my father was head of the engineering team at magnavox/ callaro here in the uk in the 60s/70s and designed that auto changer, i recognise the parts, he used to bing them home for me to play with he is now 92
Hey Mr Techmoan, I think you're one of the most pro youtuber's out there. Your videos are built on real genuine content, experience, research and knowledge. Your persona, editing and style is awesome. Techmoan channel is a pleasure in my life. Keep up the good work, I wish you all the best, and olives rock ok.
A few people asked how you play side B.... I didn't show it in the video because it's the same with any stacker record changer. When the player has played through the (4 hour) stack of records, take them off, flip them over, re-stack them, press go.
I was wondering whether they would actually play backwards (because the groove might track in the other direction as the side B stylus played the underside of the record) - but I guess not! Edit: I see from comments below that I'm not the only one to have wondered about this...
Could you explain why they won't play backwards on the other side. From the needle's point of view the top spins clockwise, but on the real machine when playing the bottom it's spinning counter-clockwise. Isn't it? It seems that the needle would fall right off the record on side B.
Sorry, but this is really kind of a derp question. _Of course_ you would just flip them over. The fact that you have have to explain that is just silly.
Are you sure about this, because I don't believe it. In fact, it's 1:30 am and I just got up to make a cardboard model to verify my theory. Looking down through the record, it's turning clockwise as far as both the top and bottom styli are concerned. When the record is flipped, although the record itself is still turning clockwise, the bottom-turned-top side is now rotating backwards. I wish I could include a picture to prove the point.
Ok, I missed one critical detail. The spindle for the upper position is turning the opposite direction as the spindle in the lower position. That wasn't clear without careful observation! So nevermind my previous comment. That makes sense, or else special record mastering machines would have been required.
Testing your turntable with Men At Work's Down Under played too slow brings back memories. It was the first record I owned and I remember playing it at 16 & 2/3 on my dad's PYE Black Box. Gratifying that somebody on the other side of the world would do the almost same thing all these years later...
I'm sure someone has suggested this before. Have you considered using a 12 vdc to 120 vac - 60 hz inverter? You could probably use a small 12vdc battery charger to power it and and you'd have all the 120 v 60 hz power you'd ever need.
im not even interested in most of the things you demo but watch them anyway because it's so satisfying watching old hifi stuff and the production quality is great
I tried to get a specialized cassette player like TM has but I couldn't find anything that was in working order. Every listing said "Couldn't be bothered to test it, might not be working, scratched and dented, charging same price as if it was in perfect condition and professionally refurbished."
Oh man, this may have been the best muppets segment yet. As for keeping an eye out for Seeburg discs, usually if there's a place selling records that isn't a record store, there's literally thousands of them all clustered together messily, already picked through, leaving nothing but trash. You've all seen those sections in antique malls.
Many people say that 3D printing is useless. They probably work for these corporations who want you to buy the new machine instead of fixing it. 3D printing is going to be so useful to fix all those old things whose manufacturers have either disappeared or don't make replacement parts anymore. Download the design or make it yourself and print it. It's a revolution. Love your channel, real interesting content, none of the clickbait and boring vlog BS that's all over TH-cam.
I've recently realized that I enjoy your videos more than any other channel on youtube. Thank you very much for all of the hard work and brilliant content.
Your retro tech videos have inspired me to collect quite a few components with cool switches and wooden or woodlike finish (We could call them 'carbon fiber' lol)
In a time where everyone wants to review more and more new gadgets Techmoan seems to be on a trip back in time. Love how you dig up the old hardware and put life back into it. Not to mention a production that's slicker with every video. Still, an update on a good 4k dashcam would be 'cool' too :-) Ah yes, I'll take all the dark chocolate you can spare!
Your videos are great. I use them as reference guides when I do trips to my local landfill. There is a shed there that resells any electronics and salvage they find from the dump face or the get sent through recycling. So far we found some awesome video recorders and 1 of our best finds so far was the Sharp VZ2000 Turntable boombox, or the reel to reel players. Thanks for the information and inspiration. Keep up the great work!
Always enjoy the vintage tech videos. This two-part series on the rare Seeburg background music player was especially interesting. Thanks and hello from Illinois, USA.
That's a lot of work to listen to cheesy 70s department store music, love it! Your level of dedication is admirable and entertaining, and the muppet hipster commentary at the end is icing on the cake!
Enjoy your videos, very professionally done and you explain everything so well. Just to chime in here, I have a BMS1000 and also the hideaway model, and over 100 records. Not only are these records an unusual size, they are also super-delicate. The groove spacing is far denser than an LP and the caution "Do not touch record grooves" is well to need. I have found the least scratch or blemish will cause them to skip or get stuck. The recommended stylus is 0.5 mil, not the usual 0.7 mil used for LPs. I enjoy my BMS1000 and believe me, the fidelity is surprisingly good.
You never fail to amaze me with your talent at getting these things to work (and work rather well), in this case a modification but other times just the way they are suppose to work. If I had just had a fraction of your electronics repair abilities, I could get my vintage turntables up and working again.
