The Best Sounding Jukeboxes

Rowe R-88 for modern era.

Riley,
Lotza "factors" here--first and foremost is the system operating as designed ? Second, is the building in which the jukebox is "housed"--juke manuf's. did not design them for a "home environment". Third, at what volume level ? Fourth, how close are you standing, when judging?
IMHO, Seeburgs, starting from the 1960 model LS-2, on up, beat all others--and just kept getting better, year after year, up till the 1975 STD- series.
At this point the "bean counters" got involved in the amp design, "deleting" some parts, and they could, or could not achieve the same quality of sound, depending on circumstances--- Ron Rich

Rowe CD-100 D or so.... like Ron said sound is subjective....

I have never heard one, but I have had others tell me that there is nothing that sounds as good as the SternBurg VMC? I still know of one new, never used one, sitting in it's original box ( It has been out of the box for photo's recently). Too bad the "concept" was so bad, and that it did not work better-- Ron Rich

Rowe R90-93-4. these were also far better sounding for CD's in the Combo versions.

Best sounding CD machine was also the first, Seeburg's 1986 (SCD1) it did sometimes skip if the machine speakers were too loud, but was a revelation in terms of definition -way better than Rowe's early offering.

Of the silver age machines, the Wurlitzer 1800 when modded for a magnetic cart is by-far the best of the 50's era machines. For whatever reason, Wurlitzer used a very good cone tweeter and that combined with their distributed resonances in the woofers produced a very listenable machine without the typical headache booming of most others.

Honorable mention: AMI H-I-J-K come close if you add an efficient tweeter, mod the amp slightly and use a better pickup, although the GE is not too bad. AMI was the only co. that actually designed a separate enclosure for the woofer.

This may sound a bit disloyal given that I have 9 old Seeburg's on-location but, the stiffness of the woofers in an undamped box, poor original pickups and weak tweeters produces a rather tiring sound. With some modification they do become more enjoyable.

BTW: i had an agreement to buy a VMC for $200 back in fall 1989. The seller was an op in NJ. I didn't act fast enough, two weeks after we met he was beaten into a coma during a mugging when leaving one of his locations in a Jersey ghetto. He regained consciousness but suffered too much brain damage to function. I never heard from him again. He was in his mid-forties.

Rob/NYC

I have operated jukeboxes since 2000. In my opinion, with the amplifier adjusted for the area, the Rowe CD-100F gives the best sound. I must say I am partial to Rowe. My next choice would be the CD-100A or B. The smaller woofers give very good bass response.

Well you all know that I am going to say that the Rowe Ami/Bal Ami sound is really something and for those who like a good bass sound it is the way to go.

As Ron says the early 70's Seeburgs were very good and they put a lot of components in those amps, the Rock Ola's of the same period were also good.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

I have 4 cd boxes in my house right now. All Rowe. A cd-100a, cd-100c, cd-100i, and a cd-100f. The cd-100i blows my house up....It's absolutely awesome!!