[bregez]

A surplus store has some NOS Weathers Turntable's from the 1960's for $250.00.  I was curious as to if anybody has seen or heard these things.  There are a few other threads online but the information is somewhat limited.   
http://www.surplussales.com/Equipment/Audio.html

Brad

[Calypte]

Weathers had, IIRC, a very light platter, an AR-like sprung suspension and a wooden tonearm, intended to reduce resonances in the audible range.  I used to see ads and stories about Weathers occasionally in magazines of the day (High Fidelity, HiFi/Stereo Review), but I'm not sure I ever saw one in person.  There were no dealers in the San Diego area.  I think the Weathers disappeared from commercial visibility around 1964, maybe earlier.  I'd be happy to be corrected on that last point.  I'd think finding parts and belts would be a near impossibility.  The AR-XA was Weathers' successor in that segment of the market.

[69ace]

  Don't worry, you'll never find a belt for a Weathers turntable. They didn't use belts. They were idler wheel driven.

The Weathers actually had few things in common with AR turntable. The AR was sort of a generic belt-drive machine with a serviceable arm. It was the cheapest machine you could buy that would do the job. The Weathers was state of the art, but Weathers' art was different. Where other machines used heavy turntables for a flywheel effect, Weathers table was deliberately light. The motor was small and intended to produce little vibration of its own. The cartridge and arm were designed as a unit. The Weathers cartridge was the first that could track at one gram or less. It's one of those wonderful eccentric audio designs that had no children. I haven't seen one in years.

In the 60s, I had a friend who swore by his Weathers turntable, arm and cartridge system. I had a Thorens TD 124 with and SME arm and an Ortofon SPU moving-coil cartridge. To me, the Weathers sounded anemic. Ortofon is still making the SPU,although the price has increased tenfold from a few hundred to thousands.

[Calypte]

This ad is from Dec 1960 HiFi/Stereo Review.  Was there more than one Weathers model?  From the address, they must have been just down the street from Edmund Scientific.

[neobop]

Don't worry, you'll never find a belt for a Weathers turntable. They didn't use belts. They were idler wheel driven.

The Weathers actually had few things in common with AR turntable. The AR was sort of a generic belt-drive machine with a serviceable arm. It was the cheapest machine you could buy that would do the job. The Weathers was state of the art, but Weathers' art was different. Where other machines used heavy turntables for a flywheel effect, Weathers table was deliberately light. The motor was small and intended to produce little vibration of its own. The cartridge and arm were designed as a unit. The Weathers cartridge was the first that could track at one gram or less. It's one of those wonderful eccentric audio designs that had no children. I haven't seen one in years.

In the 60s, I had a friend who swore by his Weathers turntable, arm and cartridge system. I had a Thorens TD 124 with and SME arm and an Ortofon SPU moving-coil cartridge. To me, the Weathers sounded anemic. Ortofon is still making the SPU,although the price has increased tenfold from a few hundred to thousands.

That design philosophy sounds like what B&O adopted, except theirs were belt driven. I saw a white paper by B&O that espoused much the same. Don't know who was first with this. B&O goes way back. Interesting stuff.
neo

[Calypte]

A surplus store has some NOS Weathers Turntable's from the 1960's for $250.00.  I was curious as to if anybody has seen or heard these things.  There are a few other threads online but the information is somewhat limited.   
http://www.surplussales.com/Equipment/Audio.html

Brad

I confess that I would have been sorely tempted to buy one of these, just to see what one could do.

[Occam]

I used the Weathers from 1964-1970. It sounded quite good when the idler wheel wasn't out of round. But to be honest, it might not be that advisable to accept my recollection of what transpired back then..... 

[HAL]

The original Weather's table was a mono unit that tracked at 1 gram.  A friend had one and gave me the info.  It used a capacitive pickup and demodulator circuit for the phono stage.  That is still a pretty amazing tracking force even today!

This unit is the second generation stereo table that uses a different phono cartridge.  Apparently they were never able to make the capacitive pickup work for Stereo.   

[Calypte]

Ebay currently has an ad (1964) and a test report (1965) for the Weathers Townsend turntable.  I may have seen one around then.  I think this was a different model than the one in the ad that I posted earlier.

[jeffjazz]

I remember that turntable he had displayed in his repair shop.  I was a kid and my Dad used to take me to Paul Weathers repair shop in NJ.  I remember him as a tall slender guy that walked with a cane and his wife took orders.
I had my Dad take a cheap Bradford quad receiver to him since it would not work with my turntable.  Basically a piece of junk, and I believe Mr. Weather convinced my Dad to allow me to use his old Fisher 500C receiver!  Yep that worked!  He passed away some time ago.  Nice memories, must have influenced me some way as I am now a full blown audiophile.  Here is a link about him that is interesting.  http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/archive/index.php/t-128990.html

[Calypte]

The Fisher 500C was a nice receiver.