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  #16  
Old 02-27-2014, 04:31 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Are any of the VM school record players stereo models?

I never knew anything about tracking force before coming to this board, I certainly don't want that harm any records that I might be playing or just testing. The only record I have right now is that complimentary record that came with Admiral color TVs at one time. I have no record player, so no idea if there are any skips.

Last edited by Jon A.; 02-27-2014 at 04:34 PM.
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  #17  
Old 02-27-2014, 06:54 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DavGoodlin View Post
I remember Newcomb and V-M players from elementary and middle school, mostly because they sounded better than my 1973 GE plastic clamshell. Not a close'n'play

It was a hard thing to admit, that my school had some better equipment than I did.

Those classroom portable school platters seemed to sound good, especially when the platter in the cafetorium/stage or gym system played through narrow-band horn speakers intended for speech, making anything sound awful!
Most school age children only had simple kiddie record players. Manual turntables and one tube or low power solid state amplifiers. When they got a little older, maybe they got an inexpensive portable stereo, such as the GE offerings.
The schools had equipment specified by the school board and were usually a lot more expensive than the consumer models. The amplifiers had to be a lot more powerful, for large areas.
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  #18  
Old 02-28-2014, 08:27 PM
orthophonic orthophonic is offline
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I agree that the VM AV models were a cut above most others, the turntable
drive was superior and they had much better tonearms and cartridges.
They made several Stereo models, the 296 is one that comes to mind.
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  #19  
Old 02-28-2014, 10:05 PM
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Most of the VM models that I've seen had a "stripped down" changer platform that worked well. I had such a solid state VM school record player that had a powerpoint 89T cartridge in it; but, I don't know if it was original to the player.
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  #20  
Old 03-01-2014, 07:45 AM
orthophonic orthophonic is offline
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yes, most the AV VM's used a modified manual version of their changer,
a few models even added variable speed control.

A few of the lower price VM AV models used the sound flo or power point
cartridge but most used the excellent Euphonics, by the late 60's they
were using Tetrads.
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  #21  
Old 05-13-2014, 08:43 PM
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By the time I was 9 years old, I had superior gear to school phonos however. I had a Dynakit Stereo 70 power amp, a Dynakit PAS3X preamplifier, Dynaco A 25 speakers, a HH ScottKit tuner SS based version of the 312D, and a AR XA91. Bought with my first radio station paycheck as a young part time engineer assistant/DJ. I built the kits too, had a great time doing it.
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  #22  
Old 07-06-2014, 07:53 PM
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And except for the very cheapest model, or two. All the VM Classroom phonos are of excellent quality in their build and sound. And their adapted changer mechanism as a single play is gentle to records and works great.
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  #23  
Old 07-29-2014, 04:01 PM
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This thread is so interesting that I had to add my two cents.

I was an AV guy in high school and got to use and figure out all that great old equipment. Bell and Howells, Califones, Beselers, DuKanes, Audiotronics, Wollensaks and even a Webcor reel-to-reel. I worked in the high school media center for two years during study hall and went on to repair that equipment as a career after college. First in my own business and then for the school system as their first repair technician.

I don't think they ever threw anything away at my high school. They still had IBM electrics from the early 1950s when the school was built, and this was 1975-76. And they still worked great, but nobody wanted to use them but me.

I too remember the bad sound from a tinny little speaker sometimes. I also remember seeing 16mm projectors that were rarely used because the Bell and Howells threaded automatically and they were on carts that went out into the classrooms. Those old projectors just sat in the corner most of the time.

We had a rather temperamental media lady and she must have gotten even with our French teacher one day--who knows, maybe she put in a last-minute request? I walked into the classroom one day to discover the RCA 16mm projector set up and ready to show a film.

It was a National Geographic film, with that wonderful theme song at the first. That RCA projector had a separate speaker (with a red RCA logo in a metal grille) and it was working perfectly. Such wonderful sound! I was awestruck. It actually had bass. I've never forgotten that moment in time. A projector from the 1950s working perfectly in the 1970s and better than the new projectors too.

