Any Tefifon fans here?

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Swing Band Heaven
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by Swing Band Heaven »

If you've seen the techmoan you tube video you'll also of heard Cuban baion from one of the Tefi cartridges and it is one of those really annoyingly catchy tunes.
https://youtu.be/TUswzKTZaBQ

And also this one with the tune dubbed onto a cylinder dictation machine

https://youtu.be/h4ybOt_3Kfs

Interestingly they did bring out a stereo version of the tefifon

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Swing Band Heaven
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by Swing Band Heaven »

A Ford 1 wrote:Hi,
Very interesting play back system. It takes more volume to store than disks per hour of music but has the advantage of the constant linear speed of the cylinder.
The Tefis is came in different sizes with the largest holding 4 hours of continuous music which is a very impressive capacity for a Home entertainment system of the 1950s

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VintageTechnologies
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by VintageTechnologies »

That is new to me, and very interesting. Thanks for posting!

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Lucius1958
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by Lucius1958 »

I have to wonder: how were the tapes manufactured? Was there some sort of pressing machinery, or were they transcribed by high speed cutting machines? Are the tapes recorded laterally or vertically?

Bill

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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by 52089 »

Lucius1958 wrote:I have to wonder: how were the tapes manufactured? Was there some sort of pressing machinery, or were they transcribed by high speed cutting machines? Are the tapes recorded laterally or vertically?

Bill
The grooves are regular lateral grooves played by a fairly standard ceramic(?) phono cartridge.

As for how they were manufactured, this link came from the original video:
https://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/tefi_ ... guage_id=3

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WDC
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by WDC »

I have had mine for quite awhile, however, it's not easy for me to find music that I would appreciate. It's mostly the corny 50's stuff but once in awhile there are quite interesting Tefi sound tapes to find.

The lateral groove of these tapes are mostly equal to a period 45rpm single with a regular microgroove stylus on the crystal pickup. The tapes were actually pressed but they managed to make the seem virtually invisible and you certainly cannot hear it. One other interesting feature is the looked groove at the end that will usually play a chime every few seconds to notify the listener to stop the machine.

Here's the more desirable suitecase version with the KC-1 and radio combination. Most Tefi suitcases only come with a storage compartment instead of the radio. The tape is the usual 1 hour size which is the most common version. Fortunately, this one has a pretty nice version of Mr. Sandman on it:
Tefikoffer1.JPG
This is the 4 hour tape, which is considerably larger. Actually, these 4h tapes are fairly common and not hard to find at all, since these were given out with the machine, so almost every owner of a KC-1 once had it. Also on this photo is the cable remote control for zapping, which was anything but precise and quite crude to use:
Tefikoffer2.JPG

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JerryVan
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by JerryVan »

It sounds as if these were play-back devices only? No recording capability?


BTW, probably not the best to ignore the 50hz thing. I ruined a very nice reel-to-reel tape machine years ago by thinking 60hz was "close enough". Maybe these devices are more forgiving...

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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by 52089 »

WDC wrote: Here's the more desirable suitecase version with the KC-1 and radio combination. Most Tefi suitcases only come with a storage compartment instead of the radio. The tape is the usual 1 hour size which is the most common version.
The machine I currently have is the suitcase version with storage. Unfortunately this version requires an external amplifier. The one shown by WDC with the built-in radio also has an amplifier and speaker, so it is completely self-contained.

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WDC
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Re: Any Tefifon fans here?

Post by WDC »

JerryVan wrote:It sounds as if these were play-back devices only? No recording capability?


BTW, probably not the best to ignore the 50hz thing. I ruined a very nice reel-to-reel tape machine years ago by thinking 60hz was "close enough". Maybe these devices are more forgiving...
All Tefifon units were indeed intended for playback only. The popular KC-1 was introduced in 1951 but was already a highly developed system that originated from the Tefiphon and Teficord which, to my knowledge, were put on the market in the mid-1930's.

The principle was the same but there were no cartridges, it was an open loop (likely about 35mm wide). The Tefiphon was for playback only while the Teficord could be used to make actual recordings: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... Detail.jpg

After the war, the first cartridge units were introduced in the late 1940's, which were usually black or Bakelite-brown at the size of the later 4h tapes. These tapes had the smaller size like the red translucent ones but where usually white and would require to run at a higher speed. Some Tefifon units, usually the ones in large wooden enclosures, would have a knob for selecting one of the two different speeds.

Some transformers are not intended to be used with 50 or 60 Hz and will heat up quickly if supplied incorrectly. I have this problem with a Knight Tube Amp that I brought home. After being powered up for one hour the transformer would heat up to a point where I couldn't touch it for long, so I am now using the amp at about 100V/50Hz successfully. Of course, other devices may not allow this trick.

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