates. Of the five Combo. consoles I own (a 1948 Belmont) (1949 G.E) (19? Borg Warner) (1947 Philco) and my Columbia (mentioned above) it seems to be the better option. Your thoughts please. And yes....Happiest of New Year's to you and yours. Always enjoy your show......From Texas, thanks and best regards. P.S. I failed to mention that I prefer a stereo stylist in my request.
Thing is though, I quite agree that the suitcase record players are garbage and I would never suggest anyone buy one. But for some perspective, these things are routinely available in the UK (and, I assume the US as well), brand new for $20-25. That would be equivalent to about $2.50 in 1960 money, and I very much doubt that would get you anywhere near the price of the most basic unit back then.
The cheapest I've seen them in the USA was $39.95 and the other day, I saw some on sale for $50. Usually, they are in the $60-$80 range and for what these are, that's too much money.
@@radiotvphononut Yeah, $60-80 is laughably high, though even there probably less than half the price of a basic unit in 1960 is real terms. I'm quite surprised about the prices over there though, it's usually us Brits that get the shaft financially... I take it those values include the "Crosley clones"? The cheapest I've seen is an Akai (so sad that they have to use these formerly-great old names) at a local Asda (Walmart equivalent) for £15/$20. I've always maintained that at the cheap end, CDs and cassettes were/are always the better option. Records are difficult things to get sounding right at the best of times, whereas it's pretty hard to actually get a CD player wrong! It's why vinyl died in the '90s in the first place.
8:50 Being made in the USA is still no guarantee of great quality, however, if you got hold of His Master's Voice, Kriesler or AWA branded Australian made consumer electronic goods from the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s, then you were *REALLY* getting great quality stuff!
@@justderpy3043 The difference in electricity supply doesn't come into this. The *real* superiority of Australian-made product over American-made is in the manufacture of the product itself.
Yes idid have a good Christmas i hope you will have a safe new year. The old models are better I got a Philipps radio gream from 1965 the modden ones are crap I hope you will do more videos in the future 👍😎
The Westinghouse is certainly the clear winner. I think it even looks better. The sound is certainly more dynamic on the Westinghouse. I've seen these cheap Crosley units before and usually people bring them to you being just a year or two old and they have problems. They are very cheaply made for what they want people to pay for them. I try to warn people about these units. Certainly a rip off. If you want something good with the Crosley name, get one of their old tube radios.... LOL I have a Westinghouse Ice Box in my shop from the 60's and it still runs. Shame stuff isn't made to be serviced anymore..... Cheers! 🍻 -Al
I think the problem is that we live in a throw-away society---if that Crosley breaks after 5 years, nowadays that's considered acceptable. In terms of performance, the main problem with that Crosley is the weak amplifer output. The 25L6 in the Westinghouse is good for at least a solid 1 watt---if memory serves, the Crosley has less than half of that? What kind of performance can you get with .35 watts?
Even that is not that big of a deal, especially if you play it into a proper amplifier. The problem is the sounds is extremely tinny (though, to be fair, I thought the 78 was better sounding on the Crosley). The build quality is equally awful though. He said it was wood, but I remember a lot of those types were basically cardboard (I think it is actually compressed paper) with a vinyl covering stapled on. I had a one tube wonder as a kid and it was one of the cardboard ones. But it was also a hand-me-down from my brother, so it wasn't like it failed in 2 years like the Crosleys do.
This may sound weird but um.... do you still have the zenith farm radio? If so would you be willing to sell it? 100% not a scam just a girl trying to make her papa happy. Please let me know either way. Thank you and have a good day!
Great video, I love the look of the 59 westinghouse, we had similar here in uk like dansette, Bush, ITT, HMV , its clearly better than the crosley, I really don't like these self contained boxes of Chinese junk 😀.
I have an old 1960’s Fidelity branded record player like the Westinghouse model here. Mine has a BSR record player mechanism, and a flip-over stylus. It is also a “one tube wonder”. It tracks heavier than todays more modern players, but is well built.