@@generalshamic4777 I assumed he was printing them online. Unless you print tons of stuff, it's going to be a lot cheaper and more convenient to just use a 3d printing service.
Hey Techmoan, great video(s) about the SEEBURG 1000's. Older Magnavox record changers (the original COLLARO design) don't have to be adjusted for landing the tonearm. They possess "mechanical memory". They will actually land the tonearm for ANY size record; 12" 10" 7" AND 9". I too found the 2 inch spiders for the hole. I purchased 2 SEEBURG 1000's a couple years ago and using parts from both fully restored one beautiful museum quality piece. One last hurdle to be mindful of. . . . the grooves on these records are .5 mil. Most LP stylii are .7 mil. (conical) (.3x.7 elliptical). .7 mil. stylii are going to ride too high on the lands between the grooves for the best fidelity. I actually found a vintage Stromberg-Carlson record changer that performs in the COLLARO style... "...tapping the record to determine size"; restored it and retrofitted a cartridge with a .5 mil. stylus and play all of my SEEBURG records. Rather than dedicate this changer for SEEBURG records I made the retrofit cartridge changeable for standard records too. Kindred Spirit... tacolvard@charter.net
Fascinating to watch. RE the record size detector, the slightly older Magnavox models will play these odd-size records without any adjustment. And because the spindle is taller, they will play more of them.
Another great video. 👏 You do a fantastic job and I've never watched one of your videos and been left wanting more. You cover the topic completely and do so without boring the audience. Great editing and production. I truly look forward to watching the next new episode.
Love the video, got two identical 1970's Seeburg jukeboxes that someday may get a Raspberry Pi upgrade. I'm shocked it sounds like you are without a 3D printer in this video. I *highly* recommend if that's the case. A decent set of digital calipers and the wonderfully powerful, free OpenSCAD is all I need to design and have the part I need. OpenSCAD is a programming-based CAD tool so it has a learning curve but once past the syntax/semantics, it's wonderfully easy to construct complex shapes like gears & spacers in just a few lines, have them printed in 20minutes. Cheers on the great videos! I also love watching them because I love seeing vintage stuff in crisp 4k res!
The puppet sketches are getting better, this one cracked me up! But, down with you- I love olives! Haven't bought them for years but I must defend their honour.
Techmoan, I had no idea the Magnavox Micromatic could play at 16 2/3 rpm. I just checked my Magnavox console stereo and to my amazement, it had a Micromatic installed! I purchased the thing for a classic console and had no idea of its capabilities. Thank you for the informative video!
This two parter about the Seeburg background music struck a chord with me (forgive the pun or not). For some odd reason that I can't quite figure out, this old music seemed to connect directly to some subconscious memories from my childhood. I beleive I heard a lot of that music as a child shopping with my parents and hearing it again filled me with nostalgia. I kept thinking how enjoyable it would be to have one of those players with "days" of nonstop music. I could load it up and listen all day or all week while working without ever having to change the channel or decide what to hear next. I am from the "radio" and old network tv generation. We didn't choose our playlists, someone else did it for us. I may have to buy some of these collections from Seeburg1000.com just to satisfy my nostalgic cravings. p.s. New fan! I love every one of your videos. I have spent way too much time watching your channel and have not seen one yet that isn't fun to watch and learn from. There is something about the way you present the information that makes it fun and the effort you go to researching is astounding. I especially enjoy "the puppets" at the end. What a great way to express annoyance with absurd behavior without going on a rant as many do. I will say I am mainly a fan of your retro tech videos. I actually have an old laserdisc player, but my discs got warped when stored improperly during a heat wave years ago. I tried using it once with a warped disc and it actually played fine but the sound and vibration was terrifying and I shut it off before something exploded and killed me.
My Grandfather had a Radiogram that played the old 16 rpm records and had a very similar changing system, I wish I could remember the brand name. I recall it was in a beautiful wooden cabinet and also had an old valve driven radio built in and the sound was amazing considering the age. It must have cost him quite a bit of money back when he purchased it. After he passed away my Dad inherited it and one of my childhood memories is him listening to BBC Radio Lincolnshire in the morning and drinking his tea. Sadly, it broke and was thrown away in the late 1980s. If only we'd kept it!
Your Muppet-conversation was so funny ! Maybe you should think of producing your own series - but, well, that's what you're already doing... Great Job !!!! And great review as usual.
Tech Moan, as noted by me in your other video. The Seeburg BMS discs uses a special stylus that is smaller than .07. As most of us know you can play an LP with a .1 mil stylus or even a .2 or .3.. they will play but will eventually cut out the groove in time ruining the record. I believe part of the reason Seeburg decided to use a smaller record groove is to squeeze a bit more lines of recorded music onto each disc.
I see its a 0.5 mil stylus. A .6 conical or spherical is probably close enough. I have never played a Seeburg record, but considering typical microgroove records often do well using various narrower elliptical/hyperelliptical/Shibata/Microridge/line/etc., perhaps the same applies with these.
