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Going old school

It all started with the soundtrack of Woody Allen's Magic in the Moonlight. The music/songs strongly appealed to me. It reminded me of the sound on a hand-cranked gramophone in my original home that is sadly being used as kind of a coffee/tea stand. I started looking up the artists and then tried to get the albums. My first stumbling block was this new (old) thing I am unaccustomed to - 78 rpm. I am fairly new in my re-entry into vinyl and am getting deeper every day. Now, I feel like venturing into 78 rpm. I found out that you cannot just get a player with 3 (or variable) speed settings as you require specialized cartridges. I saw a couple of new models that handle this speed - one was a Rega - but unsure of the cartridge aspect. I became aware of vintage models such as a Garrard but don't know if that is a good choice given their age (apart from 501s). Do you have experience with these setups and what do I need to do to build such a setup?
shugho
john_tracy
341 posts
 
God knows that I am no expert on this subject, but it is my understanding that you will want a mono cart. with a spherical profile stylus and a phono pre that has the many different equalization curves used during the 78rpm era and a good and adjustable rumble filter. Something like this:

http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/stereo-phono-preamp-restores-78-rpm-records-17127
prcinka
366 posts
 
personally, if you do not have large collection of 78's do not go that way....on the better note the best will be for you just plain old RCA machine?box/console with turntable on the top and box with some tube amplifiers and speakers inside...that was the way it was intended to play....
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,304 posts
 
I picked up a basic admiral table at a yard sale for $10 with ceramic cart and stylus for 33 and 78 rams like most commodity tables out there in the 60s and 70s. Connected it to my arc tube preamp aux input. Used it only to play my old 78s and convert those to digital. Worked nicely. 78 rpm predates hifi. No need for anything fancy just to play 78s.
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