Well I can honestly say that I agree with you that the Westinghouse turntable does sound better then the crosley. One thing about modern teenagers today it's not so much about just them being spoiled rotten and getting everything they want it's also the fact that they don't understand that a lot of these older turntables do sound better than any modern crosley or victrola suitcase record player made today. Let alone record players from back in the days were actually built to last that's why some of them are still around and even if they are in non-working condition they can be fixed I like these crosley's they're pretty much disposable. I do not have a crosley but I do have a victrola suitcase record player which is pretty much the same thing it has the exact same internal parts as the crossings. And of course young teenagers now these days want something that looks sleek and modern but you get what you pay for more than likely I would have taken that classroom record player over a modern crosley anytime. I also want to get one thing straight there are modern turntables that actually do sound good take for instance audio Technica turntables those are pretty good.
One ☝️ of those cherrywood 🍒 Crosley’s. Should rebadge it “Krap Boks”, instead of “Crap Box” 📦. This cherrywood 🍒 Crosley actually doesn’t look 👀 all that bad, but I know the adjacent record player is the better one ☝️. Your friend, Jeff.
I made a video about my 2019 Victrola all-in-one stereo system with a cheap turntable and it’s cheap Chinese junk, versus my GE Wildcat record player from 1975, one of the last gasp of record players that GE offered until it was sold off to Interstate Industries. I will put it as my follow-up video.
The reason the Crosley tone arm was loose, is because it is a piece of junk. I seen a video by S & M destruction demonstrating the proper use of one these modern day record players.
@Nostalgic Enigma That RO guy is a dick, he blocked me for slagging off a dinky toy Elvis record player with a D chip and dummy platter that spins like a CD, I wrote after VWestlife's comment "it sounded awfully screechy, dog shit digital bit rate"
@Nostalgic Enigma The tiny toy Elvis player was in a shop, RO didn't buy it, I don't understand why he was so butt hurt about the comment, I had previously had a good interaction with RO before that, I didn't go slagging off Cruisers and Victrola. He praised me for saving 2000 12 inch 78's from heading to kerbside by a record collector ( Michael Calder) he is the admin of Adelaide vinyl records on fb
@Nostalgic Enigma I would have thought a profane or cuss word would incur a shadow ban from record-o;logy, It sounds like any difference of opinion or disagreement classes you a troll in RO's book. He said in one of his clips We don't engage with the trolls
@Nostalgic Enigma I just saw a profanity comment on RO shocking $25 record player clip Eugene Cam wrote fucked up the ass with inflation, so swearing isn't a trigger for getting blocked by RO, he probably just hates his items being slagged off
I bought a Crosley the other day at dirt cheap for 10 dollars, it needed some work,works great now still peace of crap,but I guess for 10 dollars it's a good deal,has a dvd recorder on it to.
I will happily use a lot of really low end chinese electronics. Not power supplies though, those things can be death traps. I take them very seriously.
Crosley’s are crap . 45 playing on westinghouse sound like jukebox a pizza place i used to go as child in 90s little Richard brought back some memory's
I agree - they are garbage. I recently saw a modern cheapo plastic Crosley (dusty and slightly scratched case) in a local secondhand shop with a price of AU $98.00 - they must be crazy. No normal person with a triple-digit IQ is going to pay that much for it. I cannot believe people sell these for almost 3x the original new retail price.
@@RoughJustice2k18 The ones I see most often in my area are those fake wooden box-style radio/CD player/cassette/record player "all in one" units. They are usually priced for as much, or more, than what a new one cost and people buy them. As long as people are stupid enough to buy them, they'll still be for sale at idiotic prices.
Why pay more for a "higher quality" item today that can fail as quickly as the cheapo models? Everything today seems to be set to fail as soon as the 90 day warranty expires. No manufacturer has any confidence to offer a 5 year warranty for free, because they know their products won't last that long. We live in an "environmentally conscious" society that buys more and throw away more than ever. I'd prefer something that I didn't have to replace. Unless I wanted something with more features. The stuff made in China are now toys.
ACTUALLY THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH SUITCASE PLAYERS THEY, O WHETER YOU LIKE ITOR NOT , Have there place , and are the main reason there is a resurgence in Record sales . Your video sound is terrible
What i know for sure is that 10 years from now, if you tried to make this comparison again the Westinghouse will show up, the Crosley will be just a pile of non working plastic junk.
I've got that same Westinghouse except it's pale blue.
Got it at a flea market 20 years ago for 15 dollars.
Still works great.
