record player and a cool relic, worth keeping?

kaptainmarc · 21 Sep 2020 at 13:46

So had to clear out my grandads house due to other circumstances.

I found his old Vinyl player in good knick apart from the veneer peeling on the back edge.

what amp would be good to pair it with? looking at budget end.
would be nice to have it useable in my house.

also found this old school bang & oulsfen player which is 100% working just needs the metal plates fixing back on. Very 80's also has the CD player to go with it but the motor arm has snapped.

Grimley · 21 Sep 2020 at 13:59

I would say if the turntable was made in the 80's then a old 2nd hand NAD or Audiolab integrated amp should do the trick.

lucid · 21 Sep 2020 at 20:04

Blimey, I had an earlier version of the Revolver as my first turntable, circa 1984-85 from memory. At the time the finish was Hammerite. Mine was a sort of crimson red with a smoked perspex lid. The arm was a Linn LVX. A lovely little TT, very musical, or so I thought at the time. Loved listening to it. Changed the Linn Basik cartridge for an A&R C77, then a P77, and I was as happy as a pig in poop.

Your newly acquired TT will need either an amplifier with a phono stage, or you'll need to buy a phono pre-amp to sit between the TT and a standard Line Input on any amp.

When you say "budget", what does that mean in £££'s terms?

BF-Bert · 21 Sep 2020 at 20:43

The Revolver was a very capable turntable in its day. A decent step up from the Dual CS505 and a good alternative to the Rega Planar 3. Unfortunately Rega revised the Planar 3 shortly after the Revolver was released and it was a major improvement that simply out classed the Revolver. Its still a very good starter turntable.

lucid · 21 Sep 2020 at 23:34

BF-Bert said:
The Revolver was a very capable turntable in its day. A decent step up from the Dual CS505 and a good alternative to the Rega Planar 3. Unfortunately Rega revised the Planar 3 shortly after the Revolver was released and it was a major improvement that simply out classed the Revolver. Its still a very good starter turntable.

When I was buying, the Planar 3 was a fair bit more money, so the Revolver sat between the CS505-MKII and Planar 3. I demoed the Revolver against the Dual, and it made the latter sound slow and ploddy. I would agree, it was a good entry-level turntable in its day.

From memory, I think at the time the Rega was still using the S-shaped tone arm, so maybe the update to the Planar 3 was in part the move to the RB300 straight tone arm they developed? It's all a long time ago though, so memory fades.

kaptainmarc · 22 Sep 2020 at 10:22

lucid said:
Blimey, I had an earlier version of the Revolver as my first turntable, circa 1984-85 from memory. At the time the finish was Hammerite. Mine was a sort of crimson red with a smoked perspex lid. The arm was a Linn LVX. A lovely little TT, very musical, or so I thought at the time. Loved listening to it. Changed the Linn Basik cartridge for an A&R C77, then a P77, and I was as happy as a pig in poop.

Your newly acquired TT will need either an amplifier with a phono stage, or you'll need to buy a phono pre-amp to sit between the TT and a standard Line Input on any amp.

When you say "budget", what does that mean in £££'s terms?

Max 150-200 I would say, my knowledge on all this is little to non existent so any links or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

BF-Bert · 22 Sep 2020 at 11:35

Out of interest what type of connector is on the end of the turntable cable? The B&O receiver you have has a phono stage built in but I believe the input sockets will be din and not rca.

placeholder · 22 Sep 2020 at 13:16

Out of interest does anyone know if the B&O is worth anything? My dad has the single tape version with the matching turntable and Im pretty sure its in excellent condition. Hadn't thought about it for years until I saw that picture!

BF-Bert · 22 Sep 2020 at 14:07

B&O turntables can be worth a huge amount depending on model and condition.

placeholder · 22 Sep 2020 at 14:17

I'll be visiting him tomorrow (unless government rules prevent it in the next 24 hours!) so I'll check model numbers and condition etc.

lucid · 22 Sep 2020 at 20:28

kaptainmarc said:
Max 150-200 I would say, my knowledge on all this is little to non existent so any links or recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

In addition to the Audiolab and NAD recommendation's from @Grimley, I would also have a look at ARCAM Alpha-series and Delta-series amps, and maybe some of the early REGA Brio-series too.

These are all excellent classic British Hi-Fi amps with whopping great donut-shaped toroidal transformers couple to generous capacitors so the amps can deliver huge dollops of current. They'll drive any decent speakers you can throw at them.

In addition, both companies made really good integrated phono stages; much better than you can buy new for £100-£150 alone, so you'll be getting far better results from the TT than you would with a modern budget and coupled with an equally budget phono pre-amp.

If you're looking for something a bit more modern, then I can recommend the Onkyo A-9010.

Grimley · 22 Sep 2020 at 22:38

@lucid what about an old Creek Audio Amp? IIRC I was demoed one many moons ago but declined, as it had no power relays & I feared the resulting 'THUMP' when it was turned on would damage any speakers connected to it.

Edit: just found this review on the OP's turntable.

https://www.hifinews.com/content/revolver-turntable

lucid · 23 Sep 2020 at 00:31

Yeah, Creek too. I have a CAS2020 MKII here and it's a lovely sounding amp. The ARCAMs, Audiolabs, Regas, and selected NADs will have more power and control; but as long as the speakers aren't a difficult load then the Creek will do very nicely.

Nine if these amps attract the mad over pricing that screws up the value of Cyrus and Technics (shudders at that last one)

placeholder · 23 Sep 2020 at 15:32

I have found the turntable so far which is a Beogram 3000, can’t locate the cassette and radio part that goes with it yet. My dad says he paid over £1000 for it in 1985 so I’m assuming if I could find it all and it worked it could be worth something?

BF-Bert · 23 Sep 2020 at 16:48

Is that one of the tangential B&O turntables?

placeholder · 24 Sep 2020 at 07:09

BF-Bert said:
Is that one of the tangential B&O turntables?

Was that me you were asking that question? I have absolutely no idea what that is Im afraid.I just saw the pic of the Beocenter above and it jogged my memory that my dad had one. The turntable was boxed away in a cupboard but he thinks the rest of it is in the attic, I didn't have time to check. He was forced to take early retirement in 1985 at the age of 50 due to a heart condition but pensions were pretty good back then and he got an excellent deal so bought himself a B&O stereo system as a present to himself.

35 years on they still look absolutely fantastic. I would happily have it in my living room if space allowed and Im sure people would think it was just bought yesterday!

lucid · 24 Sep 2020 at 09:58

@placeholder, tangential tone arms were often fmreferred to by another name; linear tracking.

With most TTs the tone arm pivots on a fixed point. Yhe cartrdge end describes an arc across the record surface.

With linear trackers, the pivots point is on a rail. The entire tone arm moves on this rail as it tracks across the record surface.

placeholder · 24 Sep 2020 at 10:29

lucid said:
@placeholder, tangential tone arms were often fmreferred to by another name; linear tracking.

With most TTs the tone arm pivots on a fixed point. Yhe cartrdge end describes an arc across the record surface.

With linear trackers, the pivots point is on a rail. The entire tone arm moves on this rail as it tracks across the record surface.

Ah thanks for that, I see what you mean! Im going to try and get it working if I can find all the bits!