Motorola Trio

[dave1138]

Here's the latest joint project with Hi-Fi-Mogul: We took a Motorola extension speaker, mounted a PP 6V6 Motorola amp inside and topped it off with a Motorola Turntable that I made a custom base for out of a veneered particle board plank. I moved the controls off of the chassis to the side of the cabinet, shielding the wires that extended the controls to a grounded metal panel. A decorative panel for the outside was made from leftover sheet metal
and painted with Copper Hammertone paint. The original knobs came with the amp, an eBay find.

Controls.JPG (28.73 KiB) Viewed 15616 times

Amp.jpg (81.04 KiB) Viewed 15616 times

The Trio.JPG (68.09 KiB) Viewed 15616 times

[William]

Wow, that is impressive. You two do nice work and I bet it sounds amazing too. So, who gets to keep it at their house?

Bill

[Firedome]

Really super job there, neat wiring and woodworking. The amp looks like a good one too. Kind of motivates me to clear out the basement a bit and set up the woodworking stuff to make something similar for our grandson from a little GE console amp and a VM1200 I've been saving.

[hermitcrab]

You guys are right up my alley... have chassis .... build yer own cabinet...

[dave1138]

It's at Hi-Fi-Mogul's house , looking to sell it eventually.
It sounds great, this is the 3rd one of these Motorola amps that
I've had. I have even built one from scratch to the schematic.
Here's a closeup of the turntable:

[William]

You must have a bunch of hours in this project? Sell it, after all the work you put into it? I'm not sure I could do that. No matter what, it looks great.

Bill

[electra225]

Yeah, I'm not sure I could sell it after putting all that work into it. Nice work, guys!

[Hi-Fi-Mogul]

Background:
Many years ago I found the Motorola speaker cabinet,
at an estate sale. Only the speaker cabinet S14M.
It should have been paired with the SK-14M main
cabinet w/amp/changer/speakers.

I thought for $25 bucks, I'll find a use for it sometime
in the future.

Not as many years ago, I saw a CL ad for "old Motorola
record player parts".
The photos showed a 1955 blonde finish Moto
cabinet with a cool V-M custom changer.
I got excited about that, but when I arrived, I saw
the amp was gone, and the cabinet was pretty
much destroyed.
BUT, for another $25, I got the changer, and the
four speakers that were in the damaged cabinet.

I still will add some parts to the changer, so that
the idler wheel will be pulled off of the stepped
speed cam. The early V-M 1200 changers did
not yet have that design.

So, after some decades past, recently Dave1138 and I came
up with this great recombinant Motorola.
He had that nice Moto amp which is I think an
HS 442, or HS 475, or similar.
And I had the changer & speaker cab, a match !

We also have similar philosophies about enjoying
the hi-fi project, and then finding a good new home
for it. I look at it as being an ambassador of good will
for vintage hi-fi's.
He's now got the RCA 6HF4 amp for a re-cap, while I ponder how
to get that RP-198 working correctly.

[William]

That's a great story, with a good out come and I respect your "Passing it on" to someone else who would enjoy the warm sound of tubes. I still think I would have to keep it.

Bill

[dave1138]

I have 2 "keeper" tube amps, a Fisher 500B and a RCA RS-177H. I am always looking to acquire tube gear to repair and find uses for, the Motorola amp was too good to pass up. By passing on finished products to others that will enjoy it, I keep my repair/fabrication skills up and when completed, I don't have to find room in the house for more stuff. There is a niche market for nice restored tube gear that provides some cash so that my hobby is self supporting, and keeps cool old gear out of the dumpsters. It's good to know that I'm not the only person that values nice old audio equipment and a pleasure to provide these things to people that will use and enjoy them.

[William]

I agree with you, I just like a variety of things to listen to so I have a couple of things kicking around. I do have a few things I would like to sell, but, in my neck of the woods it is not so good for selling consoles. What sells the best are portables. Does not seem to make a difference whether it's tube or SS, and the mid 60's into the 70's sell the best. The swing out speaker tip down changer models. No matter how spectacular they are, what they can do, or how they sound, $100.00 is pretty much tops for one. For the most part one takes a loss when trying to sell anything record player. I think that is very sad, and people don't know what they are missing. Somehow, listening to music on a smart phone just does not cut it for me.

Bill

[TC Chris]

My nephew, a robotics engineer, and his wife rented an Air BnB place over the holiday. They were charmed that it came with a portable phono and some LPs to play. Looked like a low-end model in the pix. The place should have a proper console.

Chris Campbell

[Motorola minion]

My in laws have an Air bnb but no player for hipster guests. Im not sure any of my consoles would fit the decor but...if they heard one before they saw it...maybe one of my solid state monsters could be painted a more subtle shade.

I do have an odd RCA 1VF507 with a tiled lid, painted with very tame grill cloth and RS177 amp. Not restored yet

[electra225]

A majority of folks today couldn't work a record player if you provided them one. I'm trying to teach a 26-year-old young man how to work a record player. He'll never get it right. This kid can ride a skateboard on surfaces I wouldn't try to walk on. He rides down bannisters, hops over cars. But he can't put the needle in the lead-in groove of a record without dropping the needle over the edge to save his soul......

[Firedome]

Sounds like he needs a TT with a cueing arm and/or a good pair of glasses lol.