Great video as always, thank you... your voice sounds great on the new camera setup...far better fidelity, love your voice :) enjoy the rest of the holiday season, regards from London UK
Also I wanted to comment I have been looking at your older videos. You came across some really nice stuff through the years and I appreciate how you explain troubleshooting techniques and taking the time to even test old capacitors. Back in the day in the repair shop they would test capacitors using a DC voltage Supply. And I must add you have very good powers of observation. 95% of the stuff that I own has not been repaired or restored because I know that people like to repair and restore their own stuff. From what I have seen in the past collectors like to get stuff that is attic fresh basement fresh garage fresh Barn fresh untouched as is condition. Keep up the good videos and thank you very much and a Happy New Year to you
A very merry Christmas to you sir. I greatly appreciate all the videos you put up year round. Hopefully 2022 will be a better year for all of us.
LOVE the new camera! Great video!!
Happy New Year to you and your family and your audience as well. Keep up the good work. This brings back fond memories of the TV repair shop I worked at in the 1970s.
And a very happy New Year to you and yours as well. Looking forward to more videos in the coming year.
Happy New Year Brian, always Great Videos. Thank you,
Merry Christmas and happy new year
Even the tiny speakers inside my laptop exceed the range of that Crosley and I can hear the difference between that and the Westinghouse. Thank you for fixing up that Crosley, however, and passing it on so someone can hear how it sounds without buying a new one. I'm the one, or one of, the crazy people, who stuck an FET pre-amp in a Crosley Cruiser and upgraded the speakers to improve the sound. (I called mine a Crosley Bruiser when I was done and subjected the members of Vinyl Engine to my antics.) Bottom line: Not worth it except for the entertainment value. The best thing you can do with a Crosley is give or sell it cheap to someone so they can see how they really are without buying a new one and causing another one to be made. Every Crosley that gets EOL'd instead of given away causes another one to come out of China. On the other hand, I have an older Crosley with a better matched amplifier, better speakers, and a velocity sensing stop mechanism (with metal parts and everything!), and I'd put that one up against the Westinghouse for sound, but not for longevity!
I read the Cruiser being called a bruiser on a VWestlife vid Is the Cruiser really bad?
I bought a Crosley suitcase player ($17.00 on clearance at Walmart) to play 78's on. It gives horrible, tinny sound on it's own, and doesn't improve much when plugged into the aux input of my stereo. The other night I experimented by hooking it up from the headphone jack to the Magnetic phono input of my stereo. This should have sounded like a distorted mess, but to my shock it sounded really good! I'm guessing that because the impedance on the Crosley is so poorly matched and so quiet, that it's tiny amplifier did almost nothing and it worked really well. It did have a little hum (expected) but also had a lot of bass. If I had the right cartridge it would have sounded even better (of coarse). I just though that this was interesting. This is by no mean an endorsement of cheap suitcase players BTW. Love you videos. Take care...
I have an early Zenith "Cobramatic" turntable that is in beautiful condition, but doesn't work. It's part of an old console unit that originally had the turntable, an AM/FM radio, and a television. At some point in the late 50's, the tv failed, so the original owner built a new cabinet without the tv! It is definitely a one of a kind and I managed to get the radio working (the sound volume kept fading down the longer I played it) but I couldn't get the turntable to power up. Any ideas as to what to do with this?
Check the power switch on the motor-it's probably bad. If the switch is ok, see if the motor can turn. If it is stuck take it apart and clean out the old oil. Re-oil it with Zoom-spout oil. Don't use any other kind of oil.
Check capacitors in amp. Replace.
A belated Merry Christmas to you too as well. I was glad to see this video with this comparison of the two phonographs. It would be nice to see more people educate themselves between a good vintage phonograph and the piece of junk Crosley Cruiser. As a matter of fact we were on the road few days ago and we stopped at Cracker Barrel of all places to get something to eat. When we were done eating we will looking at the Christmas decorations and stuff they had for sale. And what did I see a woman had some reproduction records in one hand and a Crosley Cruiser record player in the other she was online at the cash register with the items and I just cringed that's all I can do is like say to myself what a joke.
I have an old magnavox console that I need help with repairing. where do you find your parts?
Really like that song on the LP. Sounded great on that Westinghouse
Sears' cheapest record player in 1959 sold for $18.50. That's $177.25 today.
