That 16rpm has always been a help for musicians. When you transcribe music, like a jazz solo, you can put a 33rpm album on that speed and it drops an octave, but you can hear what is going on at 1/2 speed in the same key. I spent years learning Charlie Parker solos like that.
I remember getting a record player from a friend with speed 16, which helped me learn Eddie Van Halen licks. Loved that it stayed in the original pitch, just down an octave.
If they did sort out the bugs in record players in cars, if you have ever been in a car in the summer you will know that any record that is inside it would just melt.
Records just don't work for cars and it's not even just the skipping. That's an easy fix. The real problem is they are too big. 20 albums easily takes more than a cubic foot.
@@chistinelane Not a Boomer, solidly gen-x and I have likely forgotten more about computers than will ever know. I grew up under the tail end of records (though mostly cassettes) and there were still a number of 60s cars on the road and the occasional 50s car still being used as daily transportation. When I was an early teen, if you wanted singles 45s was the only way to get them.
The Highway Hi Fi was actually very well designed and did not skip when driving. it sort of worked like a jukebox playing mechanism,the pickup and record were firmly held in place together and was spring loaded to hold the point against the record with a pressure of only two grams.
back in 89 while i was 11 years old, during in class i use to think about having a record player inside the vehicle. until the teacher called my name like three times, that woke me up. lol
Compact discs have all the same problems. This is why the cassette lasted so long in cars. Putting a proper suspension inside the player would solve the problem.
I have had exactly one CD skip in a car player. The very first one I played. None have skipped since and I still play CD's in my car when the USB stick fails (which it is prone to do at times)
actually, i think he means that the CD player came out in the 80s, but it became mainstream in car audio only in the late 90s because of that damping problem to get better. Now we have players with buffer thanks to cheap RAM and the problem is very reduced, although i agree, can still be triggered.
Yo Jarrett! Just wanted to say thanks a ton for all the help. I had bought a Crosley (knowing nothing about turntables) and later discovered your channel.. A few days later I sold it lol. But my AT-LP60 just came in the mail and it does sound SO much better (with a $25 amp and MB42s) and now I can play my records without worrying about harming them. Just wanted to say thanks a ton for all the professionally made videos and advice. Keep up the good work!
I entered the radio & TV servicing trade in the late 60's and there were still some of these Philips players around. I repaired a few (mainly just lubrication and new stylus), but I always told the owners it might be time to think about getting rid and installing a modern cassette player. The internal mechanism was suspended on springs to reduce the possibility of jumping. They still jumped, but only on the roughest of roads.
I once saw one of these turntables. The one thing I noticed was its own suspension system, with very sensible springs that allowed the turntable and tone arm assembly to literally "float" within its case. It was a Dodge Coronet. I found it fascinating!
I remember as a kid building a model car with a built-in record player exactly like the one in your picture. This was done because there was no other alternative. However, this was soon followed by 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs, which were much more practical options.
What I can't figure out is why they even bothered with record players in cars when open reel tape recorders were pretty well advanced by that time. A 10" player in the trunk with a rudimentary remote control and a slower tape running at 1 7/8" p/s could have given about 5 hours of uninterrupted music without skipping and fairly good quality. Also had the advantage of being user programmable. They could have done this a full decade ahead of the cassette and 4 & 8 track.
The 45 RPM player was a really stupid idea. About 3 mnutes of music before you had to open it up to flip or change the disc? This one really made no sense, and I am suprised it made it as an actual product instead of the person who proposed it being escorted out of the building by security.
You modified what to play 12" ? And it plays with a laser... Like an ELP laser turntable? Knowing how technically challenging the ELP is to produce I call BS
+Lee Shepherd yeah but I did play a 7" in my dad's car with one of those paper record players I can play 12" on that. It's more of a joke, I will never use it to listen to a good record on it, so technically I am telling the truth.
My Dad had a 1960 Buick that had a 45 player in it. The model he had played the records upside down. He would buy bulk left-over jukebox records for cheap. It was the technology of the day, 8-track was its replacement for cars.
