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This is listed on Ebay ORTHOPHONIC VICTROLA CREDENZA "MAGIC ARM" LIGHTENS THE LOAD, PLAYS 45'S TOO!! I'm wondering if anyone has tried it?

Never heard of this and don't see it in either of the Fabrizio/Paul accessories/gagets books.

Clay

It certainly looks like it works pretty well! If he had one that´d fit my Expert minor I´d go for it, the soundbox weighs a ton.

Interesting...

I seem to remember seeing another gizmo that employed a counter-weight and secondary arm, using the taper-tube as the fulcrum area ? (Similar to the counterweight on a higher-end LP turn-table)

This was discussed a little whiles back. I can't imagine that it would be very safe on 45s since you'd be using a steel needle on a smooth material versus the rough grooves of a 78.
Here is the old thread: http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 14&t=22336
-Tom

It is possible to play 45's on the machine for certain, but not necessarily good for them.

I found that I could play 33's on a Victrola- using the right needle on an old Monaural pressing (some classical crap on Plymouth). It isn't good for the record of course and the sound is lousy, but it was a good stunt.

Instead of $33 for a little sliver of spring, I have vinyl-coated coat hanger wire, with a gooseneck-sized hook on one end and several 'bumps' on the other. Hook wire under the gooseneck, let it rest on top of the joint, and hang a 2 or so ounce lead sinker on one of the 'bumps'. Adjust as needed. Free and easily changed or removed counterweight! There is a point where you can't reduce the weight any further, or the vibrations will just throw the needle out of the groove, louder records needing more weight. Experimentation is needed.

startgroove wrote:This is listed on Ebay ORTHOPHONIC VICTROLA CREDENZA "MAGIC ARM" LIGHTENS THE LOAD, PLAYS 45'S TOO!! I'm wondering if anyone has tried it?

Why would you want to play 45's on a credenza when a small suit case type record player would play them with the correct speed and the correct needle and not ruin the record. Wouldn't that be like playing a 4 min wax record with a diamond B reproducer. It probably could be done once and you might even be able to hear some noise from it but I wouldn't think you would want to.

FloridaClay wrote:Never heard of this and don't see it in either of the Fabrizio/Paul accessories/gagets books.

Clay

This is not vintage hardware, Clay, it is made by the guy who is selling it. I bought it and it works well, with this counterweight I can play now several discs before having to sharpen the needle (I use fiber needles). There is another thread on this somewhere in this database.

Evidently I don't play 45 rpm's on gramophones, the guy uses this as gimmic to attract buyers.

I'd wish he made more of these for other makes, I also made counterweights with wires but they don't look good...

Counterweights and springs will alleviate the affects of gravity, vertically, but the groove is still being asked to push a lot of mass horizontally: not only in terms of the needle bar pushing the diaphragm, but if the record is off-center to any degree the groove will be moving the entire tonearm left-to-right and no amount of counterweight can offset that.