by famesteve »
Mon Apr 13, 2009 10:27 am
If this is a consolette with a narrow amplifier mounted at the underside rear of the cabinet, Magnavox made many variations of these in the US and Magnavox Sparton in Canada, from 1955-1959. They used the same amplifier chassis, which is a push-pull 10 watt using two 6AQ5 output tubes and sounded very good with the dual 6X9 speakers, and the cabinets were basically made of the same components, but there were so many variations in finishes, it seems each unit may have been one-of-a-kind. Some had the control knobs on top in front of the lift lid, some were mounted on the speaker grille and some had an AM tuner. Most were equipped with current versions of the Magnavox-Collaro changer but many used a V-M changer. I was given a 1957 model in 1967 when I was 11 years old and it was my pride and joy for the next two years when I bought hundreds of 45's that I wore out on it, although I also had other record players during those years. I still have it but it was dismantled and put back together through the years. I'd love to find another cabinet I could get parts from to restore mine to original condition.
If yours is one of these models, you can mount new legs on it and you should enjoy a great sounding little record player. You might want to consider replacing the Shure cartridge as they did not have vertical compliance to play stereo records. I used an Astatic 89T which plays stereo records in mono and sounds great with the Magnavox amplifier.
I have a Sparton Phonograph from looks like 1950's or early 60's Model 2S202D. I am trying to find out a little info on this unit . It sounds great and the changer works great too. I use it to play my mono 33's and my 78's. It looks like it had legs but they are sadly missing but I could make them. It also included a remote floor standing speaker. I picked it up for $25 about 6 months ago and I serviced it myself