Yes, the "Crosley"s and the like are garbage. You get what you pay for.
Keep up the good work. Love your videos.
I guess part of the issue is that most buyers today really don’t buy a Crosley record player expecting or even caring if it will last 25-50 years. Maybe because we have been conditioned not to expect anything to last; maybe because most of us would not be willing to keep anything that long after its out of style in a few years? The masses want the “latest and the greatest”. As far as serviceability, most people are completely incapable and/or unwilling to making any sort of general repairs or do general maintenance and are too cheap or impatient to take something like a TV or record player into a shop, wait for it to be repaired, then drive back to the shop to pay for the repair and pick up the machine. Most of them even have low tolerance for doing as such with something as expensive as an automobile (choosing to just trade it in after a couple of visits to the shop)… let alone something with such a lower value and importance. As long as low price and convenience is more important than quality and durability, thing will continue to move in this direction … and it seems like most people are ok with that?
So that’s why I just got a Victrola 8-in-1 stereo system that I just got for Christmas. It has the same cheap turntable that it was used in a Crosley. The tonearm is a bit wobbly but it does okay.
And also, after just coming home, me and my parents got rid of everything including my Concord 220T and my GE Show & Tell phono viewer, because I’m too old for that. The Concord 220T was a mono only reel-to-reel tape recorder that I got back in 2017. So I have to stick with my Akai 1721W, because it sounds better than the rest.
I've had my Crosley for years never had any problems with it. Sounds great.
I don't have enough experience with repairing these type of units but has anyone here noticed that the A/C motors on these and the A/C motors on bathroom vent fans look similar? Just wondering if they can install the motors from the fans to repair a phono motor?
Maybe, but it's a long shot. Depends on shaft diameter and motor RPM, as well as correct rotation. Most motors are bolted together,so they could be reversed, but you can usually just clean and re-oil the old motor. Even a motor with slightly worn bearings will run, if you use Zoom-spout oil on it. I don't know what oil RTPN uses-probably same or similar.
Yes I have done my bathroom fan in the last few years, it definitely looked like a record player AC motor. They would not be set to the same speed probably (even at the shaft would be too much for 78) and are not adjustable as they're fixed to AC frequency.
@@realgroovy24 All of these motors "want" to run at 3600rpm (or 3000 in 50Hz regions) because they are basic two-pole motors. In reality they'll run slower because of slip but they would probably end up pretty close to the same speed. I wonder if anybody has actually tried this.
Can you play Saint Barth tiny apartment California?
Sure, I think I have that album.
The DC drive isn't really the problem. Most of the high quality turntables of the 70s and 80s were also DC belt driven drives. The difference is they used good quality DC motors and good quality belts which did not produce a lot of wow and flutter. The platter can be plastic so long as it's a good thick plastic platter and there is a good heavy rubber turntable mat.
Those AC motors are nice and chunky and last forever, but they also aren't very accurate. They almost never run at exactly the right speed.
Not having the proper bias is absolutely inexcusable. The tiny tinny speakers are a major problem too.
The physical build quality of the cabinet is equally bad or close to equally bad on the old one tube wonders. They are made from paper of some sort, a glorified cardboard with some vinyl stapled to it. At least the ones I remember. I think it was just compressed recycled paper, probably newspaper. Most had plastic tone arms and no isolation.
The real problem is back then, there were good equivalents. They made dirt cheap radios from poor quality plastic, but they also made wood cabinet radios still in the mid-late 60s and good plastic stuff if you had the different tastes. . Today, you simply cannot buy any stereo or radio equipment that is portable that isn't made to extremely low manufacturing standards. It's not just consumer electronics. The throw-away mentality is everywhere and infects all consumer products except cars. Cars are really the only thing you can buy today made as well as or better than the cars in the past.
@tarstarkusz, Yes, with those old AC motors..... they are synchronous motors so their speed is dependent on how accurately your electricity supplier can maintain a stable frequency. 50 Hz in Europe, 60Hz in the USA. Record player manufacturers made two sizes of multi stepped capstans to fit a common motor depending which market they were selling into.
But you are correct on may point but, if you want good quality portable audio equipment you either have to make it yourself or pay someone with the skills to make it for you.
