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A new venture in vintage land; Bush SRP31D record player

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Nuvistor
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Were the other decks UA14 or UA15?

The UA16 design with blue metallic and white paint and streamlined looks does not date to my eyes.

Frank

 
Posted : 24/08/2017 10:26 pm
Cathovisor
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The UA14 was the one with the 'band' you describe as a mat for the turntable: it had large quadrant-style controls at the edges of the motor plate for operation. By contrast, the UA15(SS) appeared after the UA16; it was usually seen in the Bush SRP41 and was usually black.

The styling of the UA16 was carried out by the design house started by Raymond Loewy.

 
Posted : 24/08/2017 10:38 pm
Katie Bush
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Cathovisor said
The UA14 was the one with the 'band' you describe as a mat for the turntable: it had large quadrant-style controls at the edges of the motor plate for operation. By contrast, the UA15(SS) appeared after the UA16; it was usually seen in the Bush SRP41 and was usually black.

The styling of the UA16 was carried out by the design house started by Raymond Loewy.  

Hi Mike,

I know the one you mean, but the one I'm thinking of turns out to be the UA25 http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=26741&d=1246182881

On the face of it, a cut price version of the UA16, using all the same mechanicals but neither, as nice to look at, nor as well made.

 
Posted : 24/08/2017 11:11 pm
Cathovisor
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Oh. that thing! Yep, truly nasty. Was also branded as a Philips with a different arm and control treatment (unless that was one of the early C-series decks). The large East German radiogram I own is fitted with one of these, with a BSR X1M cartridge; it's one of those 'grams with a glass-fronted illuminated cupboard on one side with a glass shelf and a quilted interior.

They look tacky, are really badly made but my Nan had one, so...

 
Posted : 24/08/2017 11:34 pm
Katie Bush
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Hi Mike,

Yeah.... That!

I think they were made out all the reject parts that weren't good enough for a proper deck. I seem to recall there being a lot of 'oval' turntables, 'out of round' as my granddad would say, that caused a terrible wowing, especially on violin music. They were good enough for pop and rock music, but Tchaikovsky's "Night On The Bare Mountain"...? I don't think so! pukeAnother issue seemed to be slightly bent motor shafts that were impossible to 'true up'. The tone arm was too light and needed extra ballast to hold it down, the arm was prone to breaking, either at its root where it left the lift mechanism, or just off the head shell, if not handled carefully. Another weak point was the spring steel platform that the lift push-rod pushed against - the screw attachment was prone to splitting, dropping out the screw and failing to lift the arm, plus of course, the arm was given to torsion, twisting under the weight of the cartridge and whatever coins were 'Sellotaped' to the shell.

The cartridge I seem to recall most seeing was a TC8H typical of Alba, and those dirt cheap single valve (plus rect.) amps.

Marion

 
Posted : 26/08/2017 7:52 pm
PYE625
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Lloyd said

IMG_4913.jpg

Amp chassis underside

Hi Lloyd, the old selenium block rectifier can be eased from it's little box and new components fitted inside, then sealed up again with potting compound or black wax. I did this for the rectifier on a Bush radio once....must have been  a VHF90A and that has a lamp fuse too.

To understand the black art of electronics is to understand witchcraft. Andrew.

 
Posted : 26/08/2017 9:36 pm
Lloyd
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Update time! New stylus arrived on Thursday (I think?! can't actually remember now..) so it was time to see if it's actually capable of playing a record.

IMG_4939.jpg

First thing I noticed while flicking it between 78 and LP, was that on LP the stylus didn't look right, like it was leaning over to the left, but on 78 it looked right. It seemed to me that the end stops on the cartridge were stopping the stylus rotating to the correct position, and looking at others on the net, some showed that this end stop had been adjusted (read that as bent!) to allow for this. So I did the same!

78.jpg

78

LP.jpg

LP

So the stylus now sits at 90° on the record. I gave the record that came with the player a wash, as it was covered in all sorts of crap, then gave it a spin, it played it absolutely fine! The record itself sounded bloody awful, but it played, and the deck did all that it should; flick the switch to 'on / rej' and it did it's auto thing, the record dropped, the record played, then at the end it returned the arm to it's rest and shut off. I thought it's be a good idea at this point to check the tracking force, I have some little digital scales that I bought for this, unfortunately they only go to 5.2g.. So I played with the spring a bit, got it reading 4.8g, then moved it up a notch and the scales read 'FULL!', so hopefully it's tracking around 5.2g, maybe a bit more.

