Check out this old Califone 1435k...

[Missourian]

"It came from the 70s..."

Saw it at the thrift store and while I was looking at the clerk says "the kids keep playing with it and I'm afraid they're going to break it. I'll let you have it for half that price."

It was marked $30...I wasn't passing it up at $15.

I'll bet I haven't listened to a record in 20 years or more...but I'll tell ya... it's just different than listening to digital recordings.

Better I think.

Don't know why.

Maybe just nostalgia.

A little industrial...but that might be what it is I like about it.

 

[Missourian]

 

[Missourian]

https://community.element14.com/challenges-projects/element14-presents/b/blog/posts/califone-1430k-record-player-teardown

 

[shockedcanadian]

Records are making a bit of a comeback. It is parallel to the interest in older music. People want to hear old bands on record with the original engineering/production format I suppose. There seems to be more separation in the sounds between the left and right speaker (for those who can hear in both ears).

That crackling sound of the record, a rich delivery. To me it has more to do with the quality of the music rather than a drum beat and voice modifier but I don't know. Digital music has to have more information within them but most music today isn't live with instruments.

 

[toobfreak]

"It came from the 70s..."
Saw it at the thrift store and while I was looking at the clerk says "the kids keep playing with it and I'm afraid they're going to break it. I'll let you have it for half that price."
It was marked $30...I wasn't passing it up at $15.
I'll bet I haven't listened to a record in 20 years or more...but I'll tell ya... it's just different than listening to digital recordings.
Better I think.
Don't know why.

I do. If it came from the 70s, then it is assuredly transistorized with discreet bipolar (current driven) transistors, but still far above anything made today. Tubes are more maintenance-needy, but too bad it isn't from the 60s or 50s then it likely would be tube driven and the sound would be out of this world.

Records are making a bit of a comeback.

Records never left, only by commercial appearance. The LP, properly played back, is still unsurpassed in its ability to emulate live music.

 

[Missourian]

I do. If it came from the 70s, then it is assuredly transistorized with discreet bipolar (current driven) transistors, but still far above anything made today. Tubes are more maintenance-needy, but too bad it isn't from the 60s or 50s then it likely would be tube driven and the sound would be out of this world.



Records never left, only by commercial appearance. The LP, properly played back, is still unsurpassed in its ability to emulate live music.


View attachment 971397

Yep...all solid-state. Not much to it. Most of the inside is empty space to allow the speaker output space to reverberate.

Here's it's brains...

At about the 20 minute mark give or take we get to the good stuff.

 

[toobfreak]

Yep...all solid-state. Not much to it. Most of the inside is empty space to allow the speaker output space to reverberate.

That was the saving grace to transistors, at least as far as audio was concerned. Now computers of course, that's different, you need millions of them, they make great on/off switches. But for audio, they offered long life (tubes wear out and need replaced), compact, very light, very low power consumption (tubes often need 300 volt power supplies with big transformers), and little/no heat generated.

Only problem with them is that they just don't sound good, they don't have the musicality of a tube because they want to either bias full on or full off, they make poor valves. Still I'm sure your unit there has a very nice, full sound.

 

[Missourian]

That was the saving grace to transistors, at least as far as audio was concerned. Now computers of course, that's different, you need millions of them, they make great on/off switches. But for audio, they offered long life (tubes wear out and need replaced), compact, very light, very low power consumption (tubes often need 300 volt power supplies with big transformers), and little/no heat generated.

Only problem with them is that they just don't sound good, they don't have the musicality of a tube because they want to either bias full on or full off, they make poor valves. Still I'm sure your unit there has a very nice, full sound.

For $15 I think I'll get my money's worth out of it. But you know I'll be tearing it apart, cleaning it up, seeing how it ticks. The schematic is supposed to be on the inside bottom of the cabinet.

I'm no audiophile...buy it sounds pretty good. I'm sure it will be good enough for my purposes.

 

[toobfreak]

For $15 I think I'll get my money's worth out of it.

That was a steal for sure. You could not make the tonearm now for $15. Made today to the same quality, that would probably be a $700-$800 record player now.

But you know I'll be tearing it apart, cleaning it up, seeing how it ticks. The schematic is supposed to be on the inside bottom of the cabinet.

It could probably use a little grease on any moving metal parts where they slide if there is any automation to the tonearm underneath, but it looks like the arm is just full manual. You can buy regrip rubber conditioner to help restore the rubber drive wheel that spins the platter.

I'm no audiophile...buy it sounds pretty good. I'm sure it will be good enough for my purposes.

I bet the thing plays loud with a very full midrange and deep bass and fairly rocks! That stuff was built to last, that is a commercial unit probably designed to be used in schools and stuff like that.

If you really wanted to, probably the best thing you could do for it that would make the greatest impact on the sound would be to replace the phono pickup in the headshell of the tonearm with a newer moving magnet phono cartridge like maybe a Joseph Grado for about $100, but that is a pretty dicey and touchy thing to do and rather delicate work, but I bet it would transform the sound over whatever (old and worn) stylus they have in there now, especially if the pickup is one of those that has a little flip lever for 33/45 vs 78rpm.

If you can, see if you can see any name or label on the pickup or take a good, close, clear picture of it and post it here. I would be curious to know what kind of stylus that thing has in it.