Junkley record player from August, 2013
 

I just bought the Junkley that was made in August, 2013 that was a warranty return from someone off ebay. When I got it; the wall wart was missing (I forgot about these not having an internal power supply, the tonearm lockdown clip was missing, and the needle was busted off. I found an old wall wart to power it and used a lockdown clip from another junk stereo. I had a cartridge and needle from a junk stereo and my intent was to use the needle off of the other cartridge. Despite it looking the same as the original, it would not snap on the junkley cartridge; so, I just replaced the whole cartridge. I also cleaned the switches and volume control; which, were dirty. While I had it apart, one of the thin speaker wires snapped off and had to be soldered back. As far as the speakers, they are very cheap and I've had transistor radios that had better speakers and a more powerful amplifier. You certainly won't have to worry about it disturbing the person in the next room. It's now working; but, the motor is noisy. Actually, when it's off, I can rotate the platter and the motor acts as a generator to power the amplifier. One of the plastic turntable mounting brackets is broken and the rest of the unit is largely held together with hot glue. The only thing that motivates me from doing a "crash 'n' bash" video of this is I need something to demonstrate how inferior this junk is to people, who often have no issue with paying $80-$100 for these things; yet, would not buy a vintage restored record player because "newer is better." Oh, and the classy red velvet inner-lid covering is already coming off - not bad for something that's only six months old.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps44ca769c.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps0552ede4.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps7a29f09c.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps73c5fd03.jpg

Man, why do you even bother with this crap?

I was about to say the same thing. The amount of labor you put in could have built a nice machine from scratch.

You should be saving your money for a camera that focuses. ;)

When I still had my job refurbing store returns, I would get pallets of those and their big brothers (the "wood" cabinet ones with the cassette deck and cd player/recorder). All of which are terrible junk. I say with all sincerity that even a junky 80's Yorx or Sounddesign is a HUGE step up from one of these.

I always knew those lacked in quality, but after looking at these pics I realize they are much worse than I previously thought. That record player is pure garbage!

That must have cost at least $2.50 to make.

Powel must be spinning in his Grave...His stuff was just a bit on the cheap side, too, but they always represented good value for the money..I have SEVERAL Crosley AA5s, & they ALL do quite well.... One is a Thirties Model 635B bakelite set, it even has a couple of SW bands on it.

I wouldn't pick this crap off the curb, let alone pay for it. One of them was donated to my store; never saw it out on the floor, must have been tossed once me and another guy working there identified it as a cheap repro.

I was given a reproduction radio after the same style,
Built to look like a 60s radio with a padded vinyl cabinet. It looks great but it came with a scratchy volume control and has such awful sensitivity and selectivity is has almost zero value as a radio. One would thing an am/fm radio would be easier to make in 2010.

keep it for the next bonfire party and throw it in, it will become a big-ol ball of plastic !

What I find to be really funny is that a lot of people actually seem to like this piece of junque:
http://www.amazon.com/Crosley-Cruise...able+turntable
:screwy:
not affiliated,
jr

That's the same model as the piece of junk I just obtained.

If someone wanted a portable record player, they'd be better off getting an old classroom record player from the '60's or '70's.

Not surprising. There was a radio corporation of china turntable at my store which sold yesterday. Just goes to show how many are clueless about electronics (and seem to want to remain that way). Also, I assisted a guy in testing a printer/scanner/copier combo that we found out needs ink. He may have gotten a good price on the printer itself, but what he didn't know, or chose to ignore is that the ink will cost much more than the device itself.

Look at the size of the speakers. They look like the kind used in the smaller flat-panel TV's. They sound lousy for TV sound, let alone, music. :yes:

Indeed! I hoped that I had found the exact model that you were testing on Amazon.

Question... Have you measured the tracking weight of this piece o crap? Bad sound, poor speed regulation and poor construction *might* be excused in something this cheap, but if it ruins records, it should not be sold, IMHO.

jr

My daughter is getting into records, so I gave her some of my duplicates and stuff I'm not into. I knew she had one of those Crosley combos and asked her what she was going to use to play them. She said the Crosley. I decided to give her a Pioneer turntable, Pioneer receiver and some 10" floor speakers and told her to use the Crosley for cd's.

My new "anti-crosley" video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OKSVzjlrm0

Good video:thmbsp:

Might I suggest removing the turntable from the crapley just in case?

I think I've mentioned numerous times how hard it is to sell vintage items around here, even if they have been restored. Not that I'm planning on selling it; but, I could advertise the Newcomb in the video for $40 and it would sit here until hades froze over. Around here, most want late model stuff and the presence of a big LCD screen and the ability to text is also a big plus.

