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A Strange Turntable Indeed...

2

2DualsNotEnough

Addicted Member
I know the boys(and girls) of AK can help me on this one:
I remember a turntable from the mid 70's,I want to say 76,77,78 maybe.It had this row of buttons on the front,and this round laser looking strobe on it.You were able(supposedly) to choose tracks,and the arm would automatically go to the selected track.I keep wanting to say Accuphase,or ADC,but I just cant remember.I was thinking of seeking one out just for the conversation value.
This has been driving me(and hence,my wife) crazy for weeks!
Jimmy
 
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Originally posted by 2DualsNotEnough
I know the boys(and girls) of AK can help me on this one:
I remember a turntable from the mid 70's,I want to say 76,77,78 maybe.It had this row of buttons on the front,and this round laser looking strobe on it.You were able(supposedly) to choose tracks,and the arm would automatically go to the selected track.I keep wanting to say Accuphase,or ADC,but I just cant remember.I was thinking of seeking one out just for the conversation value.
This has been driving me(and hence,my wife) crazy for weeks!
Jimmy
Click to expand...

Is this the one you meant?

ADC 4000 (from The Vintage Knob)

Best,

Wiggy
 
Accutrac 4000

Here is my accutrac.Bought from the original owner 5-6 years ago pretty cheap.Unfortunatly it's been sitting for the past 4 in the (dry)basement.I'll get it out again someday.Sure does look sharp though.
 
A strange beast to say the least.

The remote was ultrasonic instead of today's infrared. Wonder if it might have to do with an IR remote possibly interfering with the sensor (see below...)

I've never had a chance to play with one of these although a friend offered me his for $100 back in '83. Said it needed a new stylus and he didn't think they were available anymore.

Anybody care to describe how the sensor worked? I know it involved some sort of light source in the headshell/cart and a sensor to detect reflected light from the ungrooved areas of the vinyl.

Did it use a lamp or an LED?

Was the sensor/lamp part of the stylus, cart or was it a seperate part of the headshell?

Finally, the model pictured above was the direct drive version. There was also a changer model that gently lowered the LP onto the platter. Neat idea but trying to make an audiophile quality changer was simply a bad idea so late in the LP's lifetime. Probably an absolute bitch to work on too.
 
Just stumbled on to this thread. The changer was the Accutrac +6. I had one (bought it in 81 or so for about $160 as I reacall). It was real cool to watch the changer and track sensor work.
If I remember correctly, the track sensor was built into the headshell. The tonearm ok. The cartidge was the LMA-3, only used on this model, I believe. By the time I needed a replacement stylus, ADC was more or less out of business and replacements were near impossible to find.
I don't know about the earlier model, but the +6 was not a great TT (beside the cool factor). The sensor would often interpret quiet sections as track dividers, there was audible noise when the changer operated and when the tonearm motor was in operation (to make it worse, two different tones were produced, really it was only noticeable at high volume or with phones, but it was one of those things that once you noticed it, it irritated the heck out of you, when those circuits were off, it was pretty quiet). It was near impossible to override the speed sensor (any 7 inch was automatically played at 45, any 12 inch was automatically a 33).
But--did I mention this--it was cool.

Al
 
I have had 2 of these Accutrac 4000's - one i never did manage to get working and the other was perfect and i loved it dearly! However, the day came when i was made "an offer i couldn;'t refuse" for it and so sold it.
I would love one of the Accutrac +6's, but they were never imported over here into England - if any of you lovely people in the US know of one in good condition up for sale complete with all its bits and bobs, please let me know!

Adam.
 
A friend of mine owned one until his wife dusted...the cartridge! We looked for a replacement and were unable to find one. This was around 1990. The 'table is now in his closet. His wifes dusting is the topic of conversation.

Ron
 
I think the sensor looked for the dead space between tracks by a change in the reflected/scattered light intensity from the unmodulated band (more light reflects back up to the detector) than the music band (more light scattered).

The changer, IIRC, had an Archimedean screw thingy that screwed up and down to deposit records for playing (or am I just having a flashback?).
 
I have the BSR version of this turntable called the Accutrac XR-60. I'm lucky in the respect that i just bought mine a few months back and it was NOS and only opened for photographs(Epay). Mine works perfectly. It has a belt driven table and has two spindles included. One is for single play and the other will hold up to 5 records. Only drawback is you have to use the snap in inserts for 45's if you want to play them automatically.You can program it to play either only selected tracks from each record or program it to play all selections. Sort of like programing CD's on a multi-disc CD player. When it changes records the turntable stops...the center of the turntable raises to the record and slowly lowers it to the turntable and then starts spinning again then the tonearm scans until it finds the selected track that you chose previously. The remote works well also and another difference between the BSR and the ADC was that the BSR's remote reciever was built into the front of the turntable base instead of having a ball like reciever that hooked up externally to the turntable. Since it is a BSR.... its not top of the line audiophile quality but works pretty well and is interesting to watch work. Since mine is NOS i hope to get a few years of playing out of it anyway and for a whopping $9 i couldnt go wrong. Definately a neat turntable to say the least. Its a shame the cartridge and needle are no longer available.
-Tony
 
Originally posted by mhardy6647
The changer, IIRC, had an Archimedean screw thingy that screwed up and down to deposit records for playing (or am I just having a flashback?).
Click to expand...

Your memory is correct. That was one of the cool things, watching the stack or records rising up and then being lowered back down on that screw thingy (me know me use bad tech language).

As far as stylus replacement, I can't remember what the obstacle was to simply putting a different cartidge on the machine, but there was one, something to do with the emitter/sensor.
I think I still have the darned thing in storage, maybe I'll drag it out and see if there isn't some kind of kludge to get around the problem.

SON OF A...! Just googled ADC LMA-3 and it turns out there's TONS of replacement styli out there on the web. Also available are replacements for the LMA-1 (which I think was the cart used on the single-play model). So no kludge invovling teeny periscopic arrangements ( I admit that was what I was thinking) will be necessary.

Al
 
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