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  #1  
Old 07-28-2013, 07:48 PM
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radiotvnut radiotvnut is offline
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1965 Admiral record player

Yesterday, I spotted this Admiral solid state record player from 1965 at the flea market. The flea market owner claimed he paid a guy $20 for it and he'd sell it to me for what he paid for it. This one is in better shape than the usual ones I've been finding with trashed cabinets that they want more money for; so, I went ahead and got it. The flea market owner said that the guy he bought it from claimed that it was in working order; but, we all know how that goes.

One strange thing about this one is that it's the same size as a full sized stereo unit; but, this is only a mono unit with L and R speakers wired in parallel. That's not a big problem because most of the cheaper stereo models had seperate L and R volume controls; which, I don't like. Given the small size, there wouldn't be much stereo seperation, anyway.

Sure enough, the changer runs through it's cycle and it does play a record; but, the original 3V crystal cartridge is nearly dead and the volume has to be turned all the way up in order to get anything. I tested the amp by touching the cartridge terminals and I get a loud BUZZ from the speaker; so, the cartridge is shot.

This unit uses a Varco TOH-46V cartridge; which, is an oddball turn-over cartridge that's mounted in a holder that's held in place with a single screw that's hidden under a decorative peel-up label on top of the headshell. www.thevoiceofmusic.com does not show this cartridge; but, I'm going to contact him anyway to see if he has a substitute available. It would have been nice had they used a standard 1/2" mount; but, they didn't and I'll just have to see what options are available.

Looking at the amp, it is line driven (no power transformer) and appears to only have two transistors (the output mounted on a heatsink and one preamp transistor on the circuit board). This amp has very few components; but, looking at the PC board, it's evident that they used this same basic chassis for their better stereo amplifiers. Also notice that it still retains it's original cardboard tubular multi-section filter cap; which, seems to still be good. However, it will be replaced to help insure against future failure.

The changer is an Admiral Ensign changer. I've seen a few of these in Admiral products, as well as a few store branded record players; and, these changers seem to be decent. I don't recall any major problems with the ones I worked on.











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Old 08-02-2013, 03:31 AM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Looks beautiful!!

Looks like she has 5 speeds?? (16,33,45,78 and I thought I saw 8 on that dial!! (Next to no players I have seen have 8))
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Old 08-02-2013, 11:48 AM
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That's actually a neutral setting. The only 8 rpm players that I've seen were for playing talking books for the blind.
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Old 08-02-2013, 12:52 PM
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Looks something like a record player I used to have a long time ago, but that was a newer model with detachable speakers. Cheapo turntable too I think.
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Old 08-02-2013, 02:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
That's actually a neutral setting. The only 8 rpm players that I've seen were for playing talking books for the blind.
Interesting (to me, anyway) that Admiral would use the numeral "8" on that changer's speed selector to mark the neutral position. I would expect, rather, to see the letter "N", which would make more sense. What was the neutral position used for? I don't recall ever seeing a record changer before this one which had it. The only thing I can come up with is the neutral position stopped the turntable and disengaged it from the drive mechanism, so the amplifier could be used with an external radio tuner, or as a PA system amplifier; however, with only two transistors, that amplifier couldn't have had much output, even at full volume.

As to the cartridge, I'm sure there are suitable substitutes for the original to be found if you do some looking. Crystal cartridges lose output as they age, so after 46 years, it is little wonder this one is almost dead. You could substitute a ceramic or magnetic cartridge, but this would require the use of a preamplifier ahead of it since this type of cartridge does not have nearly as much output as does a crystal cartridge. My best guess is this unit was fitted with a crystal cartridge because it was a low-end model, probably intended for use by teenagers to play their favorite rock-and-roll records of the time. This player has a mono amplifier with parallel-connected speakers for the same reason. Again, my best guess is these players were sold at cheap prices, so it would be unrealistic to expect them to have stereo amplifiers or high-end cartridges.

Most record changers or single-play turntables designed for use with "talking book" records had a 16 2/3 rpm setting on the speed selector. I don't know how long the 8-rpm speed was used. I had record players as a kid which had four-speed turntables, one of those speeds being 16 rpm. The 8-rpm speed may have been eliminated by the time your Admiral record player was introduced.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 08-02-2013 at 02:34 PM.
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  #6  
Old 08-02-2013, 02:47 PM
bob91343 bob91343 is offline
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The neutral position was for storage, so that the idler wheel didn't develop flat spots from being pressed against the spindle constantly.
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Old 08-02-2013, 04:12 PM
Dude111 Dude111 is offline
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Hmmmm I thought NEUTRAL was for testing (The table would be free to move at whatever speed you wanted to test (Provided you could spin it that fast/slow manually))
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Old 08-02-2013, 06:44 PM
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Most changers automatically disengaged the idler wheel when the function selector was turned off; but, some changers (such as this one) were not designed to automatically disengage.

