Record changer

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Record changer, made in Germany around 1960.

A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays multiple gramophone records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.

History

The record changer with a stepped center spindle design was invented by Eric Waterworth of Hobart, Australia, in 1925.^[1] He and his father took it to Sydney, and arranged with a company called Home Recreations to have it fitted in their forthcoming gramophone, the Salonola. Although the Salonola was demonstrated at the 1927 Sydney Royal Easter Show, Home Recreations went into liquidation and the Salonola was never marketed. In 1928 the Waterworths traveled to London, where they sold their patent to the new Symphony Gramophone and Radio Co. Ltd.^[2] Eric Waterworth built three prototypes of his invention and one of these was sold to Home Recreations as a pattern for their proposed Salonola record player. This prototype is now reported to be in the collection of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.^{[citation needed]} The second prototype went to England with Eric and his father and was sold as part of the deal with the Symphony Gramophone and Radio Company. The fate of this machine is unknown. The third prototype was never fully assembled and lay in pieces under the Waterworth home for something like sixty years. After the death of Eric Waterworth, his family found the dissembled parts of the machine and offered them to the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania. The offer was accepted and an enthusiastic member began the task of reassembling the prototype. It was found that a few small parts were missing but enough remained to complete the assembly to a crude working condition. The prototype record changer is now on display at the Sound Preservation Association of Tasmania resource centre in the Hobart suburb of Bellerive.^[3][4]

The first commercially successful record changer was the "Automatic Orthophonic" model by the Victor Talking Machine Company, which was launched in the USA in 1927.^[5] On a conventional gramophone or phonograph, the limited playing time of 78 rpm gramophone records meant that listeners had to get up to change records at regular intervals. The Automatic Orthophonic allowed the listener to load a stack of several records into the machine, which would then be automatically played in sequence, providing a long uninterrupted listening session.

By the late 1950s, in the USA, Garrard and Dual dominated the upscale record changer market.^[6] From the late 1950s through the late 1960s, VM Corporation (Voice of Music), of Benton Harbor, Michigan, USA, dominated the lower priced original equipment manufacturer (OEM) record changer market, in the USA.^[7] Most VM (Voice of Music) record changers were sold to OEM audio manufacturers, such as Zenith, placed in consoles, portable, and compact low to mid-priced stereo and mono systems. VM record changers, sold to original equipment manufactures, were not labeled with the Voice of Music trade mark on the record changer. Only VM record changers, retailed by VM Corporation, either as a component, or as a part of a VM phonograph, were labeled with the VM (Voice of Music) trademark on the record changer. Outside of the USA, VM record changers technology was licensed to several record changer manufacturers. Telefunken, of then West Germany, was one such company to sign a licensing agreement with VM Corporation.^[8][9] By the late 1960s (1968), BSR displaced VM as the world largest record changer producer, and dominated the OEM record changer market, also, in the USA.

Record changers were provided in most mid-priced consumer record players of the 1950s through 1970s.^[10] Record changers became rarer in the 1980s, mainly due to the introduction of the compact disc.

Operation

The purely mechanical mechanisms of record changers were often very complex. Changers typically had an extended central spindle that the records were stacked on, and an extra arm designed to hold the stack steady. Some units had feelers that could detect the size of each record (standard sizes 7", 10", or 12") and position the tone arm accordingly. Some, including the changer pictured, used a variable size sensor which allowed sizes other than the three standard sizes to be played.^[11] (Note that the pictured Dual 1003 has four sizes loaded, and records sizes can be mixed in any order.) The more basic models required the record diameter to be set manually, and hence did not allow records of different sizes to be stacked together. The following devices were the most popular (with examples):

Three size sensors:

• Size selector knob - no size intermix (BSR 1968 to 1973)
• Size and speed selector knob - no size intermix, some types can't be played automatically (Garrard after 1969)
• Rising feelers in or alongside turntable - no size intermix, but automatic sensing of size (PE after 1970)
• Falling record sensor - random intermix - sizes mixed in any order (BSR before 1968)
• Rising and falling record sensors - Intermix 10" and 12" records, 7" played separately (V-M 1950 to 1970)
• Unplayed stack sensor - Arranged intermix - large records before small (Webster Chicago 1950 to 1953)
• Unplayed stack arm tip sensor - Arranged intermix (Collaro/Magnavox after 1967)

Variable size sensors:

• Pickup arm scan of unplayed stack - Arranged intermix, odd sizes (Collaro/Magnavox 1954 to 1967)
• Pickup arm scan of lowered record - Random intermix, odd sizes (PE 1957 to 1969)
• Arm tip feeler wheels (feel only top record on turntable) - Random intermix, odd sizes (Dual 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006)
• Arm top feeler Wheels (feel only bottom record on stack) - Random intermix, odd sizes (Miracord 9 and 90)
• Pickup arm scan of separated record - Random intermix, odd sizes (Thorens TD-224)

