Anybody familiar with this "RCA Victor" machine?

[transformingArt]

Saw this video on YouTube and began to wonder.

[youtubehq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fU1M9o1kRg[/youtubehq]


It's simply titled "RCA Victor" - I know very little about RCA Victor acoustic machines, but can anyone of you identify which model this is? I want to know more about it - had to admit that this is one of the most "Modern looking" acoustic "Victrola" I've ever saw so far.

[alang]

Based on the logo in the lid I would say that this is a British HMV machine, not an RCA Victor. Not sure about the model though. It seems to have some similarities to the HMV Model 150 in this thread http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... 0&start=10, but the front is quite different.
Andreas

[OrthoFan]

I might be wrong, but looks like a circa early to mid-1950s hi-fi model that was retrofitted with acoustic (HMV, as alang points out) parts.

The poster does have some interesting later period acoustic models on his page --

http://www.youtube.com/user/ozisan88#g/u --

including this early 1930s JVC (Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan) J1-50:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxm2F-amP2M[/youtube]

[syncopeter]

Yes, it is definitely something of a Frankenphone or worse. It has the fat and short tonearm of a model 102, but a mica soundbox, that does not really fit. There was a no. 4a in Germany branded as Electrola, but that is extremely rare, so I do not think this is one. I know, because I have one on my model 102. HMV stopped making table models and cabinets around 1940, RCA too, only the HMV portable model 102 was produced until 1960. So this evidently is a fake and in my opinion a bad one. However, there still is quite a grey area, so I may be completely wrong. For instance acoustic gramophones were used in China well into the 1970s. Just today we learnt that a bit of British music history was completely different than we thought before. But still I stand by my point that this thing is fake.

[syncopeter]

The second model looks similar to an updated HMV model 145, a 130 on legs, and most probably IS genuine. In the far east electricity was not as easily available so acoustic machines had a longer life. Also the climate was not very benificial to the vulnerable electrical components. That is also why many machines had teak cabinets (bugs don't like teak). G'shane knows all about it.

[OrthoFan]

The second model looks similar to an updated HMV model 145, a 130 on legs, and most probably IS genuine. In the far east electricity was not as easily available so acoustic machines had a longer life. Also the climate was not very benificial to the vulnerable electrical components. That is also why many machines had teak cabinets (bugs don't like teak). G'shane knows all about it.

Oh yes, the J1-50 is indeed authentic. Those were sold by JVC, a subsidiary of the Victor Talking Machine Co. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JVC

Based on what I've seen, that model seems to be a staple of most Japanese collectors' collections. There seem to have been some variations in the cabinet style. There are a few nice photos here, unfortunately the text is in Japanese -- http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/klaviermann2000/21142438.html

[transformingArt]

http://www.youtube.com/user/ozisan88#g/u --

including this early 1930s JVC (Victor Talking Machine Company of Japan) J1-50:


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxm2F-amP2M[/youtube]

This is NOT the J1-50 : It looks much more likely a J1-51 or J1-80. I actually have my own J1-50 model (inherited from my grandfather) which looks like this;

[OrthoFan]

This is NOT the J1-50 : It looks much more likely a J1-51 or J1-80. I actually have my own J1-50 model (inherited from my grandfather) which looks like this;

Many thanks for the clarification. I'm wondering, is your J1-50 it fitted with the folded horn like the (Victor) VV-1-90? I'd read somewhere that JVC basically used the same components used in the earlier Victor Orthophonics.

The odd thing is, when I first looked at the video, I saw a model number flash on the screen, identifying it as the J1-50. (Now, instead, I see a record.) The only thing I can think of is that I pasted the wrong link--I had actually looked at several, from different Japanese sites.

BTW, here's another oddity from a Japanese collector's site using the Columbia Plano Reflex design --

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... rmd%3Divns

[hillndalefan]

I, too, am puzzled by this one. The decal in the lid was used by RCA Victor in the U.S. in the late forties and early fifties. I have two examples of it in my collection. The hole in the wooden deck in front of the turntable would have normally held a 45 rpm adaptor spindle, and it would have been equipped with a 3-speed changer. If this was a factory job, it must have been done for the Chinese market as mentioned above. In the early years, when the territories were divided, Victor had North and South America, Japan, China and the areas between. HMV got the rest of the world. I would suggest then, that this machine COULD be one adapted by RCA Victor for the Chinese trade, but it's a rarity if it is.

[gramophoneshane]

The slots in the cabinets rear, were a good indication this was designed to hold a valve amp & record player/changer, & as chance would have it, someone posted this record sleeve on the antique radio forum, for RCA Victors "new Orthophonic" demo disc that dates from 1953.

As for the acoustic machine in TA's original video, I'd be extremely surprized if it was a legitimate RCA product. I just cant see them making such a machine after being out of the gramophone business for at least a decade.
Also, the Canadian RCA Victor catalogue from the same period offered the HMV 102, 97 & 88 portables, so I would think if US RCA had such a machine, they would have been selling them to Canada as well, instead of letting them import acoustic machines from England.

RCA 3-HES-5.jpg (56 KiB) Viewed 2000 times