I find people enjoy wanting a record player... but don't enjoy having one. Records need maintenance and cleaning, correct storage, tone arms and stylus need setting up correctly cleaning and maintaining and treating with care.
Most people just want press play and walk away.
@@janedoe6350 That's funny because I think it is the complication that draws in many of the people who love records. I think you are correct in the sense that records are now bigger than just those people and that there are normal people who want it to "just work" with no hassle.
There are people who couldn't enjoy it if you didn't "have to" vacuum the records. These are the people who spend hours setting up their turntable and who have different head shells for different kinds of music. This is especially true with "audiophiles." They just LOVE trying different cables to see which one sounds the best (despite the fact they all sound the same). It is the over-complication that draws them in.
@@tarstarkusz It's true, often, Audiophiles spend more money on reproducing the "original sound" than the original musicians spent on recording the sound. Go listen to "Israelites" by Desmond Dekker, the first international hit recorded in Jamaica... they were broke at the time and couldn't even afford to have the piano tuned (hence D note is being slightly flat), but you can here it... even on a crosley cruiser.
I hope you are right, i hope people do put the work in on vinyl as it is a perfect copy of what happened on the day, rather than just a digital representation of history.... it's just too easy, to when it comes to digitally remastering, to go sharpen that slightly flat piano note with "Avid Pro Tools"
@@janedoe6350 As far as I know, anything recorded in a mainstream studio in the last 20 years have been recorded digitally.
Early CDs sounded so much better because they were using the analog source. They basically wrote out their final analog cut meant for records and tapes to CDs. It was only later when the "re-mastering" thing started happening and they were cutting the record with the CD in mind when all the dynamic range was lost and you started to get that "digital" feel to the music.
If you find an early CD released in the mid 80s of an old album. what those CDs delivered is what was promised.
The cabinet is fiberboard... Masonite or MDF. You could call it some sort of hardpaper if you want, but it's actually a decent material. More durable than particle board of the same thickness, and many high quality speakers are made out of it because it dampens cabinet vibrations. Of course there it's at least 1/2" thick and not as flimsy as those cheapo record players.
As a kid in the 70s me and my brother had the tube type record players and hi fi's. There's nothing that beats them. Still prefer tube amplifiers to solid state but is hard and expensive to get now days. I can remember the toughest issue when i was little was invariably the stylus would get broke and no one would help to fix it. No one would buy us kids new stylus and or help replace them. While for me now to know how to do that,- at the time, no one would and I couldn't. I remember alot of those ac motors were recovered by us kids often because the player was deemed junk from needles that weren't fixed. I remember when cassettes became more popular mid to late 70s onward through the 80s. To a kid they were indispensable. Had my share of time with reel to reels although the ones I owned personally were pathetically horrible. My grandfather let us use his VM table top reel machine which was decent. The cheaper battery operated ones didn't have a capstan and pinch roller. They ate batteries and were very unstable. The cassette tape opened up the door for a durable way to enjoy music. Also remember the 8 tracks and their not so good quality. I did like that they would run non stop until it was pulled but their quality quickly deteriorated and they weren't so "Hi-Fi" as I'd liked. Rewinding back to a song wasn't possible. And unless you had the expensive machine to record you couldn't. Audio quality was no match to records or cassettes.
its sad how throwaway things are these days and back in the day even low end stuff was fairly decent quality. but now no one realy cares about quality any more they just care about keepin up with the joneses.
Vintage 1950 western house 💯
A Crosley from 2015 can play a 78rpm record but more modern models can't. It actually sounded OK but would I buy
a fake Crosley made in China, heck no. The Westinghouse model was geared for teens to listen to records .
It could handle all speeds including 16 rpm. Merry Christmas Bryan and have a great New Year.
I thrifted a Crosley radio from 1952 today.. checkout my video and give an opinion.
What tube is in the Westinghouse?
25L6.
Will you be selling the Westinghouse?
I haven't decided yet.
@@danielknepper6884 Yep.
i agree people will pay more for junk and keep throwing good money after bad and keep replacing junk rather then doing the smart thing and spend a little more for vintage audio and components or a single all metal construction unit but it is all about styl;e and vanity and modern i only have a dvd surround amplifiier and and all the rest vintage and great sounding gear wishing you and your familyy all the best for a merry christmas and a very happy and healthy and prosperous and blessed new year and may only great things happen for you all
IF you know what to look for, there are some GOOD Crosley suitcase record players. Most people have never seen or heard of them and they are no longer made because they were higher priced.
