The first RCA "45" player
 

I just acquired one of these 1949 RCA Victor 9EY3 45 record player. This first generation player has a nice large chocolatey bakelite case. Later ones are smaller with the gold motor board. It's a little heavier than you would expect and has a feel of quality about it. The design is a very clean post-war one with a distinct departure from the passé round streamlined curves of years earlier. This unit was completely overhauled and sounds so nice. Something like a small jukebox from the era with a full rich warm tone. You can stack 10 selections on it and just walk away!

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...7&d=1518905551

Nice...I love those damn things! :yes:

I've got a 45-EY-1 almost the same as that but a later revision. They are fun little players. I need to get mine to consistently drop a record...The stack likes to go crooked on the change cycle and not let the bottom one go.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4595/...2cce60c906.jpgDSCN2813 by Tom Carlson, on Flickr

It is impressive how good of audio RCA was able to squeeze out of what amounts to an AA5 with the converter and IF tubes (ie all the radio stuff) stripped off.

Yes, it seems these have a fierce following! Many collectors seem to end up with several of them. I'm a fan already. I was told that some 45's will need to have the hole trimmed/smoothed. If not it might get caught-up on the spindle and not drop. Mine does this too, but so far only with one record.

The one pictured is the first one I acquired and my only unit with the RP-168 mech. I have a couple more that use the RP-190 mech and a couple stacks of 45's as tall as the players...The 190s handle the same records just fine (or drop 2 at a time once in a blue moon)...I have ~5 that neither the 190 or 168 like that I've been planning to trim.
One thing I dislike about the 168 mech is that instead of the spindle cycle shaft being a fine-toothed gear(as the 190 has) it is instead a 4 tooth star with no intuitive indexing on the shaft...When changing the idler wheel it is hard to get the star back on at the correct rotational index for it to work.

I just recently restored a 6EY2 , just to be able to play the stack of 45s I've got . This is a 1955 manufactured unit that still used the Octal 12SQ7 35Z5 and 50L6 , I'd have figured by the mid 50s they would all have been the 12AV6 35W4 50C5 but maybe RCA had a few warehouses full of the Octals to use up . I bought the rubber wheel and the cartridge from Gary at Voice of music , recapped the amp , and yes indeed this little unit can really belt out a tune !

Nice phono. That model was originally my first choice if I ever got one, but then I realized I like them all! I was just listening to Be-Bop-A-Lula by Gee Vincent and it really sounded like a vintage jukebox playing. The sound from these fills the room.

Noice.

Thanks. I see what collectors mean now about wanting more than one of these. Between the fun of watching it work and the room-filling rich sound, they are a must-have collectible.

Did you know they even made one for mounting in a car? Probably didn't work too well unless you were on a smooth road or parked at the local drive-in.

IIRC Philco / Ford tried it with smaller records. Also Chrysler with
regular 45's. Needless to say it didnt work well. Never get away with it
in newer "feel of the road" cars. Land yachts were built not to
have it & just float like a cloud. It would work much better in them.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

The Chrysler Highway HI-FI used 16&2/3 and they resembled 45's, specially made by Columbia? for it. The recordings were like easy-listening or so. They only played one record at a time, made by Motorola and could be plugged into a socket provided for it on the Philco or Motorola built Mopar radios.
The after-market 45 changers played the records upside down using a counter-balanced tone arm. They worked exactly the opposite of the RCA player. When the record was through playing, it was dropped to the bottom of the unit. They worked rather well, but were really hard on records.

Chrysler's version played the special records that look like small 33 1/3 records (left photo). There was also the type that played regular 45's by RCA (right photo).

Nearly the Last
 

At the other end of the age spectrum is the model 7-EV-2HH, which my wife got as a birthday present in the mid to late 50s. It has "hit the bench" for a re-cap and a lube job... will need a new cartridge as well, as it has very low output.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4744/...b34fa3_z_d.jpg

It uses three 7 pin tubes, no octals.

Fun project!

jr

Enter "muhammad ali record player" into Google Image search to see him and many others with in-car phonographs... Most pics are slightly different than the Chrysler version above.

Wanted to add this to the thread... :)

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1519313311

Nice ad. That's the "attachment" model without an amp that needs to be plugged into a radio. They're slightly smaller than the 9EY3.

I know...we had one that we plugged into our Hallicrafters TV back then.

