Silvertone manumatic & Motorola portable record players

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

Magnavox always had a "bargain line." In the 70's it was the mini V-M 2100 changers and even (God forgive them) BSR's.

I never saw a mini changer built by V-M. I thought they were built by BSR. I never worked at a shop, where they handled a large volume of work, like you younger techs. Around that time was the begining of the end of quality consumer electronics.

[Jeffhs]

It's interesting to me that many of you seem to look down on BSR record changers. I had a Zenith IS-4041 four-mode integrated stereo system with a BSR changer; had the system 17 years, never one bit of trouble with the changer, although I never used it much (most of my music was on cassettes in those days [now on CDs as well], so the cassette deck saw much more use than the changer ever did). However, I knew someone in the '80s who had the same opinion of BSR record changers as do many of you; I once told him my stereo had such a changer in it. He responded, "BSR means BS" or something like that, so I guess BSR record changers had a bad reputation even thirty years ago, or perhaps even further back than that. I always thought BSR changers were made by a British company (BSR MacDonald, IIRC) and, as such, were a cut or more above other foreign-made (and even some US-built) changers. It would not surprise me one bit if BSR wound up outsourcing its business to offshore companies thirty years or more ago.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

It's interesting to me that many of you seem to look down on BSR record changers. I had a Zenith IS-4041 four-mode integrated stereo system with a BSR changer; had the system 17 years, never one bit of trouble with the changer...

BSR changers (and I'll have to limit my comments to the 1970's models) did the job and were easy to service, but I swear I've never had one run at the correct speed. I have good pitch and it grates on me to hear a record spinning too fast. I actually retrofitted a V-M into my Zenith IS-4041 before it got shelved.

I have a few BSR and Glenburn changers that are as close to new condition as they get. They're going to be sold eventually - I guess the speed discrepancy didn't bother most people.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

I never saw a mini changer built by V-M. I thought they were built by BSR. I never worked at a shop, where they handled a large volume of work, like you younger techs. Around that time was the begining of the end of quality consumer electronics.

Here's a "mini" V-M from about 1973:

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

Here's a "mini" V-M from about 1973:

OK. Now I remember seeing one of those. The thing that made me remember it was the on-off-rej knob, that also locked the tone arm, to minimize stylus damage.