First Ever Record Player's

I remember getting my very first Record Player at Christmas one year ,I must have been seven.A very tiny one with a black lid you had to take off to play LPS.It had one small built in speaker a tone and volume switch.At the time I thought it was fantastic,never stopped playing it.I only had a very small collection of records to play on it though!The Osmonds Crazy Horses LP and the Glitter Band LP Hey ! I had a few singles Rolf Harris Two Little Boys and a couple of Mud singles and Blockbuster by Sweet.My favourite was Where's Your Mam'a Gone by Middle Of The Road.Something to do with the lady singer in her Hot Pants ;-}

Great story!
My uncle got me an old deck and amp around '74 when I was 13, I don't remember the make or model though (possibly a Decca).
I fixed a couple of speakers inside some enormous Cornstalk Shag tobacco tins and made some brackets in metal work so I could mount them on my bedroom wall.
My mum went bonkers when she saw it, but it was worth the telling off I got.
First album played was Queen II.

before I got my own, I used to play records on our family's Stereo Radiogram (in our front room). The Christmas after I was 14, dad bought me a Lloytron R820 music centre. By today's standards a load of crap, back then, for a 14 yr old it was a great gift. One thing it had in its favour - for such and underpowered unit - a really nice clear sound. I've found a photo of the actual model on the web

After A couple of years Mum and Dad bought me new Record Player with two separate speakers,a lid that closed when you played LP'S,but best of all you could stack up to eight 45's on it and they would drop down one by one ! We were now listening in Stereo sound ! I now had a few records in my collection now I was the proud owner of singles by Slade,Sparks,Sweet,Cozy Powell,Gary Glitter and a band called Queen Seven Seas Of Rhye.I had no idea what the song was about but I liked it anyway.I still didn't have many LP'S the ones I did have were compilation ones on the label K-Tell with stuff by the likes of Suzi Quatro,Wizzard,Hello,Alvin Stardust and Mungo Jerry.Then my cousin lent me Queen by Queen and I was hooked,it was heaver than anything I had ever heard and I liked it.I then saved up my pocket money for Eight weeks and walked into WH Smith and asked the Assistant for Queen 2 by Queen.I walked out of that store with my head held high , I was 11 years old.When I got home boy did I play that Album to death,i used to love to pretend to be Roger Taylor and have some boxe's and pots to play on with my Mums Knitting Neddles ! The rest is history collected all Singles and Albums by Queen on Viniyl,Cassette and CD.My Mum and Dad bought me a Sanyo Cassette/Radio so every Sunday night I taped the top 20 which soon became the top 30.This was played to death during the week !One last thing on our landing upstairs we had a full length mirror well when live killers came out ,I used to pretend to be Brian May and perform Brighton Rock solo with my Tennis Racket in front of that mirror ;-}

I can almost visualise it :-D

Great times indeed !

Great times indeed !

My first one was actually a Micopy Mouse record player, it lasted me well over a decade.

Eight track tapes rule

[QUOTE] [b]Saint Jiub wrote:[/b]Eight track tapes rule[/QUOTE]

Textophon and Magnetophon rule!

As a Reel to Reel collector myself, I have to agree.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ictFwAJY614

Hi Kurgan I remember a friend o mine had a Reel to Reel machine it seemed to play for hours,how much music can you actually store on a single tape?Cassette's seem to be making a come back at the moment.I hope they are a bit more reliable than the one's in the late 70's and 80's as they used to get eaten up or lose their sound quality after a few months.I still have a box of old Cassette's,one of the good things about them they did not take up much space for storage.

I have got some 60 year old reels that still sound amazing.
My Sony deck has 3 speeds, and the faster the speed, the less duration of course.
For example a 2400ft 7" reel would be 64 mins running at 7.5 ips.
This link shows duration, depending on reel size, thickness of tape and speed.
www.soundabout.net/audio/convert-cassette-to-cd/reel-to-reel-tape-running-times/

Very interesting thanks very much for the information,how do you think the sound on a reel tape machine compares to CD's and Vinyl ?I wonder if record companies ever thought about releasing albums in a reel tape format?