Try using the line-out from the Crosley and put it through a HI-Fi Amp and a 2 or 3 way speaker system and you will be surprised of the sound quality. Yes, wow and flutter will still be poor, that said... I have repaired / restored some of these old tube record players using the Crosley circuit as a pre-amp between these Chinese Ceramic crystal cartridges and the old record player tube amp with some very good results. I think you will find the line-out from the Crosley will give you about 4.3volts in order to drive the tube stage of the old record player. Also if you find these new Ceramic cartridges a little strong in the treble... shunt them with a 500pF (0.5nF) disk ceramic capacitor. Put the cap in parallel with the cartridge as an input filter before any amplification stages....
I think you will be much happier if you gut the Crosley to improve the Wesinghouse.
Anyhow, good luck! And keep on keeping this old stuff going... someone has to.
PS: I'm in Europe (Bulgaria) so the circuit design of this old tube stuff is very different. We use 240vAC mains. So usually 1:1 isolation transformers for the HT and with a 6.3v tapping for tube heaters (all tube heaters in parallel). I usually find enough air space in these old transformers to put about 20 turns of new enamelled copper wire giving me a new AC tapping to rectify and smooth in order to power the Crosley Pre-amp stage. That way i don't have to put the wall-wart inside the record player cabinet. :)
I thrifted a Crosley radio from 1952 today.. checkout my video and give an opinion.
Merry Christmas! BIG difference to my ears, and my hearing isn't all that great either! Cheap crap is all anything from China is made from anymore. That's why I love restoring History one piece at a time. Thank you sir, and have a Happy New Year!
That Westinghouse is a record player I grew up witha 4 inch speaker in a wooden box sounds good
Radio: A bit long winded warning here: Recently a collection of approximately 300 LPS from the late 60's to early 80's has come my way and placed in my care. What's unique about this collection is that over 98% of these have actually only been played once when originally purchased and after examining them ...all doubt to the contrary has been eliminated. Now, my hope after cleaning and sorting is to digitally record & reproduce these for posterity sake only. Afterwards, they will again return to their original sleeves & jackets and be properly stored as before.
Notwithstanding, do you have any suggestions as to what brand of turntable and cartridge you'd recommend for this adventure, hopefully within a $200 - $400 range? My plans currently: I am about to restore an inherited 1958 Columbia Record brand all tube combo console with a beautiful push pull amp ....and retro mod it with a modern turntable if possible. Using that, I'll output that either to pre-amp / mixer and that into DVD Recorder or PC for further mixing and duplicates. Of the five Combo. consoles I own (a 1948 Belmont) (1949 G.E) (19? Borg Warner) (1947 Philco) and my Columbia (mentioned above) it seems to be the better option. Your thoughts please. And yes....Happiest of New Year's to you and yours. Always enjoy your show......From Texas, thanks and best regards.
P.S. I failed to mention that I prefer a stereo stylist in my request.
Thing is though, I quite agree that the suitcase record players are garbage and I would never suggest anyone buy one.
But for some perspective, these things are routinely available in the UK (and, I assume the US as well), brand new for $20-25. That would be equivalent to about $2.50 in 1960 money, and I very much doubt that would get you anywhere near the price of the most basic unit back then.
The cheapest I've seen them in the USA was $39.95 and the other day, I saw some on sale for $50. Usually, they are in the $60-$80 range and for what these are, that's too much money.
@@radiotvphononut Yeah, $60-80 is laughably high, though even there probably less than half the price of a basic unit in 1960 is real terms. I'm quite surprised about the prices over there though, it's usually us Brits that get the shaft financially... I take it those values include the "Crosley clones"? The cheapest I've seen is an Akai (so sad that they have to use these formerly-great old names) at a local Asda (Walmart equivalent) for £15/$20.
I've always maintained that at the cheap end, CDs and cassettes were/are always the better option. Records are difficult things to get sounding right at the best of times, whereas it's pretty hard to actually get a CD player wrong! It's why vinyl died in the '90s in the first place.
