78-rpm records
(Columbia Records' last 78 rpm reissue of Frank Sinatra's "Young at Heart" album
was in 1954)
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Posted by CJ at 10:05 am (PDT) on Sun October 22, 2017
As a kid (8-9 yrsold) we had some 33 1/3 records that took up almost the whole room in the phonograph and the sound quality was amazing. My favorite was one by Wayne King
Kluv42 - I agree - I appreciate more of the "older" stuff because I can actually understand the lyrics. My record player is low quality but at least I know what the artist was singing about on songs from the 1930s through about the early 1960s.
I have a few 78's left to me by my dad. He had a couple of cabinets full of classical music, but he sold them all to a collector quite a few years ago. My 2010 Audio Technica turntable plays 78's, but I don't have a proper cartridge/stylus to play them. I remember playing them on our early 50's Magnavox radio-phonograph console. You could stack up maybe 5 records on the changer, and when one would drop to the platter, it caused the turntable deck to shake from the weight of them. It was mounted on springs. I don't exactly know what those records were made of, but they were brittle. It seemed like something similar to bakelite.
This posts/memories of the old record vinyl days are great to read! I recall when my mom would open the top of their record player and the scent which would waft to my nose as she prepared to play a record. I recall my neighbours asking if they could borrow a few of my Elvis Presley records. These were not original releases: I started purchasing vinyl records after Elvis died and these were "re-issues": my neighbours were amazed how well I cared for my records and were afraid to scratch them on their turntable. I didn't mind - I wanted them to enjoy the music. Memories of the "good old days."
I've recently developed an interest in playing some 78s that I've acquired over the years that are in very good condition. The popular Technics SL-D2 turntable will play 78 RPM records perfectly by simply adding a resistor and a switch. I recently bought a new Shure cartridge with a big 2.5 Mil stylis (for 78s) and head shell for under $60. Amazing how good 78s can actually sound on good audio equipment with the right components.
Duff,
I have a TEAC record player myself. I bought it several years ago just so I could listen to some of the LPs I still have. I didn't spend too much on it so the sound isn't the greatest, but it's so much fun to listen to records again. I especially enjoy a few I have that aren't available on CD. My grandkids, heck, my kids get a kick out of it. I just wish some of my favorite ones hadn't disappeared over the years - I think one of my roommates in the 70s "acquired" them without my knowledge.
Have you noticed that some young people don't know how to treat CDs? They don't seem to understand that you ought to handle them with some care so they don't get scratched - they just toss them anywhere instead of putting them back in the case. It's another skill we boomers learned from having records!
I gave my parents a nice Bang and Olufsen stereo system several years ago, but time and a house move took their toll on various components. Just try to find a system nowadays that has inputs for a turntable, CD, cassette, and AM/FM tuner! I did find a TEAC all-in-one unit, but kept the B&O's amplifier and speakers so they can get reasonable sound from it. Anyhow, the T'EAC's turntable plays 33's, 45's, and 78's, so when I visited last week, we got out some of their old novelty and klezmer 78's, and they played just fine. It's a weird feeling, listening to records that are at least 90 years old...
I remember we had some old 78s but one in particular sticks out because the record itself was red. The song was "Twilight on the Trail" but I don't remember who the artist was. Our 78s were brittle so if you dropped one, it was gone.
The 10" 78 rpm record could hold about 3 minutes of music per side. Longer works required multiple discs and a record changer capable of taking a stack of records. If a symphony, say, required 10 records, they'd be arranged for stack playing; the discs would contain sides 1/10, 2/9, 3/8, 4/7, and 5/6, so you could play through the stack and then flip the whole pile over and play the second half. Cumbersome and interrupted as it was, it all worked pretty reliably.
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There are 10 comments for this item.
The audio quality wasn't as good as later formats, but the music placed on them was farrrrrr superior. :)
I have a TEAC record player myself. I bought it several years ago just so I could listen to some of the LPs I still have. I didn't spend too much on it so the sound isn't the greatest, but it's so much fun to listen to records again. I especially enjoy a few I have that aren't available on CD. My grandkids, heck, my kids get a kick out of it. I just wish some of my favorite ones hadn't disappeared over the years - I think one of my roommates in the 70s "acquired" them without my knowledge.
Have you noticed that some young people don't know how to treat CDs? They don't seem to understand that you ought to handle them with some care so they don't get scratched - they just toss them anywhere instead of putting them back in the case. It's another skill we boomers learned from having records!
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