5200 views, 524 likes, and 0 dislikes. Couldn't belive TH-cam people was actually able to not dislike a video, it must be an issue. Finished the video, I refresh and... there it is, 1 dislike, everything is fine... Really appreciated the video, I always like to see how you manage with simplicity to solve the problems you encounter on such machines. If it was some today tech everything would run in an IC, and a DC motor, and nothing of such elegance could be done...
My great grandmother had a turntable with built in amp that had the 16 speed setting. I remember it had quite a thick heavy metal base that sat on a spring mechanism that suspended it over the plinth. The knobs were quite large thick clear plastic that almost looked like glass. The knobs were smooth but had weight to them for lack of a better description. I remember it well because as a boy I can remember thinking how much nicer it was than the BSR turntable we had at home. I'd love to find one but don't even recall the model. I was about 7 the last I played a record on it.
I imagine a Miracord 50H II would also work great for this. It's an automatic changer, you can adjust where the arm sets down just like on this turntable, you have four speeds including 16 and 2/3, and you also have pitch adjustment, removing the need for the little heat shrink hack if you ended up with one that ran too fast/too slow.
Man you could irritate the neighborhood with background music with all the equipment you have, the results could be very amusing. Cool setup, very intuitive, I like your roundabout ways of accounting for the difference in electrical grids between the US and the UK.
Writing this a year after the fact, i.e. a decade in hipster time; but anyone noticed how it seems you can only get your caramel 'salted' nowadays? And how the hell did I survive for the best part of 50 years without even knowing what quinoa was ? As for chocolate, anything that good has to come from God, so much like his children; white, brown or black, it's all good! [And yes I know I'm the one who went there, but race identitarians etc., please spare me the replies or I'll come on your sites talking about old radios! Have to listen to enough of the racial stuff as it is from my missus!] But is it just me or does it seem like the higher the cocoa content the hipper than thou you are?! I mean, yeah, less than 40% and to my mind it can't even be called chocolate ( and as somebody else averred gtf with your vegetable fats, strictly cocoa butter and/or dairy fats only!) However you routinely see bars on sale that are 90% cocoa . maybe it's an acquired taste, but you can't kid me that the vast majority of people buying that stuff aren't just poseurs !
Matt, your mini sitcom was priceless. It was so good in fact that you could charge for it; but then, um, it wouldn't be cool? If TH-cam had been smart enough to invent a short keystroke paragraph replacement, one would be inserted here! In my wishful mind's eye I can see you in your waning years as the owner of a retro tech museum, a "Mecca" for lovers of retro tech and historic style where you would greet techno-pilgrims from around the world, and through the power of your exhibits help answer the universal burning question; "who are we", at least in part. "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome"
The puppets comments at the end are absolutely spot on, I love it. By trying to be cool, you'll never achieve coolness, the only real cool people are the ones who genuinely don't care if they are seen as cool or not. Of is it the other way around, I forget. :)
I have a battery + AC powered Panasonic, and a Zenith Cobramatic that both support four speed options, including the 16 RPM speed. Man, I love both of those old record players!
I don't know if anyone's mentioned it or not, but earlier Collaro / Magnavox Micromatic changers (made before mid-1967, if memory serves) do not require adjustment to play Seeburg records. The later ones are set up to detect only the standard three sizes, but the pre-1967 units have the ability to detect and properly cue non-standard sizes between 6 and 12 inches - no tweaks or modifications required.
All the turn tables I had when I was a kid, had two adjustment screws. One screw adjusted the position the arm set down on the record and the other screw set the distance the arm moved to sit on the arm rest. All my record decks had 16rpm speed in those days.
Looks like that changer is a later version of the Collaro Conquest design. The early Conquest changers (I've got one in a Magnavox console) could sense and drop the arm correctly on any non-standard or standard disc 7" to 12"...You could even intermix sizes as long as you stacked the records in the order of biggest (on bottom) to smallest. However, the latter Conquest changers, like yours, dropped support for non-standard sizes and instead would only drop on the positions for 7", 10" and 12"....If pickup arm feeler swing detected a Non-standard size it would simply round to the closest standard size (as it was doing rounding your 9" disc to 10"). Basically your Magnavox was adjusted to spec before you tweaked it to change 9" Seeburg Discs and now it probably won't set the arm down correctly for any other size records.
Years ago, I bought some seeburg records. I put them on a Pioneer Turntable PL-A35 at 33 1/3rpm and used a computer to record them at 44,100 Hz and then adjusted the speed to 22,050 Hz and they played at the proper speed.
my mothers dansette had 16 2/3 rpm, took me years to find out why, some cars in the 50's had a record player thay also did that rpm as it dealt with the bumps better
I love your channel and others popping up like them that really appeal to guys my age (e.g., 8-bit guy). One thing you didn't mention is that transcription records were often at 16 RPM; they were also much larger than 12"s!
