The first RCA "45" player
 

I just acquired one of these 1949 RCA Victor 9EY3 45 record player. This first generation player has a nice large chocolatey bakelite case. Later ones are smaller with the gold motor board. It's a little heavier than you would expect and has a feel of quality about it. The design is a very clean post-war one with a distinct departure from the passé round streamlined curves of years earlier. This unit was completely overhauled and sounds so nice. Something like a small jukebox from the era with a full rich warm tone. You can stack 10 selections on it and just walk away!

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...7&d=1518905551

Nice...I love those damn things! :yes:

I've got a 45-EY-1 almost the same as that but a later revision. They are fun little players. I need to get mine to consistently drop a record...The stack likes to go crooked on the change cycle and not let the bottom one go.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4595/...2cce60c906.jpgDSCN2813 by Tom Carlson, on Flickr

It is impressive how good of audio RCA was able to squeeze out of what amounts to an AA5 with the converter and IF tubes (ie all the radio stuff) stripped off.

Yes, it seems these have a fierce following! Many collectors seem to end up with several of them. I'm a fan already. I was told that some 45's will need to have the hole trimmed/smoothed. If not it might get caught-up on the spindle and not drop. Mine does this too, but so far only with one record.

The one pictured is the first one I acquired and my only unit with the RP-168 mech. I have a couple more that use the RP-190 mech and a couple stacks of 45's as tall as the players...The 190s handle the same records just fine (or drop 2 at a time once in a blue moon)...I have ~5 that neither the 190 or 168 like that I've been planning to trim.
One thing I dislike about the 168 mech is that instead of the spindle cycle shaft being a fine-toothed gear(as the 190 has) it is instead a 4 tooth star with no intuitive indexing on the shaft...When changing the idler wheel it is hard to get the star back on at the correct rotational index for it to work.

I just recently restored a 6EY2 , just to be able to play the stack of 45s I've got . This is a 1955 manufactured unit that still used the Octal 12SQ7 35Z5 and 50L6 , I'd have figured by the mid 50s they would all have been the 12AV6 35W4 50C5 but maybe RCA had a few warehouses full of the Octals to use up . I bought the rubber wheel and the cartridge from Gary at Voice of music , recapped the amp , and yes indeed this little unit can really belt out a tune !

Nice phono. That model was originally my first choice if I ever got one, but then I realized I like them all! I was just listening to Be-Bop-A-Lula by Gee Vincent and it really sounded like a vintage jukebox playing. The sound from these fills the room.

Noice.

Thanks. I see what collectors mean now about wanting more than one of these. Between the fun of watching it work and the room-filling rich sound, they are a must-have collectible.

Did you know they even made one for mounting in a car? Probably didn't work too well unless you were on a smooth road or parked at the local drive-in.

IIRC Philco / Ford tried it with smaller records. Also Chrysler with
regular 45's. Needless to say it didnt work well. Never get away with it
in newer "feel of the road" cars. Land yachts were built not to
have it & just float like a cloud. It would work much better in them.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

The Chrysler Highway HI-FI used 16&2/3 and they resembled 45's, specially made by Columbia? for it. The recordings were like easy-listening or so. They only played one record at a time, made by Motorola and could be plugged into a socket provided for it on the Philco or Motorola built Mopar radios.
The after-market 45 changers played the records upside down using a counter-balanced tone arm. They worked exactly the opposite of the RCA player. When the record was through playing, it was dropped to the bottom of the unit. They worked rather well, but were really hard on records.

Chrysler's version played the special records that look like small 33 1/3 records (left photo). There was also the type that played regular 45's by RCA (right photo).

Nearly the Last
 

At the other end of the age spectrum is the model 7-EV-2HH, which my wife got as a birthday present in the mid to late 50s. It has "hit the bench" for a re-cap and a lube job... will need a new cartridge as well, as it has very low output.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4744/...b34fa3_z_d.jpg

It uses three 7 pin tubes, no octals.

Fun project!

jr

Enter "muhammad ali record player" into Google Image search to see him and many others with in-car phonographs... Most pics are slightly different than the Chrysler version above.