To my knowledge, no 8 rpm record player was made avaiable for sale to the general public. The speed was used by the library of congress for it's talking books for the blind and the library of congress also loaned out free players that would play these records. The 8 rpm speed was chosen in order to get more material on a record and to get around copyright issues. In order to copy this material without having to pay, it could only be reproduced in a specialized format that can't be accessed by the average person on average playback equipment. The LOC began to use 8 rpm records for some magazines during the late '60's and by '73, all talking book records were recorded at 8 rpm. The format remained until the end of the year 2000, when the last remaining magazines were shifted from 9" flexible disc 8 rpm records to 4-track, 15/16 IPS cassettes. Now, cassettes have been phased out (I received what is probably my last talking book Magazine on cassette in late June-early July) in favor of digital cartridges that are only playable on the player supplied by the LOC.

The only exception way one could purchase one of these talking book record players was to buy one through the American Printing House for the Blind or American Foundation for the Blind; but, their availability was not made known to the general public. Most TB record players from the mid '60's on up were manual play models that had 8, 16, and 33 rpm speeds, with 16 and 33 rpm being for older books recorded before the 8 rpm record was introduced and for other organizations who still produced 16 rpm material.
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Old 08-02-2013, 11:36 PM
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Here's a video on the Admiral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmaEeYdyKA

The new cartridge has plenty of output and the player sounds well to have so few parts in the amplifier; however, I think the suspension may be too hard in the new cartridge because it skips violently on later records and even skips a fair amount on older mono 45 rpm records that I know play fine on other units. I wonder if there is some type of chemical I can put on the suspension that will soften it up? Otherwise, I may have to install a modern 1V cartridge and live with low volume. The main reason I went with a NOS cartridge is because of the way it mounts. It would have been nice had everyone went with 1/2" mounting; but, unfortunately, they did not.
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Old 08-03-2013, 12:14 AM
bob91343 bob91343 is offline
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I presume you have played around with stylus pressure and arm balance. The latter seems to be an important aspect; so many arms are cartridge-end heavy and have a very different resonance from the motor chassis. Thus you get unstable pressure in the groove. Merely adding weight behind the pivot doesn't work too often because it lowers the resonance even more.

I had a friend who chopped large chunks out of a tone arm and was successful in raising its resonance so that it was more stable. Anything you do will entail major modification and is probably not worth it.
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Old 08-03-2013, 01:16 AM
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I haven't checked the pressure; but, will do that tomorrow. This one appears to be adjusted by a screw that adjust the position of a counterbalance spring at the rear of the tonearm.
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Old 08-04-2013, 12:08 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
Here's a video on the Admiral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmaEeYdyKA

The new cartridge has plenty of output and the player sounds well to have so few parts in the amplifier; however, I think the suspension may be too hard in the new cartridge because it skips violently on later records and even skips a fair amount on older mono 45 rpm records that I know play fine on other units. I wonder if there is some type of chemical I can put on the suspension that will soften it up? Otherwise, I may have to install a modern 1V cartridge and live with low volume. The main reason I went with a NOS cartridge is because of the way it mounts. It would have been nice had everyone went with 1/2" mounting; but, unfortunately, they did not.
I think the newer one volt cartridge should be loud enough, because of the driver stage in the amplifier. The amp has more gain than the single tube jobs that came out earlier.
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Old 08-04-2013, 11:20 PM
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Jon A. Jon A. is offline
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Pardon my ignorance, but can a new cartridge suspension be made by cutting a new piece of rubber?
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Old 08-05-2013, 10:17 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut View Post
Here's a video on the Admiral:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmaEeYdyKA

The new cartridge has plenty of output and the player sounds well to have so few parts in the amplifier; however, I think the suspension may be too hard in the new cartridge because it skips violently on later records and even skips a fair amount on older mono 45 rpm records that I know play fine on other units. I wonder if there is some type of chemical I can put on the suspension that will soften it up? Otherwise, I may have to install a modern 1V cartridge and live with low volume. The main reason I went with a NOS cartridge is because of the way it mounts. It would have been nice had everyone went with 1/2" mounting; but, unfortunately, they did not.
The amp schematic is found in Beitmans 1966 manual.
I thought the Ohmite Brown Devil was a replacement, sometime earlier in it's life. Should have been a fusible type resistor.
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