BSR record player deck identification.

[triplespring]

I dont think we've got this one yet? I'll probably be pulling it out tomorrow so I'll check for a model number.
I've never posted a pic here before, so I hope I've got it right.

[GrimJosef]

This is the one that had been fitted to my Dynatron/Quad radiogram (described here https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=55559).

All I know about it is what you can see in the pics - it's a BSR McDonald HT 70 (a.k.a. HT70 on the internet).

Cheers,

GJ

[ben]

Originally Posted by triplespring

I dont think we've got this one yet? I'll probably be pulling it out tomorrow so I'll check for a model number.

A 1953 GU4 - nice! one of their first electrical units.

[triplespring]

Many thanks Ben. I did pull it out but found no indication of a model number, and I couldn't find one the same online. I kind of expected it to be a 1953 model because I think it was either 52 or 53 when microgroove records were first manufactured and sold to mainstream Australia. It's nice to finally know what model it is.

[ben]

I'm reviving this thread as I've just come across two odd (to me anyway) variants of the UA15.
First one has a three piece arm, second one has a higher platter then all the others I've ever seen, and see how the arm is mounted higher too!

['LIVEWIRE?']

The deck in picture 3 is identical with that fitted in my Silverotone 'Revalation' (or should that be 'Revalation 'Silvertone?) valve player dating from ca. 1960, except that my deck has the 'Monarch' logo as per the one in your picture 1, Ben.

[Audio1950]

The third one is a UA16, as fitted to the Bush SRP31D, amongst many others. The spindle is also a lot taller, allowing more records to be stacked.

Barry

[D_S_J_R]

The one on the left was a later one I think and the later Bush record players had a version with a 10.5" approx top platter and silver trims around the controls from memory. The J shaped tubular tonearm had a bearing moulding similar to the Garrard 2025TC and the headshell was slimlined a little and with a silver trim plate on top.

[Audio1950]

The one DSJR remembers is the UA15SS3B, similar to the one in photo 1, post#2, except that, as remembered, it had a flat 10.5" platter, with no sides, attached to the normal 8" turntable.

Barry

[ben]

Just found this in a 1966 edition of Practical Electronics, has some handy specs for the BSR C1 cartridge and also a small pic of the UA15 SS3B

[Ekcoman]

Trying to identify the two decks in my Dansette Automix RPs. One is ivory and the record holding arm slots over the centre spindle so I guess is a UA6 but the other one is a cross between a UA6 and a UA8. The pick up arm is brown and the same as the other machine BUT the record holding arm is that of a UA8. Unfortunately can't see how to post a picture here.

[Audio1950]

If the one you can't identify has the same dual concentric controls as the other one, then it is just a later version of the UA6, which was fitted with the "UA8" style overarm.

Barry

[Ekcoman]

Thanks Barry. The controls are identical. Would think that the brown version with a mottled metalic finish would a slightly later model. So moving on looking at UA4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15 gets me to wonder as to were there models in between these numbers?
Chris

[Audio1950]

The only one missing, chronologically in that list is the UA10, which is very similar to the UA8, except that it has different control knobs, and a more streamlined arm, having a flattish top, rather than the curved one on the UA8. After the UA15 comes the UA16, which is identical in appearance, but has a longer spindle, and a higher arm mounting, to enable ten records to be stacked, as against the UA15's six. I don't think there were any more until the UA25. I think maybe the "odd" model numbers were reserved for single -play units, but the only ones I definately know are the TU7 and TU9.

Barry

[dalgwcobl]

Can I add the modified UA15 fitted to the Pye 1005 Achoic Box? It had the counterbalanced arm with special decoupling mounts and Zenith butterfly pickup.

Also the Minichanger in various guises. I have two of the original versions, one 240v mains powered, in an Irish-built portable player, the other one is 9v DC, as used in the mains/battery Fidelity HF34 in my recent thread.

I remember that Elizabethan and Ferguson used minichangers in tall, slim stereo players in which the changer folded down out of the box.

A single player which comes to mind was the P182, which Dynatron used in a number of Music Centres, made in King's Lynn in the late seventies. They were Philips, Pye and Boots (the chemist!) branded, as well as Dynatron, the Dynatron fitted with a Vernitron V100 magnetic cartridge, I think. That would have been the one fitted to the SRX32 chassis someone referred to recently.

Towards the end of BSR's life, in the late seventies, they started re-badging ADC hi-fi turntables in moulded plinths and perspex covers, as BSR Quanta models. I have one of these somewhere. It's direct drive, with a sophisticated s-shaped tone arm which tracks a Shure V15-II at 1.5 grams or thereabouts. I used it for some years with some high-end hi-fi and it was an excellent performer.

Lastly, what about the OEM BSR single player used, amongst others, by Fidelity in the HF42? Someone mentioned recently that the HF42 seemed to have been designed with a battery chamber, used for storing the mains lead on mains versions. Has anyone ever seen a battery version? That would use a 9v DC version of that turntable unit.

I'll try to upload photos of these tomorrow.

[woodchips]

Must be 20 years ago I was at the BSR factory, Astec then, buying some of the old equipment.

It was a huge site, apparently BSR made autochangers for the whole world. I can remember people like Tandy and the Japanese using the decks in their hifi.

One item in with the test equipment was the bits in the photo. Took me ages to realise these were the record holding spindle on the autochangers. Are these the umbrella type? I have never seen this style of holder on any deck I have ever seen.

I dispute the description of tat made by BSR. One item I tried to buy was a Ferranti co-ordiate measuring machine, for measuring stamped bits of metal, they were serious. I didn't buy the CMM, only paying scrap prices but probably where it ended up.

If anyone wants these bits you are welcome to them, is there a BSR museum?

Bob

[Beobloke]

The only BSRs that used the umbrella spindles were the 710 and 810, plus the Accuglide XR50 and XR60.

The latter were cheaper, BSR-badged variants of the ADC Accutrac +6 (which itself was a development of the Accutrac 4000) and built in the UK but sold in the US market only. The Accutrac +6 and both Accuglides had an umbrella spindle surrounded by a motorised platform that could raise the records automatically.

Video of an Accutrac +6 can be found here in case you've not seen one in action! - http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...7728196557555#

[Audio1950]

Originally Posted by woodchips

I dispute the description of tat made by BSR.

On the whole, I agree with you, their changers were solid and dependable, if a trifle "rattly". I think the UA15/16 were among the most attractive decks made (and I'm a Garrard fanatic!)

Having said that, surely you must agree that the last single player (post#1, photo 3) was an dreadful thing. Plastic turntable with no mat, plastic arm that relied on a coil spring as a bearing, and to attach the arm to the base. Just about everything else was plastic, too. Cheap, nasty, and ugly, to boot!
Personal opinion, of course!

Barry

[Ekcoman]

I did find out on another thread that there were two versions of the UA6 one white the other brown with a metalic finish. The latter version appears to have more similarities to the UA8 rather than the white version. Both of mine are on Dansette Automix machines.

[D_S_J_R]

The Pye Black Box version UA6 had a cast tonearm, but one I once had in a Regentone had a plastic arm, but identical otherwise.