IMG_4937.jpg

I got brave (or stupid?) and fed it another single, one that I actually like rather than that other thing.. So I could judge the sound quality better, it actually sounds very good indeed! Speed sounds spot on, there may be a tiny bit of wow going on, but I don't know if it's the player or the record, as I've played it on other players with similar results, but I just put that down to the players being direct drive types that needed some adjustment. I'm actually really impressed with this machine, the sound is lovely and clear, without any distortion that I can hear, OK there is some if you turn up the bass, but that's down to the speaker. I'd always thought ceramic cartridges were poo, but that's because I'd only ever known the ones fitted to those horrible modern 'retro' turntables, and other cheap nasty stuff, the Sonotone in this sounds really good to my ears, I'd like to hear it through some bigger speakers!

So with it all up and running, I thought it was time to sort out the chassis, I've stuck with the 1N5406 and the 470Ω resistor, carefully fitted where the old rectifier was.

IMG_4958.jpgIMG_4959.jpg

I've also changed the only mouldseal on top of the chassis too. The cabinet has had a good soak in spirit based worm killer, and had a couple of days in the sun to dry it, still seems a little wet, and it smells nasty! But hopefully the worm are sorted now. I've fitted everything back into the cabinet, given the pots a squirt of Servisol, and given it a quick run, all seems well! It sounds better with the lid shut, more bass, it sounds a bit tinny with the lid open. I did wonder if it would suffer from feedback with the volume turned up, but so far it hasn't.

So that's it, I'm really quite impressed with this player, and now I've got to decide whether or not to keep it, or sell it on! I did intend to sell it on when I bought it, but as usual, I'm starting to get attached to it...

Regards,

Lloyd.

 
Posted : 27/08/2017 11:32 pm
Cathovisor
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Sonotone's later 9TA/HC (as opposed to the 9TA) was as good as many a budget magnetic cartridge, if not better in some cases. Also very good were Decca's Deram, and the Goldring CS80.

Sonotone made an equaliser unit that effectively turned the 9TA/HC into a velocity-output cartridge and thus it coud be fed into the magnetic cartridge input of an amplifier. The results were very good.

For that full-on 1960s experience with your SRP31D, may I recommend The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night, flat out!

 
Posted : 27/08/2017 11:36 pm
Lloyd
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I'll keep an eye out for a copy of that grin_gif

I'm going to try the stereo output of this by rigging up my Hacker Sovereign! Probably not as good as having the extra Bush amplifier that complements the player.

Regards,

Lloyd

 
Posted : 28/08/2017 12:16 am
Cathovisor
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I have seldom seen AU31s; plenty of AU51s and even more AU52s (both transistorised) but not the former.

By the way, if you want a good record player as a 'keeper' - I'd strongly recommend the Bush SRP51. Powerful amplifier (some 6W RMS IIRC), huge 8x5 loudspeaker and usually a Garrard 3500 deck fitted with a Sonotone 9TA/HC. You can safely play modern stereo records with it.

 
Posted : 28/08/2017 11:36 am
Katie Bush
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Cathovisor said
By the way, if you want a good record player as a 'keeper' - I'd strongly recommend the Bush SRP51. Powerful amplifier (some 6W RMS IIRC), huge 8x5 loudspeaker and usually a Garrard 3500 deck fitted with a Sonotone 9TA/HC. You can safely play modern stereo records with it.  

Second that thumb_gif I have a 51 in need of a little attention - treble control (I think) not working but otherwise a great performer, and loads of bass, if that's what you want.

Now funnily enough, if you do the Hacker thing, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results. In any case, there would be an imbalance in tonal quality even if you had the AU31. As you already noticed, the bass is vastly boosted by closing the lid on the player, well, there ain't no lid on the external amp, and no cavernous cabinet to oomph up the bass! It only becomes an issue if you space the player and the external amp (whatever you use) too far apart.

Next to the Hacker Gondolier, the Bush SRP31D was rated as one of the best performing players in its day, and that's saying something. Interestingly, both players had very similar cabinets, and were available in the identical two-tone grey. So if you chance upon a Gondolier, it's well worth bagging one.

 
Posted : 28/08/2017 8:27 pm
Katie Bush
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Hi Lloyd,

How did you get on with the woodworm eradication program?

Electric flex, funny old stuff and can do untold damage to plastics and rubber. It seems that long after manufacture, the outer insulation of PVC and similar cables continues to leach out various chemicals in a gaseous form - the same chemicals that give new plastics their 'new plastic' smell, and it goes on for decades after manufacture.

If a flex is placed near to other (susceptible) plastics, the leached gaseous chemicals can dissolve and distort the susceptible plastic parts, typically cabinets, handles and in the case of record players, tone arms and so forth.

A good (or bad) example is that of the radio which has had its power lead wrapped around its cabinet for a prolonged time. Telephones also suffer the same way, as I found out myself, much to my chagrin when I restored dozens of 'GPO 700 series' phones, and wrapped their line cords over the outer shell, front front to back. When I next saw the phones, they all had shallow grooves where the cords had been pressing against the plastic, and to make things even worse, it seems that by cleaning the cords I actually boosted the leaching process.

Marion

 

 
Posted : 16/11/2017 11:45 pm
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