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Don't Judge Me!

T Dog

T Dog

Member
OK, so I've been looking for awhile for a cost-effective way to play my small collection of classical 78's. I just happened to find this BSR McDonald 4800 for free. A bit of cleaning and some lubrication, and it's working fine! Not HiFi, but neither are the 78's! 15920121187778098169229659303704.jpg
 
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You did good.

When the bug hit me to get something to play a bunch of 1940's / 1950's jazz 78's that I got from a friend who cleared out of his dead uncle's house, I paid $20 for a console pull Dual 1010 with an Astatic ceramic cartridge. But I got a base and lid for free.

I sold that Astatic cartridge on it's headshell for $25 and a Marantz 2015 receiver, and gave the Dual 1010 to a shop for parts. Reason being, I thought I'd up my game by I putting 78 compatible styli on Shure and Stanton cartridges and use more expensive tables. But for whatever reason, 78's seemed to play and sound better with the lower end rig.

For what you're doing, a changer like that (a must when playing 78's) with the cartridge it's got might be almost ideal.

The only hitch might be a new 78 stylus. It was several years ago since I searched online but availability of flip over needles with one side for 78's seemed to have been displaced by those with LP tips on both sides.
 
62vauxhall said:
You did good.

When the bug hit me to get something to play a bunch of 1940's / 1950's jazz 78's that I got from a friend who cleared out of his dead uncle's house, I paid $20 for a console pull Dual 1010 with an Astatic ceramic cartridge. But I got a base and lid for free.

I sold that Astatic cartridge on it's headshell for $25 and a Marantz 2015 receiver, and gave the Dual 1010 to a shop for parts. Reason being, I thought I'd up my game by I putting 78 compatible styli on Shure and Stanton cartridges and use more expensive tables. But for whatever reason, 78's seemed to play and sound better with the lower end rig.

For what you're doing, a changer like that (a must when playing 78's) with the cartridge it's got might be almost ideal.

The only hitch might be a new 78 stylus. It was several years ago since I searched online but availability of flip over needles with one side for 78's seemed to have been displaced by those with LP tips on both sides.
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62vauxhall I had not thought about stylus replacement..... the one it came with is still in good shape. I was going to order a replacement later "just in case" but I didn't realize that some have only LP tips on both sides. Thanks for the info!
 
Anything can be improved upon....

I use to replace the original stylus with a conical, then put a small cotton ball up under the stylus to support the stylus suspension. It actually improves soundstage.....

You can buy a roll of old style gasket material used in automotive repair to make valve cover gaskets and make a cork turntable mat....which reduces vibration and increases soundstage....

Improvements that isolate the stylus and vinyl from the vibration of the turntable...

I don’t believe in something just being what it is when it could be better and everything can be better. When a person grows up with less, they don’t have to only wish they had better when they can develop the potential of what they have.
 
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And he saved one of those 70's BSR's from the trash. I'm not joking. At one time they were ubiquitous. Now they are disappearing into the garbage to the point where they are becoming a bit scarce. Not really collectable, but if they become extinct then part of the audio history would be lost.

BTW, I also think running 78's is a good use of them. They also give off that 70's vibe.
 
Tim D said:
but if they become extinct then part of the audio history would be lost.
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Not a bad thing if you ask me, but not a chance on earth of that happening. BSR made so many and sold so many to third parties, that even a theoretical global plan of disposal won't get rid of them any time soon. I've always had a feeling the vast majority of these went to the Indian sub-continent, never to be heard of again on western hemisphere cyber space. For all I know, most are still there.

These are indeed iconic turntables. The best analog domain exemplar of dichotomy between brilliant industrial scale mechanical engineering on one hand and the lowest of the low piss poor execution on the other.
 
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I saved one from a thrift for $10 for the M75 with a good stylus, and then thought a 78 spherical and a clean up would give me a decent 78 player that wasn't a groove grinder since the Gray Viscous arm carrying a GE VR cart on a broadcast table is never going to happen.
I have four other similar tables including three Panasonics I bought to harvest the piezo-restistive strain gauge carts.
 
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