Ahh, the Magnavox Micromatic. Love those things. Got one in a console, and it's rock solid. Decent tone-arm weight for the era, too. They called it the "micro-touch" stylus and it was designed to minimize record wear, pretty ahead of it's time. It's fantastic for playing 78's as well, but I don't really trust the automatic mechanism to handle shellac disks.
Wait, Techmoan, how does Side B work? Wouldn't they play backwards or something because they're being rotated the other way around? PS: I love Espresso and bitter dark chocolate, absolutely unironically. Never quite "got" olives though, but after living in Europe for a while, i did get used to them so they at least don't disturb me any longer. PPS: do people thumb you down ironically?
You can also do the same with a BSR record changer. There is a set-screw that adjusts the tonearm position, near the counterweight spring. Most units up until the mid 1970s were 4-speed, and are fairly common (and can be found under several brands).
I do seem to remember that our old, 'radiogram', at home used to have 16rpm on it, but it was never used. 33, 45 and 78 were the standard at the time, but I never came across any records that ran at 16rpm. So, I've learnt something today, that it was specifically for, 'audio books.' As a test card buff, (yeah, one of those), the music is very interesting to me.
When I was a kid (here in Canada) every school had a school record player and they had a 16 2/3 RPM option on them ... we of course, used it for 'story Time" once a week or so ... and we'd have to answer a few questions about the story afterwards.
HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! I just love the muppets at the end. And I must confess I was about to complain about the olives thing. :P The cool/uncool argument was brilliant.
Love your videos very professional, informative and detailed. I've always been an audio/videophile. Big interest in retro tech. Used to take apart everything to see what's inside before throwing away. Have to ask... are you the voice over for the video game Pneuma?
Wonderful job. Have you figured out how to get the player to play the flip side of the album? Probably have to play the unit upside down or something... 😉
my father was head of the engineering team at magnavox/ callaro here in the uk in the 60s/70s and designed that auto changer, i recognise the parts, he used to bing them home for me to play with he is now 92
ian gee, that is so cool! That must have blown your mind when you saw it!
Pass our best wishes on to your father, and why not show him this video so he can enjoy! :)
Tell him I think the mechanism is so freaking clever and that they don't make them like the used to.
show him this video, sure will bring him back good memories
Could be cool if Mat found such people and had a chat about the engineering etc.
Hey Mr Techmoan, I think you're one of the most pro youtuber's out there. Your videos are built on real genuine content, experience, research and knowledge. Your persona, editing and style is awesome. Techmoan channel is a pleasure in my life. Keep up the good work, I wish you all the best, and olives rock ok.
threepotgtti Totally agree with you there. The content just oozes personality!
Absolutely. These Seeburg posts in particular have been really interesting!
If all of youtube were to disappear tonight this is the only channel I'll truly miss
Shannon, agreed! Tecchmoan and The 8 bit guy will always have something exotic and get creative with it. That's the main appeal for me, I think :)
Shannon Smith what do you mean with tyy? I do not know that channel..
Life Hacks: Play your Seeburg records on a Magnavox Micromatic. That's a Buzzfeed headline I'd like to see.
Yes, I'm betting this is the one where I hit the big time.
Other world problems.
A few people asked how you play side B.... I didn't show it in the video because it's the same with any stacker record changer. When the player has played through the (4 hour) stack of records, take them off, flip them over, re-stack them, press go.
I was wondering whether they would actually play backwards (because the groove might track in the other direction as the side B stylus played the underside of the record) - but I guess not!
Edit: I see from comments below that I'm not the only one to have wondered about this...
Could you explain why they won't play backwards on the other side. From the needle's point of view the top spins clockwise, but on the real machine when playing the bottom it's spinning counter-clockwise. Isn't it? It seems that the needle would fall right off the record on side B.
Sorry, but this is really kind of a derp question. _Of course_ you would just flip them over. The fact that you have have to explain that is just silly.
Are you sure about this, because I don't believe it. In fact, it's 1:30 am and I just got up to make a cardboard model to verify my theory.
Looking down through the record, it's turning clockwise as far as both the top and bottom styli are concerned.
When the record is flipped, although the record itself is still turning clockwise, the bottom-turned-top side is now rotating backwards.
I wish I could include a picture to prove the point.
Ok, I missed one critical detail. The spindle for the upper position is turning the opposite direction as the spindle in the lower position. That wasn't clear without careful observation! So nevermind my previous comment.
That makes sense, or else special record mastering machines would have been required.
Testing your turntable with Men At Work's Down Under played too slow brings back memories. It was the first record I owned and I remember playing it at 16 & 2/3 on my dad's PYE Black Box. Gratifying that somebody on the other side of the world would do the almost same thing all these years later...
Ikr. At a slower speed sounds like reggae music.
As a dark chocolate-covered espresso bean lover, I am quite upset. :-P
aaw man those things are great! havent seen them in any shops for years tho
sad panda :(
Dang that was actually some good vaporwave at 3:22
Never thought I'd hear vaporwave Men At Work, let alone from a Techmoan video.