I was looking for info on a US car my old man bought when we lived on Bahrain in the first half of the 60s. It was a DeSoto (Chrysler), but not sure whether a Firesweep, Adventurer or Fireflite. It had a slot-type 45 player, so must have been from '59-'60. I was just a kid, but thought it was cool. What wasn't so cool was the average temperature in Bahrain - usually around 40+ Centigrade. If you couldn't get into the car before running back to the beach to soak your towel to sit on, you can imagine what was happening to those singles! Yes, they bounced despite the smooth ride and the units being spring-loaded. This was before anyone had heard of 8-track tapes (pre-cursor to cassettes). Cassettes, by the way, also suffered from heat, either in the hot sun or the up and down of ambient temperatures in the car interior. Then they unravelled and you got tape salad. Tape repairs were the order of the day.
RCA made a 45rpm record changer that was available in Chrysler cars in the 60's that enjoyed some success. It was inverted and hung on shock absorbers that were quite good. It would play 10 records automatically. It mounted under the dash and plugged into the car radio. Those with a little electronics know how could modify non Chrysler cars to use the changer. It didn't last long as it was replaced by 8-track and then cassette tape players. There were limited players made and the RCA unit was copied by a company called ARC which was available for a while. Chrysler also had a spring delay (echo) unit that would add echo to the audio. The combination made for some interesting sounds and did wonders for some music. The teens of the day all had these setups if they had the bucks. As I recall in 1960 the changer was $150 or so and the echo about $80 and only available at Plymouth/Chrysler parts departments.
I think it’s crazy due to the heat that would happen in the car during the summertime. Vinyl records are actually quite fragile and the heat would ruin them.
I remember the car record players. They were quite popular in Bermuda in the 60s and early 70s. While you were driving, the person sitting in the front passenger seat had the job of playing the vinyl 45s on the Phillips record player. You had to make sure you didn't leave the records in the car, the heat from the sun would warp the records.
Wow. This makes perfect sense. Never heard of it before though. You would think with a gyroscope attached they could keep the records stable like something out of the Jetsons.
I was in Turkey for a few months in the late 60s. I remember some taxi cabs had portable 45 players attached to the dash board. The tone arm would have a stack of coins taped to the cartridge to get the records to play without skipping. Invariably the volume would be turned all the way up and thus the cheap players' little amps were distorted to the max playing worn out Turkish pop singles with worn out needles...a quality audio experience to be sure!...But nonetheless a vivid memory 50 years later!
Actually, a guy at a 1950's car show in New Jersey came up to me, proclaiming that he had found 50 brand new automobile record players in an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. Although, when new, these "Norelco Auto Mignon" units were like $69, he was asking (and getting...) $125 each. Because it had to be soldered into the old tube-style radio, I had to find a radio shop willing and able to install it. Thank God for "Ralph's Radio" in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Believe that Ralph installed the sound system in, um, "Noah's Ark". It worked great, sounded great, and only skipped once, when I accidentally jumped an esplanade. Not only did the needle break, but I cracked the exhaust manifold, and the top and sides of my huge windshield popped completely out of its rubber gasket!!! YIKES!!! 😱 And although I had a friend who restored vintage jukeboxes, he could not locate another replacement needle... 😞😓😩😤😡 Still wish I kept that car and record player...
When I was in high school I had a full dj setup in the back of my car. Had a blast being able to drive somewhere, open the back hatch up and start djing
Jarrett, this was so interesting! I had no idea record players in cars were ever a thing. Fascinating to learn about the 16 2/3 RPM discs. Love your videos and this was one of my favorites!
Personally, I think record players in cars *could* work if, instead of a stylus, they used a laser to read the records optically, like a CD. I'm pretty sure laser record players were a thing at one point, but they didn't catch on because the popping sounded far worse since the dust wasn't being pushed out of the way like on a traditional turntable. However, it's the only way I can see records being listened to in a car without significant damage to the records.
My 2nd. Car was a 1959 MGA and I owned it about a week and found myself back at the Sellers home to ask "How do I open this chrome tissue paper container?" He laughed, went into his house and came out with a 45RPM record? He asked me to start the car (which I did) and he put the record into the slot I thought was for paper! The MGA had a speaker right in the middle of the dash, and a second between the seats. Then he reached under the Center Console and not only did the record play but under the passenger seat was a Reverb unit! Never had a problem with either!
