Magnavox record player

[electra225]

I saw this little 3-speed Magnavox "kiddie player" on ebay. I probably should have one of these, you don't see one very often. Magnavox stuff was too expensive for people to buy so kids could trash on them. The cartridge on this one looks suspiciously like a crystal cartridge. If it is, it would be quite the plow on 45's on LP's I'd think. But it is kinda cute.....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/165408827104?h ... R6SO9PykYQ

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Greg, that is a crystal cartridge.
And this is a more rare item, I think.
I've never seen one.

Let me know if you obtain it, and if there is
an amplifier # stamped on the chassis.
I'll look for the schematic for it.

[Firedome]

These types of portables seem to have almost always have ceramic cartridges. I wouldn't think it'd have been more expensive than other better quality portables of that type, at least to a degree that one would hesitate letting a kid use it, if anything it might be of a more kid-resistant quality. I've seen equally nice and well built Zeniths, VOMs, RCAs, and similar others that were probably in about the same price bracket... it'd be interesting to go back and look at prices in newspaper ads of the time for various models.

[William]

It actually looks pretty good, not beat up and fairly clean. It would be interesting to see what's inside for an amp. My question, what would you do if the cartridge is bad?

Bill

[electra225]

Would there be room in that tone arm to use a ceramic cartridge with the normal 1/2" mounting? If you could do that, then could lighten the tone arm pressure, the amp would have to be modified so it would work with the ceramic cartridge. That shouldn't be too tough of a job.

That cartridge looks like it would use a steel needle. Did people actually play LP's and 45's with a steel needle?

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Would there be room in that tone arm to use a ceramic cartridge with the normal 1/2" mounting?

If you could do that, then could lighten the tone arm pressure, the amp would have to be modified so it would work with the ceramic cartridge. That shouldn't be too tough of a job.

Greg,
That tonearm looks plenty big for a ceramic cart, if it has
1/2" wide mount holes.

We can hope the amp has an audio tube section.
A Pfanstiehl P-228 will give 0.8 output volts.

I know there are several members on ARF who have
made the simple tube upgrade.

If this is from the early 1950's, 78 RPM records were still
being regularly produced.
So, maybe a crystal cart with steel needle was OK on those
78's.

[electra225]

Mr. Mogul, can you identify the model number and amp in that little record player? That might tell us how the amp is set up. I can't imagine it being more than a one-tube wonder. Probably a 35Z5/35W4 and 50L6/50C5 setup. As an aside, I see they did the Tolex a tad differently than was done on the one I'm redoing.

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Greg, I assume the chassis # is stamped
on the amp inside.
I've had no luck searching for any info on this Maggie.

[TC Chris]

I'll post the link to my short video on my little RCA portable, about the same price/quality level as the Maggie. The RCA did have a durable, vinyl-covered steel case.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrc0enXp8AY&t=166s

My cartridge was dead and Gary Stork sold me a new one. The new one is stereo and I paralleled its output for mono. The output was a little less than the original but I figured that two channels would up it some, plus I could play stereo records. It's loud enough for any practical purposes via the one-stage amp.

I cut the turnover axle off the old cart and epoxied it to the new one to make things work.

Chris Campbell