I'm sure someone has suggested this before. Have you considered using a 12 vdc to 120 vac - 60 hz inverter? You could probably use a small 12vdc battery charger to power it and and you'd have all the 120 v 60 hz power you'd ever need.
im not even interested in most of the things you demo but watch them anyway because it's so satisfying watching old hifi stuff and the production quality is great
I tried to get a specialized cassette player like TM has but I couldn't find anything that was in working order. Every listing said "Couldn't be bothered to test it, might not be working, scratched and dented, charging same price as if it was in perfect condition and professionally refurbished."
there IS a puppet show on this one. cool. :)
Do you REALLY like the puppet segments or only ironically so?
::Awaiting response in order to bestow my superior judgment on you as a person::
tosser piss off!!!!
Both!
Liking the muppets is cool, saying you like them is uncool.
Marc Chabot THE best puppet show today.
Oh man, this may have been the best muppets segment yet.
As for keeping an eye out for Seeburg discs, usually if there's a place selling records that isn't a record store, there's literally thousands of them all clustered together messily, already picked through, leaving nothing but trash. You've all seen those sections in antique malls.
Many people say that 3D printing is useless. They probably work for these corporations who want you to buy the new machine instead of fixing it.
3D printing is going to be so useful to fix all those old things whose manufacturers have either disappeared or don't make replacement parts anymore. Download the design or make it yourself and print it. It's a revolution.
Love your channel, real interesting content, none of the clickbait and boring vlog BS that's all over TH-cam.
This is and has been my favorite tech channel on TH-cam for 8 years now 👍
Great job as always also i was surprised when you showed up on the 8bitguy
It's like Tom Selleck appearing in Friends.
Are you two talking about the fisher price camera? You should make your own video on it!
I think it's been comprehensively covered...I'd just be repeating things.
Techmoan
That made me smile out loud.
how is the best way to transfer cassette tapes to MP3 ? please,
yea! im 44 but i love the endings with the puppets!!! ill never grow up!!! excellent video techmoan like always keep up the good work!!!
Same...I like his cheeky humor.
not that i'm saying anything, but you're 44 and you've got 44 likes on your comment.. Coincidence? :^)
I've recently realized that I enjoy your videos more than any other channel on youtube. Thank you very much for all of the hard work and brilliant content.
Your retro tech videos have inspired me to collect quite a few components with cool switches and wooden or woodlike finish (We could call them 'carbon fiber' lol)
In a time where everyone wants to review more and more new gadgets Techmoan seems to be on a trip back in time. Love how you dig up the old hardware and put life back into it. Not to mention a production that's slicker with every video.
Still, an update on a good 4k dashcam would be 'cool' too :-)
Ah yes, I'll take all the dark chocolate you can spare!
2 Techmoan in 2 days! Am I dreaming?
Bobby M Hellz yez! I fire up an open reel tape after a Techmoan vid!🙌🙌🙌 Is that foreplay or aft!?!? or does it matter?!?...Whoo Hoo 🙌😀🙌😀
WAQWBrentwood
Well it's like a hot pastrami sandwich , whether you eat it before during or after sex is irrelevant, it's still delicious.
I found you through 8-bit guy, thank you so much for what you do. You make TH-cam indispensable for me.
Your videos are great. I use them as reference guides when I do trips to my local landfill. There is a shed there that resells any electronics and salvage they find from the dump face or the get sent through recycling. So far we found some awesome video recorders and 1 of our best finds so far was the Sharp VZ2000 Turntable boombox, or the reel to reel players.
Thanks for the information and inspiration. Keep up the great work!
Always enjoy the vintage tech videos. This two-part series on the rare Seeburg background music player was especially interesting. Thanks and hello from Illinois, USA.
That's a lot of work to listen to cheesy 70s department store music, love it! Your level of dedication is admirable and entertaining, and the muppet hipster commentary at the end is icing on the cake!
Enjoy your videos, very professionally done and you explain everything so well. Just to chime in here, I have a BMS1000 and also the hideaway model, and over 100 records. Not only are these records an unusual size, they are also super-delicate. The groove spacing is far denser than an LP and the caution "Do not touch record grooves" is well to need. I have found the least scratch or blemish will cause them to skip or get stuck. The recommended stylus is 0.5 mil, not the usual 0.7 mil used for LPs. I enjoy my BMS1000 and believe me, the fidelity is surprisingly good.
You never fail to amaze me with your talent at getting these things to work (and work rather well), in this case a modification but other times just the way they are suppose to work. If I had just had a fraction of your electronics repair abilities, I could get my vintage turntables up and working again.
You should think about getting a 3D printer as I'm sure it would have been handy for some of your repairs and mods.
Michael Parker He does though.....
I thought he said he did have a 3d printer
@@generalshamic4777 I assumed he was printing them online. Unless you print tons of stuff, it's going to be a lot cheaper and more convenient to just use a 3d printing service.