This looks very similar to what Seeburg developed when that company introduced its background music systems. The Seeburg 1000 was one of the more popular models. It used Seeburg's special 10" records which spun at 16-2/3 rpm and provided approximately 40 minutes of music per side. One unique innovation was the player's ability to play both sides of the record sequentially without flipping, using a special platen and tone arm with two needles. A stack of records could provide up to eight hours of uninterrupted music. After playing the last side of the last record, the entire stack would be shifted back up and the player would start over. Two other unique features were: microgroove technology similar to that developed by RCA, which worked well at the slow speed; and a larger spindle hole to prevent the records from being played on a standard turntable.
Hey, would you consider talking about or reviewing the laser-read turntable people are talking about 'ere in the comments? It'd be interesting to see how that sounds.
~ This was fascinating "new" information for me, and btw, I still play my cassette mix tapes and cassette singles IN MY CAR. The best sound I have at 75 mph is the cassette format. Cheers, DAVEDJ ~
Yes. Record players in Cars. I remember those days back home when sometimes I used to call a taxi, and there was a record player in cars and I still remember the sound was very good. Some records were extended; two tracks on one side, and two on side two. Sometimes the car drives on a bumper, etc. and the music never interrupted. I don't know how they made these players. I was very young in those days. I was around 17 Thank You.
I met Peter Goldmark in early November of 1977 at a symposium commemorating the phonograph centenary that was held in Syracuse, New York. He was such a nice, intelligent man. I did not know anything about these machines until now, but I was aware they existed. I had no idea Peter Goldmark was the inventor. Steve Allen had one of these in his car. What really surprises me is that such an intelligent man as Peter Goldmark would throw together something stupid like this especially since he was the guy who designed and invented the successful LP format. Two previous attempts by others were technical failures and therefore short-lived. Exactly one month after the symposium, in early December of 1977, Peter Goldmark was killed in a car crash.
Today we could solve the issue by reading the record while it was locked onto a disk using something like an optical/laser scanner so that 0 tracking force is applied. This one company in japan actually makes one something like this although it is quite expensive and I don't think it would be worth it. Plus I like having my iPhone shuffle through about 100+ albums when I'm driving. Records for me are that thing I play when I want to just relax and play a full album with a cup of tea or coffee.
I've heard about those optical record players, but the problem is that the laser reads *everything*. So a bit of hair that would get kicked aside by a needle will end up as a pop in the audio spread across several revolutions. This really would be something used in a laboratory grade clean room to archive old records. And the records with custom designs and holograms and such moulded into the playing surface would be unplayable. This is also why you don't see this being used even in really high end audiophile record players costing tens of thousands of dollars.
they have record players that read with a laser instead of a stylus, so they could use skip protection like a normal cd, downloading a few seconds to a buffer, and if you do hit a bump, the laser may be able to compensate for angle change with vibration, since vinyl spins so much slower than a cd. also, even if it does skip, at least there is no needle to scratch the record, since the vinyl is being read by a laser. You wouldnt even need digital encoding, even though it could improve the sound, but laser listening devices detect vibration in the air or on a wall to listen in on what sound is being produced on the other side of the wall, the same analogue tech can be applied to reading vinyl records using a low pressure, flexible fiber optic whisker instead of a needle, and have the laser read the vibrations from the whisker as it rides in the groove.
The concept of record players in cars is awesome! If it were possible to create a compact record that didn't skip from vibration, I could totally see it as a popular modification on modern cars.
I have a Car-Record Player too, but it plays also only 45RPM records…But a cool thing is, that it is automatic, and when its playing, the tonearm can`t move up and down, so it skips less!
Actually Philco has one out early. Bing Crosby hosted the Philco Radio Time which promoted this system. If your interested I have a few of the original commercials for the Philco system.
Keith Perron: I had come across an old magazine ad for a Philco hi-fi console record player from around 1948 which advertised that it played records using "a beam of light" instead of a traditional needle, so that your records would therefore "last forever"! I'm sure this was not any kind of LASER light, being that this was 1948, but certainly, this shows that Philco, and it's parent company Philips, had the idea of playing records using a beam of light early on...
Perhaps you should put a new crosley to the test - check its stylus weight with a microgram scale, test it’s rotational speed/fluctuations/flutter with the RPM app, test its tracking ability [most easily done by putting a laser disc on the turntable, turning it on, and putting the stylus on the spinning disc - if it’s stationary then tracking force is correct. If it moves in or out on its own, then it’s out of adjustment and will put more pressure on the side of the groove the arm moved towards]. I’m not a fan of Crosley and they’re cheaply made machines, yes, but I think they get an unfair rep from guys like you trash-talking them without putting one or two or three to the test.