Record changers were met with disdain by audiophiles^[12] because of the perceived compromise in fidelity resulting from changes in tone arm angle with the height of the stack, and concerns about changers' seemingly rough treatment of discs, particularly slight but cumulative damage to the spindle hole, as the records were effectively dropped from a height of a few inches onto the record platter. Additionally there is some sliding and rubbing of the discs which scratches the record labels, due to the dropped disc not immediately accelerating to the rotational speed of the spindle or discs below it. Most of these fears are unfounded in changers made after 1953. More advanced changers, such as the TD-224 model from Thorens, and the ADC Accutrac+6, went some way towards addressing these problems.^[13]

Automatic sequencing

The numbering of the sides of the discs in many double and triple albums (and boxed sets of LPs and 78s) is explained by the fact that they were designed to be played on record changers. After the discs were stacked and one side of each disc played, the entire stack would be turned over as a complete unit and replaced on the changer. Thus, to be heard in the proper sequence, the discs of a four-disc set would contain, respectively, "sides" 1 & 8, 2 & 7, 3 & 6, and 4 & 5 - a practice known as "automatic sequencing", "changer sequencing", or "auto-coupling".

The above is the "drop-automatic sequence", for record changers which drop records. These record changers do not reverse the stack as they go through them. But other record changers, including some made in the 1930s by RCA and GE, and also the Thorens TD-224, reversed the stack. The RCA and GE ones kept the stack of records on the turntable, and slid the top record to the side after playing it. A separate sequence, the "slide-automatic sequence" was made for these changers, with sides coupled 1 & 5, 2 & 6, 3 & 7, and 4 & 8.

There were also some record changers which played both sides of the records. The manual sequence works with these. Examples are the Markel 75, Capehart turnover changers, Fisher/Lincoln changers, and Garrard RC-100.

During the late 1930s and early 1940s, Victor released 78 rpm record sets in all three sequences, because they had sold players that needed all three kinds.

In addition, some radio station copies were released in a "relay sequence," so the records could be played by a DJ on two turntables without a break between sides. The side couplings were 1 & 3, 2 & 4, 5 & 7, and 6 & 8. These are rare, so no record changers play this sequence. The slide automatic sequence also works for uninterrupted play by DJs.

See also

• CD changer

References

1. ^ http://apc-online.com/twa/history6.html,""TOMORROW'S WORLD, subtitle,"Electric record changing salonola (1925)""
2. ^ http://archive.amol.org.au/foundmade/item.asp?MusID=T106&ItemNo=1&MusName=Sound+Preservation+Asso, ""found & made IN TASMANIA, subtitle, "Waterworth Prototype""
3. ^ http://archive.amol.org.au/foundmade/item.asp?MusID=T106&ItemNo=1&MusName=Sound+Preservation+Association+of+Tasmania+Inc.
4. ^ http://www.jobfuturestas.com/soundpres/pages/show.html
5. ^ ^ http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/changers.htm ""RECORD CHANGERS", see part 1, "THE EARLY YEARS""
6. ^ ""RECORD CHANGERS", see Part 3, subtitle, "Dual and Garrard emerge on top""
7. ^ ""RECORD CHANGERS", see Part 3, subtitle, "Dual and Garrard emerge on top""
8. ^ http://www.hem.passagen.se/sodas/vxarteng.htm "RECORDCHANGERS In Sweden"
9. ^ ""RECORD CHANGERS", see Part 3, subtitle, "THE INGENUITY YEARS"
10. ^ http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/changerz.htm ""RECORD CHANGERS", see part 4, "THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE RECORD CHANGER""
11. ^ ^ ""RECORD CHANGERS", see Part 3, subtitle, "Dual and Garrard emerge on top"
12. ^ http://midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/changerz.htm ""RECORD CHANGERS", see part 4, "THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE RECORD CHANGER""
13. ^ ^ ""RECORD CHANGERS", see Part 3, subtitle, "THE BEST OF THE BEST", subtitle, "Dual and Garrard emerge on top""

External links

• Stack-O-Matic Turntables, a retro-style record player with the changer feature manufactured by Crosley Radio Corporation
• Horton, Charles (February 1919). "An Electric Automatic Stop for the Phonograph". Popular Science Monthly (New York City: Modern Publishing) 94 (2): 13. ISSN 0161-7370. OCLC 4179801. http://books.google.com/books?id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT13. Retrieved 2010-10-24. , an article about a predecessor of the record changer
• V-M Audio Enthusiasts, a 1999 company that took over after V-M Corporation was liquidated. This company was founded by Gary Stork, who also published the "Collector's Voice" Newsletter, from 1996 through 2000. Several ex VM employees were interviewed. This newsletter contains historical information about VM Corporation.
• midimagic.sgc-hosting.com/changers.htm - Record Changers, an article on the history of record changers.
• vxart-work-RECORDCHANGERS In Sweden