Turntable

[John Dalsimer]

Multiple record turntables.
I am a casual listener (we do have about 300 records). I think I would like a multiple record turntable. Is this a mistake? If not, where can I get one?

Thanks,

John

[markw]

I could be wrong, but I haven't seen a new record changer in many, many years.

You would probably do better searching the used market and hoping for the best. If you do go that route, your best bets for changers would be Dual, Elac/Miracord or Garrard.

[Garrardman]

Ah, record changers - fantastic pieces of engineering!
They are very convenient and can work quite well, but there are a few pitfalls you should be aware of -
(1) Sound quality is not as good as a regular turntable - the vertical tracking angle of the arm changes as more records drop and so the top record is considerably higher than the bottom.
(2) Record wear - unless the records are scrupulously clean dust can get trapped in between them - when a record is dropped onto another below it, it has a brief period where it is accelerating from being stationary to 33 or 45 rpm - any trapped dust can thus be ground between the two records, causing small scratches.
(3) Some records won't play at all! In the days when these changers were popular, older records had ridges around their centre labels to provide grip against each other. Newer records do not have this and i have seen on a number of occasions that a record can drop and start spinning, but when the arm lowers onto it to start playing it, there isn't enough friction between it and the record below, and so it stops rotating!!

However, bearing these warnings in mind, changers are a sight to behold when operating and, as MarkW says, Dual, Elac, Miracord and Garrard made some good ones, and Technics did some changer versions of their 70's and 80's decks.
If i were buying, i'd look at a Garrard Lab 80 or Zero 100, a Dual 1019 or one of the Technics - all of these were actually quality turntables with an autochange option, rather than being an out and out changer. They do tend to be a bit less flexible (for example the Zero 100 only autochanges 12" discs) but sound quality is better.
Adam.

P.S. - The holy grail is probably the Thorens TD224, however - this one actually lifted each record on and off the platter individually and so the above issues with records dropping onto each other were avoided. However, these decks are hideously complicated, very rare and very expensive!!

[amcfreek]

what he is saying is truth , i was never really a ttable buff , but i do have a collection of garrards , includeing multiple lab 80's .. what you want to do is hit yard sales and flea markets .. look for one that spins ,if not the grease dried up , drip tranny fluid down shaft to loosen dried grease {hint} and if youre not some one to fix stuff ,pay the money for a working one .. or take the time. buy the cable and dump them down to mp3.media match juke box delux plays multiple tracks ..as well as opther computer programs .
psst bought my last ttable from a flea market 2 bucks , working realistic wood cabinette direct drive strobe .good shure 8x cartridge playes great some ppl dont have a clue that theya re sellinga few hundred bucks woorth of stuff , for next to free so shop around .. and you can always upgrade the cartridge on ebay a guy sells adc car6ts+ needle for under 20 bucks new stuff too ..
thanxz laterz my 2 gigs ..

[hifitommy]

the record and stylus should be cleaned prior to playing each side. assuming that the record is actually clean, an audioquest (or equiv) carbon fiber brush should be used to remove the dust that has accumulated in thed grooves since last play.

a stylus brush like the discwasher sc2 shoud be used to clear the dust from the stylus. sometimes i only do this from one record to another rather than one side to another.

there are reams on record cleaning to be bound in the audioasylum.com vinyl asylum. just go to the search function.

record changers fell out of favor for this reason.

[markw]

When the new record drops down on top of the prior record, it is not spinning but the bottom one is! It takes a second or so to get up to speed and, in the time that it effectively "clutches" up to speed, it grinds any foreign material on or between the two records into one or both of 'em.

Now, you know that just ain't right

There's very good reasons these fell out of favor. This is where CD changers are really, really great.