Jarrett firstly a big thank you for all the advice on your channel, I'm just getting into vinyl and thanks to your vids I've been able to avoid many costly mistakes (ie avoiding horrendous options such as the 'cute retro' bollocks in the stores at the moment - the word is getting out there). I've gone for the Audio technica lp120 but there is a waiting list of two months! No probs though, it gives me time to sort out my set up. A question: if I get a set of active speakers, can I still control the sound as I would be able to on an amplifier which act as an EQ (equalizer)?
Hey! Thanks so much for watching my videos! Well, most active speakers don't have that option, they simply just have a knob that increases or decreases the volume. So if you're looking to fine tune your bass and treble, like by adding an equalizer, or separate amplifier/receiver, I'd recommend PASSIVE speakers. Good luck!
Jarrett many thanks mate, I'll go passive, seems even more fun to tweak the sound. Btw, not sure if you've heard of Massive Attack's album Mezzanine (or if you like that type of trip hop genre), but the vinyl re-issue is AWESOME!
we could probably do it now in days with a fine point laser taking the place of a physical stylist. this would also allow for a digital buffer to prevent skipping.
A friend of mine mentioned that he had a record player in his car in El Salvador along time ago. He also mentioned that the roads were made out of stones (perhaps cobblestones?) He said that the needle never skipped. Also the cars back then had a smooth ride, even some cars felt like you were driving on air, so I kind of hardly think the car record player with its inverter to supply AC voltage to the tubes failed due to skipping Mark
My cousins from Waycross, Ga. in1969 drove to Atlanta, & the one who owned & drove the car had a 45 record changer under the dashboard. That was the first & only time that I had ever seen or hear of a record player inside of a moving vehicle. It Very Interesting !. ( I'm was only 13 !.)
Five years ago, I began my mid-life crisis. My hot rod choices came down to a new 2016 Mustang GT or a 1997 Dodge Viper GTS coupe. The bonus with the Viper was, it has a single DIN Radio slot and I was looking into what 8-track players would fit. To my surprise, several would have. But, the power, handling and warranty of the Mustang won me over instead. Problem comes from there's no room in the Mustang to install an 8-track deck. Ah well.
I experienced the Philips in my Dads Buick 59 Electra and it was great. I was only 6 but I remember it well. the music was great. the only problem was when you forgot the records binder in the car, they warped in the sun.
I brother had this in his car, (the philips player using regular 45 rpm records) in India..there was no 8 track taperecorder available in India so in 1963 when the cassette was invented it was a big relief to dump the car record player.
I knew about this, and it was due to old books by Tad Burness and others that I read both at the library and bought myself. But I'm glad you're here to tell the world about them.
Wow this makes 8 Tracks not look so bad for in car audio , at least they did not skip and had better quality sound and you could actually get music from bands and groups you've actually heard of.
In my 6th grade language arts class, we read the Watsons go to Birmingham and turntables in cars were featured in it. Our language arts teacher showed it to us.
When I was in elementary school in the 60's my uncles had those slot-loading Norelco (Philips) 45 players in their cars. Not only was the high tracking force bad for the records, but leaving those records in the cars meant they often ended up unplayable because the hot sun would warp them and they were unprotected from scratches.
meh we in holland had "platen slikkers" record eaters with spring loaded needles and not more then a slot to put the record in and even better it played normal 45's
The Crosley part, LOL! True. I do have a question though, why didn't they continue with the microgroove record concept on keeping it half speed with smaller vinyl? Wouldn't that in a way be more convenient in cost in size?
Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO and first issued as currency in Australia during 1988, to coincide with Australia's bicentennial year. We've had them for decades.
One thing that was not brought up was that often times people would drive to a spot with a view or some thing and park and listen to music so besides the fact that old cars in the 50s drive extremely smooth, it’s not an issue at all once you park.
well I could see a possibility of a laser turntable one day possibly in a turntable which might solve the issue of the needle in the grove and I would have one if that was a case LOL but I have attempted to use a turntable in a car and it did well under 40 miles a hour I used a stackable BSR turntable and it handled things in town beautiful but getting out on the highway and getting up to speeds of 70 forget it the needle would just slide across the records no tracking at all but it was a fun experiment
As a small child i had a behemoth Ferguson Stereogram. its record deck had 4 speeds. inc 16 and 78. so your video has cleared up a mystery for me of what was played at 16rpm. Thank you very much for that.