After restoration, what tracking force is used with the Chinese ceramic cartridges? Is tripping at the end of the records reliable? How many records can be stacked?
I got less than satisfactory tripping at 4 grams... how high do I need to go? Perhaps I have missed a lubrication point somewhere :scratch2:
I can only stack 12 records presently, I think that the spec is 14, but not sure where I read that.

jr

Those carts are happy at 5 grams. Is your styli jumping out of the runout groove or is the change cycle simply not kicking in?

There are a few adjustments on the 168 and 190 mechs for change trip point and setdown point, among other things...If those are off it may not work as expected. If your styli stays in the groove I'd look at the adjustments.

I had a little larger RCA 45 player that had an 8" speaker and a push-pull amplifier using 2 35L6s, a 35Z5 and a 12SC7. It also had a tone control.
Built around the same era!

Does that thing have the original tone arm on it?
Usually, the tone arm color matched the top cap of the spindle. :scratch2:

E/M... Thanks for the tips, 5 to 6 grams did the trick, it is no longer skipping on the lead out groove. I also re-adjusted the pick-up point and installed a diamond stylus... played through several boxed sets of classical music and broadway tunes last night with no skipping. :thmbsp:

dj... Yes that is the original tone arm, the cap is not the usual red, but rather more coral in color, but indeed a poor match to the tone arm. I don't think that it has faded either, my wife remembers that it was a poor match when brand new. Several pictures found on line also exhibit a poor match... somebody color blind at RCA?

jr

The last model that I repaired was similar to the one pictured, with the crazy colors, was a black base with a gray speaker grill, tone arm and spindle top cap.
The cartridge was bad and the only one the RCA distributor had was the low output one. This phono had the one tube amp, 25L6 in series with the motor and the output was low. The owner wanted it back as-is. :thumbsdn:

I have a Columbia branded RP-190 like that. I didn't want to spring for a high output cart so I added IIRC a 6AT6 to the mix...Takes a long time to warm up, but has more respectable volume.

Interesting! I have a similar model (7-EY-1DJ) that is black and grey with a white cap and tone arm....also a cheap o model with only a 4 inch speaker and a 50L6 amp with 35W4 rectifier. May have to follow E/M s lead and add a pre-amp tube, if I ever restore the thing.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4622/...e0b2cd_z_d.jpg



jr

Paint suggestions?
 

I now have on the bench a 45 EY, which is very similar to the player shown in the first post. One very visible difference is the gold painted top surface of the player, which has a couple of scratches. Any recommendations for a decent spray paint that matches color and texture and is durable?

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4795/...d39d66_z_d.jpg

Thanks,
jr

Maybe others can chime-in about a particular color and brand paint, but I would definitely say a brass-tone rather than gold. I would also recommend putting a few coats of semi-gloss clear for protection.
I believe your unit is the 1950 model by the way.

Interesting facts. RCA had first conceived this format and was just ready to consider it when World War II happened. Referred to as "Project X". RCA again considered launching the 45 RPM format again post WW II, and held off due to brisk 78 RPM disc sales and phono sales. Then Columbia announced the LP in 1948, offered David Sarnoff at RCA a peek, General Sarnoff was livid. And then RCA Victor embarked on a crash program to launch the 45 RPM format and the RCA Victor 45 RPM changer in 1949, a temporary war of the speeds was in full force. RCA finally gave in and announced the RCA Victor introduction of the LP Record in 1950, when Arturo Toscanini, then with his contract up for renewal, threatened to jump ship to Columbia so his recordings would not be interrupted so often for disc changes. In turn, Columbia announced their decision to issue 45 RPM discs, and the rest was history. Both formats complemented each other, and served different budgets, listening tastes, and desires. I am also an ardent admirer of the RCA 45 RPM changers, a really nifty changer design innovation, and nicely thought out and engineered.

Very interesting info. Thanks. leave it to RCA to want to be the first in everything electronic. Competition is good in business, but what the company did with Armstrong with his FM system shows it's ugly side. One thing I found with these early RCA units is the early 45's (pre-1955) sound so much better on them than the later rock and roll ones. The quality really went down on 45's by then.

RCA had a 33 LP record in 1932 not microgroove though and the depression killed it after intro. I. Can see why Sarnoff was livid.

Was that a shellac disc, rather than vinyl? I could picture that dying with or without the depression due to low quality compared to 78s.

From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_record
Had to look it up. I have a changer mech, but no records of that format. This is the same mech I have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87P7xygDcs0

Interesting.

Although these are called "program transcription" discs, they apparently are not the same as the transcription disks used by radio broadcasters, dating back to 1933:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elec..._transcription

jr