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Old 5th Feb 2009, 8:03 pm   #1
Dr-Watts
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Default EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Hi all,

This is one I finished this week.
After the radiogram from Ampthill this was bought to me from the same guy after visiting reletives in York.
This is lovely, it's an EAR 1960 Protable Record Reproducer.
The guy bought it new !
It's still in regular use (every fortnight anyway) and the complaint was that after it had been on for a while it began to hummmmmmmmmm.
I did run it up when I got it and it took about 15 mins for this to happen, but it was quit intrusive.
This is a lovely thing to work on, the whole thing is built on a wooden chassis and can be removed from the box in 1 piece. (see pictures)
Once out, I couldn't believe my eyes, the mains lead was extended using the speaker nuts on the Live side of the cable, So naturally that was the first thing to go.
Next to the amp, a few waxies and a lovely (Ahem...) brown Hunts cap all replaced. I also took a look at the Resistors, out of all the R's there were only 2 that were anywhere near the correct value, so they were all changed.
After a biggy like this I like to wind things up slowly on a variac monitoring voltages etc to make sure there's no 'unpleasentness' !
Everything seemed fine, all voltages as to be expected, no hum and tonnes of volume when the headshell was tapped.
So we chose a James Brown 7' to test this one...
The volumes control 'volumed'.
The Treble controle 'trebled' and
the Bass control 'Changed the volume' Oh bt, what the hell have I done
And I can't find a circuit anywhere...
Luckily I took a load of photo's and found that I'd connected the cap from the ECC83 to the Bass control's wrong pin, putting it on the opposite end cured the 'Volume control' effect and bass was restored.

Next to the deck, this actually needed little more that an oil change (as my dad called it).
The only problem was that it didn't recognise 1 record, if you played 2, it would play the bottom one then stop leaving a single on the top.
Tis took a bit of head scratching (No wonder I'm losing my hair !)
It turned out to be the record stabilizer arm (The one you put on top of the record) had come undone and the length of thread that was undone was tricking the deck into thinking there wasn't any records left !
Ta daaaa !
So I stuck it in it's box and played it for several hours, the hum's gone and it actually sounds really nice !

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Thanks for reading this, and if you're into your vintage record players I highly recommend one of these.
They sound really nice and are a piece of cake to work on.

Kind Regards

Dr. Dave
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 12:29 am   #2
Steve_P
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

They are a nice machine, great for 60s Motown! Well done that man.

Cheers,

Steve P.
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 8:37 am   #3
Tazman1966
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Nice restoration Dave - and still with its original owner too
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 10:13 am   #4
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Very nice.
Hmmmmm I am starting to get more interested in record players. This one has certainly helped.
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 2:16 pm   #5
batterymaker1
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Man, I know that situation in the variac picture well.

I wear Kevlar, stand at least 10 feet back from the receiver, twist the knob, and...and.........and........
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 4:54 pm   #6
julie_m
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Great looking machine, and nicely built even for the time with that "quick release" chassis! I see an earth wire in the mains lead and E-type valves, so it's even transformer-fed. It evidently wouldn't have been cheap when it was bought.

By the way, I don't think I've ever seen an E.A.R. with an autochanger before -- all the ones I've seen have been single-players. Is that one of those Collaro changers that measures the record with the tonearm before it drops?
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 5:19 pm   #7
ppppenguin
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

We had an EAR gramophone at home when I was a kid. Not this precise model. Certainly around in 1960. It used a similar Collaro autochanger and had 3 valves: EZ80, EL84, ECC83. I usd to play records on it for hours, especially 78s.

I don't know anything about the history of the EAR company but my dad used to say that it was started by a cousin of his.
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 7:34 pm   #8
Michael Maurice
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajs_derby View Post
By the way, I don't think I've ever seen an E.A.R. with an autochanger before -- all the ones I've seen have been single-players. Is that one of those Collaro changers that measures the record with the tonearm before it drops?
No this looks like the RC54 deck which uses the feeler arm sticking out of the tower to determine record size.

Incidentally I understand that Collaro were in breach of Patent rights on the record size detector when they brought out this deck and so designed the Conquest to get round the problem.
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 7:40 pm   #9
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Maurice View Post
...the feeler arm...Incidentally I understand that Collaro were in breach of Patent rights on the record size detector.
Yes, looks suspiciously like BSR's Magidisc decvice

Nice work, Dr Dave!

Nick.
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Old 6th Feb 2009, 9:47 pm   #10
Dr-Watts
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Bang on Michael
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Old 7th Feb 2009, 1:05 am   #11
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Great job!
Fond memories there. My first record player was almost identical, an EAR 'music maker'. I recall as a kid it was the only one which would autochange correctly my 6" kidditunes lumar discs! thanks to the conquest mech.
one day i'll get another one...
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Old 11th Feb 2009, 5:13 pm   #12
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Default Re: EAR 1960 Portable Reproducer

Looking closer.. yup.. the deck is different to the one that was in mine as a teenager.
That was lacking a cart so I ran it with an sp25 sitting on a baseboard on the top.. I much prefer this one, the red looks great, mine was grey/blue.
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