Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it ok?

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Wolfe
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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by Wolfe »

The first decent 78 table I bought was a Thorens TD-180. Manual table, fine. The lack of pitch adjusment was what caused me to look further.

The newer Thorens aren't a patch on the the Swiss Thorens of ye olden days. It's not the same company.


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drh
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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by drh »

At the risk of being immodest in saying so, I wrote a series of articles, published at TNT-Audio last year, about turntables for 78 RPM records. I tried to focus on "vintage" models also suitable for LPs. The first, from which you can trace through the others if you're feeling the need of a soporific, is here: https://www.tnt-audio.com/vintage/78_tu ... s_1_e.html

I have no personal experience with Califones, but what I know about them is in the last article of the set.

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Marco Gilardetti
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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by Marco Gilardetti »

alang wrote:I'm sorry, I do appreciate that the Thorens is a high quality turntable with its roots in the old Dual technology. But priced somewhere close to $1,000 it is three times more expensive than the Audio Technica, it is belt driven, and - what irks me the most - it is fully automatic. If I want to play/record all kinds of old records I don't want the arm to move automatically and I definitely don't want auto-stop when the player thinks the records is over. It may be great for playing 45s and LPs, but for 78s it only works well for anything from the 1930s or later with standard run-out groove and label size. Little Wonder records often get cut off before the end, and early records with the outside "rim" don't work well either. In addition, the At-LP120 offers 20% +/- speed adjustment which is very helpful with playing early records and DDs.

Again, I'm not saying that the Thorens is a bad turntable, I just think that it does not provide the flexibility that I want for playing and recording all my records.

Andreas
I'm afraid this is what the market offers if you can't stand the look of a poor man's Technics SL-1200 clone, not my fault fellow! ;) I know that some Pro-Ject turntables with a decent furniture-style look can also play 78 RPMs, but as far as I understand a change of a pulley is needed, so I don't consider it a practical option.

To those who can stand the look of a Technics SL-1200 wannabe, I would instead personally recommend the Stanton ST 150 (or ST 150 M2) that has built-in 33, 45 and 78 RPM speeds and a 50% pitch control who makes it a truly universal turntable who would even play 16 RPM records and every kind of shellac record one can imagine up to nearly 120 RPM.

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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by phonojim »

Check with voiceofmusic.com for replacement needles for your Califone. Califone, Audiotronics and Newcomb all do the same job equally well and are good, rugged players. All use an 89t (sapphire) or 89tx (diamond) cartridge. Originally these were equipped with a 78 tip and an Lp tip, but later on, as 78s faded more into the distant past they were equipped with 2 LP tips. Often you will find used cartridges with badly worn or broken LP tips but unused 78 tips.
The most common problem with these is bad idlers wheels, either soft but glazed rubber or hardened rubber idler wheels. Either condition will cause poor or no turntable drive. If the idler is simply glazed, you may be able to clean it with alcohol or a commercial restorer which is more aggressive. The name of this cleaner escapes me, but if I can remember the name, I will post it.
A good place for you to seek advice about your Califones is antiqueradiorpforums.com>photographs. There is a wealth of material there about phonograph and turntable restoration.


JIM

phonojim
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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by phonojim »

Sorry, duplicate post.

JIM

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Re: Playing vinyl & shellac on a Califone 1400 series--is it

Post by VanEpsFan1914 »

As an update I put a new power cord on the 1420C and it runs & plays. Not too bad for a landfill rescue--the 78 needle is mint but the LP side has no point left on it. I took the 1430C apart to get the speaker & the ventilation grill off the back for my homemade electric gramophone built into an unknown British console cabinet, remotored a few times too many & beyond the wildest restoration...a 6x9 speaker fills the hole left by the old phonograph horn perfectly.

The motor's noisy. I'll get the idler fixed and clean it up, getting the scribbling off of it & all the dust and dirt. It should clean up really pretty.

I don't think I will be keeping the machine, but it was nice to see another record player come back to life--even if it isn't the old crank-up type we all love.

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