Hey Techmoan, great video(s) about the SEEBURG 1000's. Older Magnavox record changers (the original COLLARO design) don't have to be adjusted for landing the tonearm. They possess "mechanical memory". They will actually land the tonearm for ANY size record; 12" 10" 7" AND 9". I too found the 2 inch spiders for the hole. I purchased 2 SEEBURG 1000's a couple years ago and using parts from both fully restored one beautiful museum quality piece. One last hurdle to be mindful of. . . . the grooves on these records are .5 mil. Most LP stylii are .7 mil. (conical) (.3x.7 elliptical). .7 mil. stylii are going to ride too high on the lands between the grooves for the best fidelity.
I actually found a vintage Stromberg-Carlson record changer that performs in the COLLARO style... "...tapping the record to determine size"; restored it and retrofitted a cartridge with a .5 mil. stylus and play all of my SEEBURG records. Rather than dedicate this changer for SEEBURG records I made the retrofit cartridge changeable for standard records too.
Kindred Spirit... tacolvard@charter.net
Fascinating to watch. RE the record size detector, the slightly older Magnavox models will play these odd-size records without any adjustment. And because the spindle is taller, they will play more of them.
Another great video. 👏 You do a fantastic job and I've never watched one of your videos and been left wanting more. You cover the topic completely and do so without boring the audience. Great editing and production. I truly look forward to watching the next new episode.
That Magnavox turntable is amazing, I have always loved record changers.
7:27: a subscriber decided they didn't like background music.
Love the video, got two identical 1970's Seeburg jukeboxes that someday may get a Raspberry Pi upgrade. I'm shocked it sounds like you are without a 3D printer in this video. I *highly* recommend if that's the case. A decent set of digital calipers and the wonderfully powerful, free OpenSCAD is all I need to design and have the part I need. OpenSCAD is a programming-based CAD tool so it has a learning curve but once past the syntax/semantics, it's wonderfully easy to construct complex shapes like gears & spacers in just a few lines, have them printed in 20minutes.
Cheers on the great videos! I also love watching them because I love seeing vintage stuff in crisp 4k res!
I believe I enjoy Techmoan's videos more than any other on TH-cam. Brilliant!
The puppet sketches are getting better, this one cracked me up! But, down with you- I love olives! Haven't bought them for years but I must defend their honour.
Techmoan, I had no idea the Magnavox Micromatic could play at 16 2/3 rpm. I just checked my Magnavox console stereo and to my amazement, it had a Micromatic installed! I purchased the thing for a classic console and had no idea of its capabilities.
Thank you for the informative video!
You have the best TH-cam channel from my opinion. Best greetings from Romania, Mr. Techmoan! :)
This two parter about the Seeburg background music struck a chord with me (forgive the pun or not). For some odd reason that I can't quite figure out, this old music seemed to connect directly to some subconscious memories from my childhood. I beleive I heard a lot of that music as a child shopping with my parents and hearing it again filled me with nostalgia. I kept thinking how enjoyable it would be to have one of those players with "days" of nonstop music. I could load it up and listen all day or all week while working without ever having to change the channel or decide what to hear next. I am from the "radio" and old network tv generation. We didn't choose our playlists, someone else did it for us. I may have to buy some of these collections from Seeburg1000.com just to satisfy my nostalgic cravings.
p.s. New fan! I love every one of your videos. I have spent way too much time watching your channel and have not seen one yet that isn't fun to watch and learn from. There is something about the way you present the information that makes it fun and the effort you go to researching is astounding. I especially enjoy "the puppets" at the end. What a great way to express annoyance with absurd behavior without going on a rant as many do.
I will say I am mainly a fan of your retro tech videos. I actually have an old laserdisc player, but my discs got warped when stored improperly during a heat wave years ago. I tried using it once with a warped disc and it actually played fine but the sound and vibration was terrifying and I shut it off before something exploded and killed me.
Yes! Some of my oldest memories are of music.
I love the little 'muppet' banter at the end when they talk about being cool. It is so funny.
My Grandfather had a Radiogram that played the old 16 rpm records and had a very similar changing system, I wish I could remember the brand name. I recall it was in a beautiful wooden cabinet and also had an old valve driven radio built in and the sound was amazing considering the age. It must have cost him quite a bit of money back when he purchased it. After he passed away my Dad inherited it and one of my childhood memories is him listening to BBC Radio Lincolnshire in the morning and drinking his tea. Sadly, it broke and was thrown away in the late 1980s. If only we'd kept it!
"Abandoned shop full of Zombies" gave me a chuckle. Thanks for continuing to make interesting and fun videos. :)
Your Muppet-conversation was so funny ! Maybe you should think of producing your own series - but, well, that's what you're already doing... Great Job !!!! And great review as usual.
I came for the background music, stayed for the unironically hilarious puppet show. ;)
Tech Moan, as noted by me in your other video. The Seeburg BMS discs uses a special stylus that is smaller than .07. As most of us know you can play an LP with a .1 mil stylus or even a .2 or .3.. they will play but will eventually cut out the groove in time ruining the record. I believe part of the reason Seeburg decided to use a smaller record groove is to squeeze a bit more lines of recorded music onto each disc.
