Phonoland

Hi,
Is there any difference in the sound quality of jukeboxes that play the records horizontally rather than vertically?, and is either way superior in maintaining the quality of the vinyl?

thanks a lot.

Well, according to the "sales-hype" yes--Storing the records vertically, Seeburg claimed, kept them cleaner. Both Seeburg and WurliTzer claimed ( at one time), that the tone arm "control" was better when a record was played up-right.
IMHO, and in my experience, Seeburgs system of vertical storage, and play, seems to keep them clean(er). Ron Rich

In my experience, records do appear to stay somewhat cleaner in vertical play mechs -but the real reason is more a matter of static electricity buildup due to the friction of the rotating magazine, it's belt and rollers.

I had a minor problem of "snaps" occurring in the audio on the Rowe mech's that were in my hideaways in a very dry basement. I hung a short length of toilet paper near the magazine and it pulled right to the records due to static charge. I thought of having the belt pass through a piece of wire acting as a corona discharge...but I haven't bothered Typical.

One thing I did notice was that on the old mono redhead with spike styli there was a noticeable amount of stylus chatter and on brittle records such as styrene the noise was slightly amplified by the fact that the record vibrations are not damped by a turntable pad. Once Seeburg stated using the V-15 type of stylus (post 1965) the stylus was much more compliant w/little or no chatter so I doubt this mattered at all in later machines.

"Audiophiles" have made a fetish of placing weights on the center of records in play and the type of underpad used. As usual with these people that often claim a revelatory change in the sound....whatever.

Rob

With all due respect to all, A jukebox is NOT a high end turntable/ sound system. It's purpse is to MAKE MONEY and keep the drunks happy. You don't put $500.00 45 records in a jukebox. Also most juke amps boost the bass especially at low levels. Properly maintained, any 45 rpm juke with a moderen cartridge (except cobra0 will treat a record gently.

Thanks for the replies I really appreciate it.

I have £3000 to spend on a jukebox, any recommendations on a good jukebox for that money?

thanks again.

Please post your location, as requested in a PM, earlier, and as required, by the forum. This MAY help someone offer some purchasing advise-- To read PM's, click on the "orange notification button" on the upper right f your screen. Ron Rich

Me, I prefer to play my records horizontally, the traditional way.
HOPEFULLY, this spring, WHEN I GET THE TIME (I'm a busy guy!!) I will have FINALLY finished building my HOME-MADE Jukebox/CD player system and get it painted and trimmed out.
Then I can move it out of the garage, so I can re-organize my stuff better.

Until then........ here is a SNEAK PEEK at the One-Of-A-Kind......"Concept60"
"It's not finished, mind you"............. a YouTube video will be released upon its completion.

With all due respect to all, A jukebox is NOT a high end turntable/ sound system. It's purpose is to MAKE MONEY and keep the drunks happy.

I do take some exception to this statement.

From a business standpoint, the records or CD's in a machine are the inventory we are selling to the public. Machines that wear records excessively resulting in poor sound are simply going to be judged a bit more critically now in the CD-digital age than back in the days when bass was all that people expected from a jukebox.

I've owned machines from all of the 'big four" and in all cases it has been possible to make them track at reasonable weights (not above 3gm) and sound acceptable to present-day standards.

Most of the old machines I have in retro locations are line-feeding large sound systems which are much more critical than anything available back when they were new. The only compromise I make is to feed a mono signal to the PA's to avoid the inevitable distortion as records age. Other than that, good quality vinyl records can hold up well after thousands of plays -if- the machine is set up, modified and maintained properly.

Rob

MattTech wrote:Me, here is a SNEAK PEEK at the One-Of-A-Kind......"Concept60"
"It's not finished, mind you"............. a YouTube video will be released upon its completion. concept-garage.JPG

That is a remarkable bit of cabinetry. Good work,... though i would have chosen a better turntable. it will be interesting to see the insides as well.

Rob

Rob-NYC wrote:

MattTech wrote:Me, here is a SNEAK PEEK at the One-Of-A-Kind......"Concept60"
"It's not finished, mind you"............. a YouTube video will be released upon its completion. concept-garage.JPG

That is a remarkable bit of cabinetry. Good work,... though i would have chosen a better turntable. it will be interesting to see the insides as well.

Rob

Well Rob, thanks.
Here's the "design stats" of this beast.....
Stores 60+ records in the rack.
200 watts, driving 4- 10 inch air suspension woofers, plus 4 - cone tweeters (all Technics brand)
Speakers are protected by a 3-way fail-safe system I designed for it.
Sequential multi-color pilaster lighting, along with music-activated 4 channel / color lights. (all designed from scratch by me)
A CD player capable of MP3 disk playback / w remote. (100+ songs on one disk)
A microphone input for making announcements or sing-along.
The RCA Victor RP190 changer stacks 12 records, has been highly modified w/DC PWM drive system and remote-controlled "reject" capability, also a light-tracking cartridge and damped changer suspension.

I'm in the process of working on the "hood" assembly - with lighting, cutting the plexiglas, etc.
Then comes the two-tone painting, detailing, aluminum trimming out of the cabinet, etc.
It's on wheels thank god, the thing is starting to get heavy.
I went with 3/4 inch MDF & pine for main cabinet - braced & built like a tank.

The "works" are all easily reached under the lift-up center panel that the changer/CD sits on.
But I built this thing to take "abuse" and hardly require servicing.
I'll get more photos when I can.

The thing sounds fantastic so far, it rattles all the tools and stuff hanging in my garage and I barely hit 1/4 volume.

One more question.

I read on a website that dinked records often don't play properly ....is this true? Bear in mind the website was selling jukeboxes that didn't need records to be dinked so might be stating that as a sales pitch.

thanks

The only problems are holes that are off-center, too large or too small.

In the late 80's one location owner made monthly trips to the U.K. and brought back some really great classical and operatic 45's. They were current releases and small hole. He had several 'dinked" (stupid term) and it made them play off center in the jukebox. It ruined the sound. I changed the pilot clamp (Seeburg) to one that worked on both sizes.

Rob-NYC

Hello purpleronnie,

Dinked holes are always an issue when not cut out correctly, operator error.

There are various dinkers on the market, the ones to be avoided are the old mechanical press type dinker that used to be used in the record shops back in the day, these broke as many records as they correctly dinked, also avoid the hole punch type (Qmax) these tend to split the records.

The best one I have seen was produced in the USA it was a harwood block that had a spindle set into the wood (same size as the small hole in records) the hole saw that was used had a socket in the middle rather than a mandrill and made a perfect dinked hole.

If you can have a jukebox that can play both small and dinked records at 45rpm is the best option.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

Thanks a lot.