8:50 Being made in the USA is still no guarantee of great quality, however, if you got hold of His Master's Voice, Kriesler or AWA branded Australian made consumer electronic goods from the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s, then you were *REALLY* getting great quality stuff!
The problem is that Australian AC voltage is different to the USA one. Australia uses 220-240V whilst USA uses 110-120V.
@@justderpy3043 The difference in electricity supply doesn't come into this. The *real* superiority of Australian-made product over American-made is in the manufacture of the product itself.
Westinghouse one has richer sound for sure.
Yes idid have a good Christmas i hope you will have a safe new year. The old models are better I got a Philipps radio gream from 1965 the modden ones are crap I hope you will do more videos in the future 👍😎
The Westinghouse is certainly the clear winner. I think it even looks better.
The sound is certainly more dynamic on the Westinghouse. I've seen these
cheap Crosley units before and usually people bring them to you being just
a year or two old and they have problems. They are very cheaply made for
what they want people to pay for them. I try to warn people about these units.
Certainly a rip off. If you want something good with the Crosley name, get
one of their old tube radios.... LOL I have a Westinghouse Ice Box in my shop
from the 60's and it still runs. Shame stuff isn't made to be serviced anymore.....
Cheers! 🍻 -Al
No the small old 60s players from Zenith or Westinghouse were very fine light arm needle.
2 record players recorded with 2 cameras, YAY!
I think the problem is that we live in a throw-away society---if that Crosley breaks after 5 years, nowadays that's considered acceptable. In terms of performance, the main problem with that Crosley is the weak amplifer output. The 25L6 in the Westinghouse is good for at least a solid 1 watt---if memory serves, the Crosley has less than half of that? What kind of performance can you get with .35 watts?
Even that is not that big of a deal, especially if you play it into a proper amplifier. The problem is the sounds is extremely tinny (though, to be fair, I thought the 78 was better sounding on the Crosley).
The build quality is equally awful though. He said it was wood, but I remember a lot of those types were basically cardboard (I think it is actually compressed paper) with a vinyl covering stapled on. I had a one tube wonder as a kid and it was one of the cardboard ones. But it was also a hand-me-down from my brother, so it wasn't like it failed in 2 years like the Crosleys do.
I think I would rather have no music than hear my records played on anything like either of those 2 players.
This may sound weird but um.... do you still have the zenith farm radio? If so would you be willing to sell it? 100% not a scam just a girl trying to make her papa happy. Please let me know either way. Thank you and have a good day!
I think it may still be here buried somewhere. I'll dig around for it and see if it's still here.
@@radiotvphononut I'd appreciate it. Thanks. Have a happy new year.
Great video, I love the look of the 59 westinghouse, we had similar here in uk like dansette, Bush, ITT, HMV , its clearly better than the crosley, I really don't like these self contained boxes of Chinese junk 😀.
I have an old 1960’s Fidelity branded record player like the Westinghouse model here. Mine has a BSR record player mechanism, and a flip-over stylus. It is also a “one tube wonder”. It tracks heavier than todays more modern players, but is well built.
Thats the thing here in the uk. There IS no one to fix things like this anymore. We just throw it away and get another one.
My Favorite is Philco!!
Well I can honestly say that I agree with you that the Westinghouse turntable does sound better then the crosley. One thing about modern teenagers today it's not so much about just them being spoiled rotten and getting everything they want it's also the fact that they don't understand that a lot of these older turntables do sound better than any modern crosley or victrola suitcase record player made today. Let alone record players from back in the days were actually built to last that's why some of them are still around and even if they are in non-working condition they can be fixed I like these crosley's they're pretty much disposable. I do not have a crosley but I do have a victrola suitcase record player which is pretty much the same thing it has the exact same internal parts as the crossings. And of course young teenagers now these days want something that looks sleek and modern but you get what you pay for more than likely I would have taken that classroom record player over a modern crosley anytime. I also want to get one thing straight there are modern turntables that actually do sound good take for instance audio Technica turntables those are pretty good.
One ☝️ of those cherrywood 🍒 Crosley’s. Should rebadge it “Krap Boks”, instead of “Crap Box” 📦. This cherrywood 🍒 Crosley actually doesn’t look 👀 all that bad, but I know the adjacent record player is the better one ☝️. Your friend, Jeff.
