RCA stereo demo

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Guy 13

RCA stereo demo
« on: 24 Sep 2014, 01:42 pm »
Hi all.
The link to the RCA stereo demonstration LP brings back good souvenirs to me when I was 15 years old and my father bought a two piece RCA stereo unit that came with the LP in the link.
To me, that was a good way for the time to demonstrate
what stereo sound was.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnGOLHtzsao

Guy 13

Letitroll98

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Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #1 on: 24 Sep 2014, 11:46 pm »
I have that album, somewhere.  Maybe the ex has it, but I definitely had a RCA Living Stereo demonstration lp.  There of course may have been more than one issued.  There were a number of classic stereo lp's I inherited from my grandfather's collection, that was one of them.

Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #2 on: 25 Sep 2014, 02:28 am »
I have that album, somewhere.  Maybe the ex has it, but I definitely had a RCA Living Stereo demonstration lp.  There of course may have been more than one issued.  There were a number of classic stereo lp's I inherited from my grandfather's collection, that was one of them.

Hi Letitroll98.
Lucky you.
I wish I could play that RCA LP on my super system,
I am sure it would sound nice, minus the pop and scratches...
On You tube, I saw several different versions of that kind of demo LP.
So, your grandfather had a collection of those,
that's makes me also a grandfather. :lol:

Guy 13



Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #3 on: 28 Sep 2014, 01:28 am »

Hi all.
Once a pond a time as a little Guy 13 that was 15 years old and knew nothing about music, then his father bought a two piece RCA Victor stereophonic unit to help his 6 sons and four daughters to learn about (Stereo) music with the help of his mother that bought a complete set of classical music album from the Reader’s Digest.
And that’s how my love for music and appliance to play music started more than 50 years ago.
Of course the RCA Victor stereophonic demo LP (Mentioned on my original post) is the one that trigger everything, and then the Reader’s Digest albums make me love classical music.
Here is a picture of the RCA Victor that my father bought.



Two pieces.
The left was for LP storage and the right was the turntable with the amplifier.
Each unit had a 6-1/2” woofer-midrange and two 3-1/2” tweeters firing at an angle.
It did not have a built-in tuner, only amplifier with bass, treble, volume and on-off switch.
I remember that the tubes where small (Probably 6BQ5/el84).
At the time, I thought that the sound was pretty good; I was mainly impressed by the trebles, not much bass, but enough.
The units were in my brother and I bedroom,
because my father was renovating the basement, we really needed a basement (Safe place) with 10 children at home.
At the time, we were too young to throw some big parties, that came later, we I am the one that use the RCA the most, well I was the oldest, which brings some privileges.
Good souvenirs.

Guy 13

Note:
Forget about the little one on top,
it belonged to my other brothers that wanted to play 45 RPM
outside the house, therefore, was easy to carry around.
 





   

FireGuy

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #4 on: 28 Sep 2014, 01:41 am »
That's some cool history...

Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #5 on: 28 Sep 2014, 04:01 am »
That's some cool history...

Thanks FireGuy.

Guy 13

By the way, after a few years that one went to the trash (Normal with 10 children touchingéabusing it), my father never bought another one.
My parents did it for us, they never listen to music.
My mother listen to soap opera on the am radio
and my father sometimes watch TV with us.

brooklyn

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #6 on: 28 Sep 2014, 05:58 am »
Nice story and picture Guy, I never did see anything like it growing up. We had a tabletop
1950s Art Deco Admiral Portable record player (similar to the picture below) in our family
and I used it to play 45’s. My parents did have a small collection of albums mostly Broadway
Shows and Italian singers back then.




Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #7 on: 28 Sep 2014, 07:23 am »
Nice story and picture Guy, I never did see anything like it growing up. We had a tabletop
1950s Art Deco Admiral Portable record player (similar to the picture below) in our family
and I used it to play 45’s. My parents did have a small collection of albums mostly Broadway
Shows and Italian singers back then.




Hi Brooklyn.
What type of music did you listen to with 45RPM in your youth?
I think music is/should be important in the early stage of our life,
it's part of the education, like mathematics, geography and history...

Guy 13

My parent's neighbor was a bartender in a club
and where he worked they had a jukebox where they played 45s
and after so many times, the 45 were replaced with new ones
and the neighbor would get them and give them to us,
so we we lucky to get pop music to play for free,
minds you, they were worn out quite a bit,
but still, free music.
 

neobop

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Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #8 on: 28 Sep 2014, 12:11 pm »
Hi Guy,
Around 1960 we got a Garrard Type A changer:






Idler drive - came with 2 spindles.  Underneath it looked like the inside of a mechanical watch. 
neo



orthobiz

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #9 on: 28 Sep 2014, 12:14 pm »

Good souvenirs.
   

As in, "good memories."

P

Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #10 on: 28 Sep 2014, 01:48 pm »
Hi all.
I also remember that I had two friends living nearby my parents house
that had in their apartment a Clairtone stereo console.
With my friend Claude, we would listen to pop music on LP
and with his brother Jacques I would listen to classical music on FM.
The sound was much better than what my father had bought,
but the acoustic of my friend's apartment was no better
than the acoustic of a washroom.

Guy 13 with his head full of audio memories.



That's exactly what my friend had,
minus the grill that where a little different.

Guy 13

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #11 on: 28 Sep 2014, 02:00 pm »
Hi Guy,
Around 1960 we got a Garrard Type A changer:






Idler drive - came with 2 spindles.  Underneath it looked like the inside of a mechanical watch. 
neo

Ho neo.
I like the look of those 1960 era Garrard, they are built like German tanks.
I remember seeing under the hood of one of those turntable and I am sure it was a nightmare for any technician, quite complicated.
Do you remember what amplifier and speakers you had with that Garrard?

Guy 13

neobop

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Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #12 on: 28 Sep 2014, 03:10 pm »
Guy,
Actually, the Garrard was very reliable - well engineered.   Underneath it might have looked like clockwork, but it ran like a clock too.

We also had Dynakit amp and preamp:






Can't remember the original speakers, but a few years later we traded them for AR-4a.   

My mom liked Frank Sinatra, Harry Belafonte, Porgy and Bess.  also some classical.  I remember Brahms 4th and some Dvorak.   My brother liked Peter, Paul and Mary and folk music.  I liked my mom's music especially Frank Sinatra with Count Basie.  Also all kinds of jazz, big bands to Miles Davis. 
neo

brooklyn

Re: RCA stereo demo
« Reply #13 on: 28 Sep 2014, 03:17 pm »
Hi Brooklyn.
What type of music did you listen to with 45RPM in your youth?
I think music is/should be important in the early stage of our life,
it's part of the education, like mathematics, geography and history...

Guy 13

My parent's neighbor was a bartender in a club
and where he worked they had a jukebox where they played 45s
and after so many times, the 45 were replaced with new ones
and the neighbor would get them and give them to us,
so we we lucky to get pop music to play for free,
minds you, they were worn out quite a bit,
but still, free music.

Actually, the 45’s belonged to my older brother and it was the rock and roll of that time.
The Everly Brothers, Bobby Rydell, Connie Francis, Chubby Checker and the Shirelles to name a few.

When the needle started to ware out we would tape a nickel to the headshell to so it would play the record..
Thinking back, I was surprised there was no vinyl spindling off of the record as it played.