Our science teacher, who was more like a mad scientist, had a brown Bell and Howell 16mm with a door on the side. He was the only teacher who would put up with threading it. I learned how to thread all of them and that was fun. He also had a huge blue overhead projector.

It's amazing how easy to service all that old equipment was. I could figure out how to repair it even as a high school kid.
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  #24  
Old 08-01-2014, 07:05 PM
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I've seen some projectors that actually had a built-in record player. My school district had tons of old equipment; but, in the early 2000's, they came into some money that allowed them to come into the 21st century and the old stuff went to auction, with much of it going to the dump when no one bought it.
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  #25  
Old 08-01-2014, 07:27 PM
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I was starting the 4th grade- in 1966- when they put TVs in all the classrooms. They all tuned the local cable channel system's offerings. Back then, SOMETIMES, the teacher would turn on the TV & we'd watch a Gemini taking off...IIRC, the TVs were 23-24" B/W-Don't remember the brand. They were STILL THERE in the mid/late Eighties..
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  #26  
Old 08-01-2014, 09:37 PM
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My junior high school was built in 1967 and it had those same TVs. They were 23" GE B&W with light gray metal cabinets and they were usually on tall carts that tilted them down a little. I started working for the same school system in 1985 and they were still there, but weren't used very much, so they all still worked fine, or all the ones I ever checked did. They were eventually sold at auction like everything else.

That school didn't have school-wide cable or MATV until Channel One came through in the 1990s, so we never watched anything live that I recall. If we did, it was with rabbit ears.
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  #27  
Old 08-02-2014, 10:40 AM
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During the '80's, my elementary school had 2 or 3 23" RCA tube color TV's with the jack panel on the rear of the set (CTC39 "mural TV"), sitting on a roll around metal cart and connected to a Sony U-matic tape machine. Later, they got a standard VCR to go along with the U-matic machine. The only newer TV was a 25" Zenith "custom series" that was in the library. If a teacher wanted the TV, he/she had to check it out in advance.

In late '89-early '90, the schools got channel one; so, most every classroom got a 19" Magnavox wall mounted TV and there was a CCTV system in the library. So, that pretty much did away with the roll around TV's. For some reason, my 10th grade biology class didn't get a TV mounted in the room; so, it still had one of those RCA tube sets in there that was just barely making it by the early-to-mid '90's.
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  #28  
Old 08-02-2014, 10:57 AM
walterbeers walterbeers is offline
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I remember they had record players like that in elementary school, but don't remember what models or makes they were. We used to have to square dance to square dance music during PE time. We also watched film projectors, (probably were 16mm), that had sound, and then the schools got some B&W RCA TVs on carts, which received UHF, so we could watch the one educational channel available at that time in Omaha. I guess I was jealous, those TVs could get a channel that I couldn't get at home. I also remember one time we were going to watch something on TV at school and the set wouldn't come on, and my teacher had no idea what to do, so I suggested she push the red button on the back (circuit breaker) and the set came on. I was either in 5th or 6th grade.
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  #29  
Old 01-06-2015, 06:28 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
Most of the VM models that I've seen had a "stripped down" changer platform that worked well. I had such a solid state VM school record player that had a powerpoint 89T cartridge in it; but, I don't know if it was original to the player.
We were talking about this in another thread. My only beef with that arm was since it was meant for a changer originally, the arm slopes downward so the VTA is incorrect. I wish there was a way to flatten the arm.

Still I remember playing Billie Jean off of Jacko's Thrilller LP on the 275/AV (pretty sure that was the one with Volume and Tone on the front of the case with no label). It sounded terrific.
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  #30  
Old 01-15-2015, 05:01 PM
centralradio centralradio is offline
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Wow .Those Califone's give me old 1960's and 70's classroom memories along with B&H 16mm film projectors.

For videotape a/v equipment .They had 1/2 inch Panasonic's and later with Sony Umatic machines.

Probably now all the school systems got rid of them which they probably started dumping them in the early 1980's for updated machines until CDs came out.
With luck some might have them in their cold storage area.

Last edited by centralradio; 01-15-2015 at 05:06 PM.
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