I thrifted a Crosley radio from 1952 today.. checkout my video and give an opinion.
The Westinghouse sounds so much better over the Crosley
It's night and day with the difference in the quality. The Westinghouse destroys the crosley
I made a video about my 2019 Victrola all-in-one stereo system with a cheap turntable and it’s cheap Chinese junk, versus my GE Wildcat record player from 1975, one of the last gasp of record players that GE offered until it was sold off to Interstate Industries. I will put it as my follow-up video.
I think Crosley Collegiate is probably the best suitcase record player in 2022.
Before I even started this video I already knew that the 50s record player would be better than the Crosley.
The reason the Crosley tone arm was loose, is because it is a piece of junk. I seen a video by S & M destruction demonstrating the proper use of one these modern day record players.
@Nostalgic Enigma That RO guy is a dick, he blocked me for slagging off a dinky toy Elvis record player with a D chip and dummy platter that spins like a CD, I wrote after VWestlife's comment "it sounded awfully screechy, dog shit digital bit rate"
@Nostalgic Enigma The tiny toy Elvis player was in a shop, RO didn't buy it, I don't understand why he was so butt hurt about the comment, I had previously had a good interaction with RO before that, I didn't go slagging off Cruisers and Victrola. He praised me for saving 2000 12 inch 78's from heading to kerbside by a record collector ( Michael Calder) he is the admin of Adelaide vinyl records on fb
@Nostalgic Enigma Did you use any profanity's EG SHIT in the comment?
@Nostalgic Enigma I would have thought a profane or cuss word would incur a shadow ban from record-o;logy, It sounds like any difference of opinion or disagreement classes you a troll in RO's book. He said in one of his clips We don't engage with the trolls
@Nostalgic Enigma I just saw a profanity comment on RO shocking $25 record player clip Eugene Cam wrote fucked up the ass with inflation, so swearing isn't a trigger for getting blocked by RO, he probably just hates his items being slagged off
I bought a Crosley the other day at dirt cheap for 10 dollars, it needed some work,works great now still peace of crap,but I guess for 10 dollars it's a good deal,has a dvd recorder on it to.
Older record players always sounds better. I swear not to get a crosley when I buy a new turntable
Bo Lamastus owns crosley. Which we all know that it has no relation to the original.
The Westinghouse record player is good
I will happily use a lot of really low end chinese electronics. Not power supplies though, those things can be death traps. I take them very seriously.
Crosley’s are crap . 45 playing on westinghouse sound like jukebox a pizza place i used to go as child in 90s little Richard brought back some memory's
I agree - they are garbage. I recently saw a modern cheapo plastic Crosley (dusty and slightly scratched case) in a local secondhand shop with a price of AU $98.00 - they must be crazy. No normal person with a triple-digit IQ is going to pay that much for it. I cannot believe people sell these for almost 3x the original new retail price.
@@RoughJustice2k18 The ones I see most often in my area are those fake wooden box-style radio/CD player/cassette/record player "all in one" units. They are usually priced for as much, or more, than what a new one cost and people buy them. As long as people are stupid enough to buy them, they'll still be for sale at idiotic prices.
A few months from now, the thrift stores will be overrun with those Crosley's
Or the dump.
Why pay more for a "higher quality" item today that can fail as quickly as the cheapo models? Everything today seems to be set to fail as soon as the 90 day warranty expires. No manufacturer has any confidence to offer a 5 year warranty for free, because they know their products won't last that long. We live in an "environmentally conscious" society that buys more and throw away more than ever. I'd prefer something that I didn't have to replace. Unless I wanted something with more features.
The stuff made in China are now toys.
I have a great way of
The Westinghouse is much superior to the Crosley by a long shot.
ACTUALLY THERE IS NO PROBLEM WITH SUITCASE PLAYERS THEY, O WHETER YOU LIKE ITOR NOT , Have there place , and are the main reason there is a resurgence in Record sales . Your video sound is terrible
I wouldn't put a record on any of these so called record players.
What i know for sure is that 10 years from now, if you tried to make this comparison again the Westinghouse will show up, the Crosley will be just a pile of non working plastic junk.
Hot snot box hahahaha 😆
You can be sure ......that it's a crappy crosley!