There is something unique about the smell of a paper "leatherette" covered phonograph

[JCFitz]

This Magnavox suitcase style player I had posted about for a resistor value has a unique smell especially when the tubes and everything get hot. I figure it must be the material it was made from but it takes me right back to childhood playing records on a suitcase style record player. Mine was manual and mono but it had tubes also. The sound is nothing to write home about but I like the Collaro changer and of course the smell. What are these made from? Some kind of paperboard? I figure the fake leatherlook covering is some kind of paper too?

I have a heavy solid state Magnavox with much better sound but it doesn't posess this same smell.Kinda strange.It was stored someplace damp and smells more mildewey.

[magnasonic66]

Here's a smell for you. I just received a '64 or '65 Magnavox Full Dimension High Fidelity 7" reel tape recorder that smells like a library. I have two small sliding door cabinets that did have the same library smell to them for a few years. My recorder is solid state though. The Magnavox portable cases are wood with either vinyl or leatherette coverings. Intriguing smell, but not that great smell of a new Magnavox console back in the day.

[bgadow]

I know that smell, JC! I'm thinking maybe the glue that holds the covering on? A lot of unique smells in the world of vintage electronics. Comforting to walk in to my radio room and take it in...weird folks in this hobby, huh?

[Sandy G]

Nope. My "Ship's Radio Room" has a DEFINATE "Old Electronics" smell to it, which I love...

[Eric H]

I thought it was just Mildew?
I find that some TV's and Phonos with that type cabinet, that have been closed up for a long time, have an almost unbearable Mildew smell, not sure if it's the cabinet or the contents.

I have a couple RCA 45 players with the carry cases and they smelled quite bad when I got them.

[magnasonic66]

I bought a Magnavox table radio dated about 1970, the people I got it from were sure it was from the '40s. It still has a distinct mildew smell, not that lovely woodsy smell or the library smell some of my sets have. I also have a Magnavox tube portable from around 1962-3 with that nasty mildew smell. It depends where they were for the last several years. One of my consoles smelled of cherry pipe tobacco for a few weeks.

[OvenMaster]

I remember the distinctive plastic-wood-tube aroma from my parents' Westinghouse portable phono with a BSR Monarch changer that they bought new in the 1950's. Nothing else smelled like it.
Then in 1980, I remember getting a new savings account passbook from a Canadian bank.
It smelled exactly the same.