You couldn't play these highway Hifi records on your streogram. They used a narrower groove (ultra microgrooves) and a standard stylus would've destroyed them. The 16rpm speed was mainly used for talking books although some music LPs were produced in the format too. Contrary to another video on here all 16rpm records except the highway Hifi ones used normal microgrooves so you could play them with a normal stylus.
+Lee Shepherd i forgot to mention the Garrard deck in the stereogram had a double stylus. so you flicked it either way for what you required. i remember on the plasic bit it said 33 one side and the other i dont know. but the flip was colour coded blue one side and red the other.
+Darren Richardson that was a 33/78 stylus. They never produced a reversible ultra micro groove stylus. In fact I don't think they produced one for any player other than the highway Hifi one.
The special records usually had pretty decent music on 'em like mainly pop hits of the time and majority course being doo wop, also cause the cars back were very heavy and all steel they really absorb and really take a lot that didn't effect the ride inside the car, I know a guy who has one in his 59 Edsel and it works perfectly
Very cool im 67 and started buying records at 16 i would get one for looks but use the reissue records and have a cd player also in my 1965 corvette stingray it be cool Tommy and Timmy
First, they were not mounted to a console. They were mounted under the dash, and used the radio amp and speaker. Second, ride in a 50's car....they rode incredibly. It was the design of the record players, meaning not having enough insulators against the vibration, that caused the problem.. they are an extremely cool piece of an America with ingenuity.
Saw a video of an RCA Victor player in a car that played standard 7 inch records but could be stacked upside down in the player. The owner said it has never skipped once. Use worn records though, the tracking force is high!
A possible solution would be a tangential tracking record player, so after it locks on the "starting groove" it will be kept at a very precise position and vibration won't be much of a problem.
+Betamax Flippy I don't think that would have worked in those days. They could have picked up the vibrations with another cardridge and phase changed it but because of the record grooves already influecing the vibrations i don't think that would have worked. Or whats your idea behind that?
I mean that a software could spot parts that are not supposed to be in the record by picking up the vibration from the vehicle itself and subtract the signal of interference from the music, so it can be amplified without the noises from the car's vibrations
+Betamax Flippy So you basically meant the same as i did but with software. Still wouldn't be perfect. Why do you even wanna use vinyl in cars nowadays? Just put your USB-stick with flac files into the amp and you got way better quality.
I didn't know about this Chrysler record player, but my grandparents did have an RCA record player that played regular 45's (which RCA invented). The record player was mounted with springs to reduce the vibration of the car and meant they didn't have to increase the tracking force. It was completely automatic. You slid the 45rpm record into a slot and the record player played it and ejected it. You almost needed at least two people in the car since you only had 2 - 3 minutes before you would have to insert another record. Also, what happened to the records on a hot day in sun? That made the car record player die even though the RCA version of it was pretty good.
i wonder if there's a way to sort of...stabilize a record. have a needle thats on a very rigid arm or slider even. and have the record supported on all edges by some clamping system to prevent wobble. that way if the car jolts up, everything moves together in one single frame of reference. keeping everything sort of 'tied down' to prevent jostling. or maybe some self contained suspension system. sort of like a box within a box surrounded by springs so to speak so when the car vibrates, the springs absorb the energy before the vibes hit the record player. could be a neat science project. make a working stable mobile record player. edit: imagine one of those ultra high density records in say, a 3in form factor. could maybe fit 20 mins of music on each side. could design a small portable record player with stable systems and the slow rotating motor would provide excilent battery life i'd think.