I see its a 0.5 mil stylus. A .6 conical or spherical is probably close enough. I have never played a Seeburg record, but considering typical microgroove records often do well using various narrower elliptical/hyperelliptical/Shibata/Microridge/line/etc., perhaps the same applies with these.
Man i love these videos
cool. i found that same turntable in my gramps basement when i was a kid, but i never could get it to work as i had no idea wtf i was doing :9
Amazingly professional video, as per usual, fantastic work! The puppet bits are hilarious
YES! Part two. I think you should do a video about Quadraphonic stuff.
5200 views, 524 likes, and 0 dislikes. Couldn't belive TH-cam people was actually able to not dislike a video, it must be an issue. Finished the video, I refresh and... there it is, 1 dislike, everything is fine...
Really appreciated the video, I always like to see how you manage with simplicity to solve the problems you encounter on such machines. If it was some today tech everything would run in an IC, and a DC motor, and nothing of such elegance could be done...
My great grandmother had a turntable with built in amp that had the 16 speed setting. I remember it had quite a thick heavy metal base that sat on a spring mechanism that suspended it over the plinth. The knobs were quite large thick clear plastic that almost looked like glass. The knobs were smooth but had weight to them for lack of a better description. I remember it well because as a boy I can remember thinking how much nicer it was than the BSR turntable we had at home. I'd love to find one but don't even recall the model. I was about 7 the last I played a record on it.
So glad part 2 is up already, excellent vid as always!
The puppets reminded me the bickerings of Clarkson and Hammond and The Cool Wall on Top Gear :D Great job Techmoan
I imagine a Miracord 50H II would also work great for this. It's an automatic changer, you can adjust where the arm sets down just like on this turntable, you have four speeds including 16 and 2/3, and you also have pitch adjustment, removing the need for the little heat shrink hack if you ended up with one that ran too fast/too slow.
Man you could irritate the neighborhood with background music with all the equipment you have, the results could be very amusing. Cool setup, very intuitive, I like your roundabout ways of accounting for the difference in electrical grids between the US and the UK.
I like dark chocolate ironically ironically.
No, see, I unironically _dis_ like it, but I pretend to ironically like it, even though I don't.
Writing this a year after the fact, i.e. a decade in hipster time; but anyone noticed how it seems you can only get your caramel 'salted' nowadays? And how the hell did I survive for the best part of 50 years without even knowing what quinoa was ? As for chocolate, anything that good has to come from God, so much like his children; white, brown or black, it's all good! [And yes I know I'm the one who went there, but race identitarians etc., please spare me the replies or I'll come on your sites talking about old radios! Have to listen to enough of the racial stuff as it is from my missus!] But is it just me or does it seem like the higher the cocoa content the hipper than thou you are?! I mean, yeah, less than 40% and to my mind it can't even be called chocolate ( and as somebody else averred gtf with your vegetable fats, strictly cocoa butter and/or dairy fats only!) However you routinely see bars on sale that are 90% cocoa . maybe it's an acquired taste, but you can't kid me that the vast majority of people buying that stuff aren't just poseurs !
Matt, your mini sitcom was priceless. It was so good in fact that you could charge for it; but then, um, it wouldn't be cool? If TH-cam had been smart enough to invent a short keystroke paragraph replacement, one would be inserted here! In my wishful mind's eye I can see you in your waning years as the owner of a retro tech museum, a "Mecca" for lovers of retro tech and historic style where you would greet techno-pilgrims from around the world, and through the power of your exhibits help answer the universal burning question; "who are we", at least in part. "Drizzle, Drazzle, Druzzle, Drome"
The puppets comments at the end are absolutely spot on, I love it. By trying to be cool, you'll never achieve coolness, the only real cool people are the ones who genuinely don't care if they are seen as cool or not. Of is it the other way around, I forget. :)
Love the videos... The amount of research and trial and error must be astronomical. Plus the Muppets always make me laugh 😅
Two techmoans in one week, what a world. Great vid, yet again.
Great video. I remember that BSR turntables that were in many budget stereos in the 70's-80's could play at 16 speed.
I have a battery + AC powered Panasonic, and a Zenith Cobramatic that both support four speed options, including the 16 RPM speed. Man, I love both of those old record players!
I don't know if anyone's mentioned it or not, but earlier Collaro / Magnavox Micromatic changers (made before mid-1967, if memory serves) do not require adjustment to play Seeburg records. The later ones are set up to detect only the standard three sizes, but the pre-1967 units have the ability to detect and properly cue non-standard sizes between 6 and 12 inches - no tweaks or modifications required.
That puppet skit was quite excellent! Mmmm.... olives covered in dark chocolate!
You're right no one really likes Olives, Espresso nor dark chocolate. :o)
It's time for a baby muppet. Expand the family...
All the turn tables I had when I was a kid, had two adjustment screws.
One screw adjusted the position the arm set down on the record and the other screw set the distance the arm moved to sit on the arm rest. All my record decks had 16rpm speed in those days.
The puppets at the end make a return, nice to see.
spoiler!