So, I advertised the Crosley for $40 on one of the local facebook for sale pages and within 30 minutes, someone claimed it and we made the exchange this afternoon. The buyer is in his mid 20's and is a teacher. He said he wanted something to play records in his classroom. I asked if his school had any old Califone players left and he said those were all gone.

Hopefully, I won't hear anymore out of him; but, I'd give him his money back if he calls to say it does not work in a reasonable length of time.

Well, you can count on the stupidity of the general public to flip stuff like this. It also goes to show that having a lot of formal education doesn't necessarily mean someone is smart. Time to think outside the chinese plastic box people!

I have thought about buying
One of the vestax portables, they look half
Way decent

Why on earth would I want to do that? She's 37 years old, married and living in California.

No need to get nasty. I just got the idea she might be a teen and would want to try the crapley out of curiosity.

I wasn't getting nasty. It's just that she might try to kick the crapley out of me if I start taking her things apart.

I sold one of those Crosley "all in one entertainment centers" yesterday to a couple of military guys for $30. The one guy said his wife was starting to collect records and wanted a turntable to play them with, but he nor his buddy seemed to have ever seen a turntable playing a record before. They seemed impressed with the sound (!) but I guess if you're one of the younger generation and have spent your whole life listening to music through earbuds, even the crappy 4" Crosley speakers in a wood box might sound better than earbuds. My aunt was giving me one of those Crosley retro radio/combo units every Christmas for the last decade or so, and I'm slowly selling them off thru Craig's List. It just hurts me to think of the money she originally paid for this particleboard junk.

My wife's uncle told her he wanted to get me one of those for Christmas from some monthly-payment catalog like Fingerhut. She's been around me long enough and has undoubtedly overheard about 1200 conversations Radiotvnut and I have had on the subject, so she mentioned it to me. Thankfully he hadn't ordered it yet and she talked him out of it.

It seems funny that she would give you the same gift every year, for several years running. Doesn't she remember what she gave you the previous year.
BTW, I saw a higher-end unit the other day. A Detrola! :music:

She gives me a different model every year. Crosley builds dozens of variants on the same theme. I have one which is a copy of the '30's Spartan Bluebird radio, one with radio and CD player only, a couple that look like miniature jukeboxes, the radio/CD/tape/turntable in a retro wood case I just sold, a cathedral "Philco" lookalike, a "tombstone" AM/FM, a Belmont pushbutton reproduction, and a bakelite all-in-one with remote control. I finally got her off the Crosley kick, now she's on a different gift theme that's probably even more useless to me. :sigh:

Do any of the Crowley reproduction radios function decently as a radio? My grandfather
Bought a GE cathedral reproduction of a GE radio in 1988,
And it's actually quite a great sounding and performing radio..
The instructions even showed the internal
Parts versus the original.

Friends & family have given me "Electronics" over the past several years for Xmas & my birthday. They MEAN well, but I wish they just keep their money..I got a "Bubbler" radio several yrs back, it VAGUELY resembled a tombstone, w/Christmas Tree "Bubblers".. The lights dimmed on it if you turned it up above whisper-level.. It ACTUALLY received fairly well.. But civilians rarely know the difference between "Lightning" & "Lightning Bug" in radio sets..

I guess it was supposed to resemble a Wurlitzer 1015 juke box. They had the bubble lights on both sides of it.

I bought the Sparton Bluebird replica, several years ago. It was priced at a fraction of what they were selling for at retail stores, etc. I kept the box and packing and put it away, when I moved. ten years ago.
They're selling on the E place for several times more, than I paid for it. :yes:

Aye-Yup. That be the one... I sold the house I lived in when I got it, can't remember if it made the trip w/me...Guess I'll lose sleep over it tonite...NOT !

Hope it was not one like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Crosley-CR12-2...rosley+jukebox
My word!

Not affiliated,
jr

Naw... This was a little thing, MAYBE a foot tall..

Yeah Sandy, I had that same model, and like yours, the lights on mine dimmed when the radio was cranked up. I got tired of it gathering dust, so I put it up for sale on Craig's List for $5, but when I went to make sure everything worked OK, the on/off switch for the "bubbler lights" broke. So I dropped the price to a whopping $3 (and probably spent that much money in gasoline driving to a store parking lot to meet the purchaser).

I also noticed on at least some of these Crosleys, the power transformer is wired directly to the AC line and the secondary is switched, so the radio is sucking some power even when it's turned off.