General Electric RP-1590-C Stereo

[electra225]

My stepdad was a GE dealer back in the day. He told me that GE made some high-end audio, but I never saw any of it. RCA and GE were cousins business-wise, and Sam always felt that GE benefited from some of RCA's engineering. They made it just enough different so as to not annoy their benefactor lest GE plagiarize some of RCA's designs. The RP-1590 has a really cheaply built cabinet and the infamous flimsy PCB chassis. But it uses speakers from a well-respected manufacturer and has high dollar output tubes. And the bulletproof VM 1200 series changer. This thing won't get any accolades on AudioKarma, but I am impressed with the performance of something that has no technical reason to sound so good.

[electra225]

This almost-done stereo has developed a small bug. I lose the left channel at very low volume after about 5 minutes. Turn the volume up just a tad and it springs back to life. Methinks I didn't get the volume control clean on one end. I'll retest tubes again just for grins. I noticed this after it had run for about three hours. Instead of listening to talk radio, I decided to play every 45 we have. It's been really fun....

[electra225]

This is a semi-wonderful old stereo. I say semi-wonderful because it could use a tad more treble. It has more bass than my Concert Grand. I have no idea how the GE engineers got so much sound out of so few components. Playing 45's should not be the ultimate test of a stereo's performance, I think that is fair to say. I haven't tried playing an LP yet because the needle is not good enough. I am certainly impressed with this stereo. I believe this parts set sounds better than the one I did for Don. Maybe I kept all the good parts?

I have seriously considered selling my Magnavox collection and to start collecting GE. Lots simpler to work on...

[electra225]

Okay. I'm an idiot.....

I was tinkering with the wing speakers this afternoon. You get the treble in "expanded stereo" that affects the wing speakers. I had been running the stereo with just using the two speakers in the main cabinet. I haven't figured out how the expanded stereo feature actually works, but it brightens the audio considerably.

[William]

I wish I could say the same thing with my Motorola not so portable. I have plenty of mids and treble, but the bass is nonexistent.

Bill

[electra225]

The flexibility of the speaker cones can make a big difference in bass response. If you have speakers you could connect or sub just for test, that might give you a hint as to where to start looking. Elusive bass is not the easiest condition to troubleshoot, at least for me.

[electra225]

At 2:38 this afternoon I had played 500 sides of 45 rpm records on this old changer. The only problem I've had is that it doesn't want to drop stereo 45's for some reason. I only have maybe a half dozen stereo 45's but it won't drop a one of them. It never skipped a beat on the mono records. The needle is getting really bad, so I'm probably done until I get a replacement. This needle is either the original or it's a genuine GE replacement needle. I have only played about half the 45's we have. There is a lot of good music there I hadn't heard in many, many years. I counted sides instead of records. Some selections I played more than once, so to be accurate, I counted sides.

[William]

I have that same problem with some LP's. It's usually the newer ones, the ones that were really flexible and thin. I'm wondering when RCA decided to make stereo 45's, if that process required a change so they were made thinner or cheaper. Have you tried them on your portable Maggie with the VM changer, or maybe a Collaro?

Bill

[electra225]

I have the same issue on the Magnavox, but I also am sharing a 45 adapter between the two instruments. I haven't tried them on a Collaro.