I love when the puppets mockmessage board dopes.
Loved the both the presentation and the Muppet show. I don't care about olives, but espresso and dark chocolate rock!
Great stuff - and possibly one of the best puppet skits, too.
You're dressing pretty dapper these days. Looks good. Great work. Cool.
Looks like that changer is a later version of the Collaro Conquest design. The early Conquest changers (I've got one in a Magnavox console) could sense and drop the arm correctly on any non-standard or standard disc 7" to 12"...You could even intermix sizes as long as you stacked the records in the order of biggest (on bottom) to smallest. However, the latter Conquest changers, like yours, dropped support for non-standard sizes and instead would only drop on the positions for 7", 10" and 12"....If pickup arm feeler swing detected a Non-standard size it would simply round to the closest standard size (as it was doing rounding your 9" disc to 10"). Basically your Magnavox was adjusted to spec before you tweaked it to change 9" Seeburg Discs and now it probably won't set the arm down correctly for any other size records.
Years ago, I bought some seeburg records. I put them on a Pioneer Turntable PL-A35 at 33 1/3rpm and used a computer to record them at 44,100 Hz and then adjusted the speed to 22,050 Hz and they played at the proper speed.
Man, I can't get enough of your stuff on dead media.
You could do an entire channel for those muppet skits. I for one think they should be presenters for a new BBC chat show. :)
This part 2 was so quick to follow! Great work!
Love it when you find a awesome channel filled with content :)
That muppet show was brilliant. Cheers!
I've a 1950'S PYE stereogram that I inherited that would play 16 2/3 rpm, just thought I'd share that lol
my mothers dansette had 16 2/3 rpm, took me years to find out why, some cars in the 50's had a record player thay also did that rpm as it dealt with the bumps better
Chrysler's Hi-way HiFi. My dad had one in an old Chrysler he was trying to restore. He never could get it to work right, though.
We had a LENCO drive with a rubber wheel drive puting out 78, 45, 33 and 16rpm on an Swedish SCANTIC system when I grew up.
I love your channel and others popping up like them that really appeal to guys my age (e.g., 8-bit guy).
One thing you didn't mention is that transcription records were often at 16 RPM; they were also much larger than 12"s!
Excellent sir, I can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos.
Ahh, the Magnavox Micromatic. Love those things. Got one in a console, and it's rock solid. Decent tone-arm weight for the era, too. They called it the "micro-touch" stylus and it was designed to minimize record wear, pretty ahead of it's time. It's fantastic for playing 78's as well, but I don't really trust the automatic mechanism to handle shellac disks.
You really give The Muppets a run for their money with that quality lampooning of all the muppets in the comments. Good job bloke.
Wait, Techmoan, how does Side B work? Wouldn't they play backwards or something because they're being rotated the other way around?
PS: I love Espresso and bitter dark chocolate, absolutely unironically. Never quite "got" olives though, but after living in Europe for a while, i did get used to them so they at least don't disturb me any longer.
PPS: do people thumb you down ironically?
And as always, thank you for making another excellent video.
3:22 When the batteries in your Walkman are dying, but you can't put in fresh ones until you finish walking home from school.
I love this! I knew nothing of this system, well, Muzak, yes, but this ... awesome!
i cant explain how much i love you and your things, including that jealousy inducing shirt.
Love the puppets, even though I enjoy olives, espresso and dark chocolate. People (and puppets) can have different opinions on such things.
your opinion is wrong idiot!!!!
Another great video, and one of the funniest muppet skits ever! Faaaaantastic!
You can also do the same with a BSR record changer. There is a set-screw that adjusts the tonearm position, near the counterweight spring. Most units up until the mid 1970s were 4-speed, and are fairly common (and can be found under several brands).
I could listen to your voice for months on end.
Exceptionally good ending on this one. Very cool.
I do seem to remember that our old, 'radiogram', at home used to have 16rpm on it, but it was never used. 33, 45 and 78 were the standard at the time, but I never came across any records that ran at 16rpm. So, I've learnt something today, that it was specifically for, 'audio books.'
As a test card buff, (yeah, one of those), the music is very interesting to me.
That was the most I have laughed at a puppet segment. You really had me laughing on that one.
When I was a kid (here in Canada) every school had a school record player and they had a 16 2/3 RPM option on them ... we of course, used it for 'story Time" once a week or so ... and we'd have to answer a few questions about the story afterwards.
HAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! I just love the muppets at the end. And I must confess I was about to complain about the olives thing. :P
The cool/uncool argument was brilliant.
If anyone should get into 3D printing it's this guy.
Love your videos very professional, informative and detailed. I've always been an audio/videophile. Big interest in retro tech. Used to take apart everything to see what's inside before throwing away. Have to ask... are you the voice over for the video game Pneuma?
Love your videos but I especially love those puppet bits at the end!
I knew you could get 3D-printed adapters for these special records!
Wonderful job. Have you figured out how to get the player to play the flip side of the album? Probably have to play the unit upside down or something... 😉