Would record players have continued in cars? Nope. The very idea is actually flawed, but I still have to give Chrysler props for trying. After all, a convenient and inexpensive tape format didn't exist at the time, and records were all Chrysler had to work with. Yes, I'm sure Chrysler could have refined the idea, but I doubt all the problems could have been solved, and as it was, the Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi system was a very expensive option, available only on selected (pricier) Chrysler products; worse, there was a very limited selection of records offered for it. The tape cartridge systems of Muntz and Lear, and later the cassette, were far superior for an automotive environment, even though they had their own headaches (though generally less significant). Incidentally, the suspensions of those older cars weren't 'bad', as you imply - just radically different. There wasn't much of a concept of 'handling' back then; cars of that era were sprung very lightly for the smoothest, most comfortable ride possible. Take a ride in a '60 Mercury or Buick sometime and you'll see what I mean. They'll wallow in a turn, but they do ride smooth. Unfortunately, no matter how softly-sprung the cars, potholes, railroad crossings, and curbs were going to play havoc with a record player inside the car - and there were still quite a few 'unimproved roads' at the time.
As someone else said, reel to reel would've been a much saner choice and could give hours of music with reasonable quality if done at a low speed. I'm surprised they didn't think of this, as well as a caddy design so you could load the R2R tape into a cassete shell without having to do the threading on the machine itself. Of course, records were cheaper so.... :-\
This would be a novelty at best. There is no mass market appeal for an in car record player today no matter how advanced and error free you make it. The ship sailed back in the 50/60s for in car phonographs. Of course, in early low rider culture you sometimes saw phonographs, but this was a bling thing, along with a B&W TV, and it was just a normal record player that would only be used when the car was stationary.
They would have been perfect for that era. People used to park their cars in groups, or at least young people did. I recall that even in the 70's we would hang out in well lit parking lots and just talk.
Maybe if it had a gear mechanism that would advance the stylist at the correct pace inline with the groves on the record it could work but I don't think car companies will ever start to put them car again. It would be an interesting engineering project for some collage kid. The groves often various depending on the base or how close to the center of the record you are so you would need some type of laser measuring system so know how to adjust the speed for the tone-arm. It might make sense for the recored to be stationary and the whole upper platter system to do the rotating and everything else. . . . . . . There's an complicated idea for someone.
well since they are making digital turntables that will play the vinyl like a cd with a lazer that don't touch the groove. you wonder if they can make a special version for cars that can play 60 mins on a 10 inch record. with auto reverse lasers. that would be the best way to play vinyl and you can hear the highest sound possible but analog laser set up.
There are several problems with laser turntables. First, they only play black vinyl records. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but there are a lot of colored vinyl records that you would never be able to play. This could probably be overcome with more advanced lasers, but that will only increase its cost. Second, they can't distinguish between dust and actual groove information. Well, neither can a regular stylus. BUT, since a stylus is physically in the groove, it can push some dust out of the way and not play it. A laser obviously can't do that, so it instead plays that dust. SO, records need to be extremely clean or else there will be MORE crackling and pops. Third, they're extremely expensive. And they will likely never be much cheaper. It's a very complicated design, as records were never designed to be played in such a way. Also, much more robust laser-read media already exist that is already extremely cheap, so there is little reason or incentive for this to become cheap or widely available. The main purpose for laser turntables is preservation. Because they read parts of the groove that styli normally don't touch (the upper edges by the surface) even well worn records can potentially sounds good.
The only possibly way that I could see something like this working is to implement some kind of image recognition device which scans the surface of the record to convert the wave images to audio as it loads the record. This would prevent skipping, but it would be rather pointless since it would pretty much come out digital any way.
My father had exactly the same Philips record player in his first car, a 1960 Simca Aronde. It played only 45rpm records. The platter was spring- loaded, but it was still prone to skipping. Not to mention that changing the record every 3-4 minutes is not very practical while driving!
What they'd need is a electric track that moves as the music plays. Kind of like a how an Optical lens works. I always wondered if someone made something like this.
Electric track? Do you mean a track used to correct for wobbliness in a record so the needle does not skip? Still wouldn't work too good, and you would need to add more (then) expensive electronics thus making it unaffordable to most consumers. If you mean a magnetic coated record with no physical grooves- that would've been way more doable and all you would need is an inexpensive worm gear for the playback head. I guess they didn't go this route because they wanted to use existing record pressing machines. Again cost rules all.... :-\
Only if the record is read by a laser. There are some rare record players that use laser to read but they're very expensive. Even with modern cars with better suspensions, most roads are in disrepair nowadays so the thing would skip like crazy. It's best to put music on a USB stick or use streaming audio (or old fashioned radio) for vehicles.
I think it might be a good idea if they figure it out that could be a good way to listen to some good electronic music while u drive or really good albums all the way through if the do that thing where the next song starts right after the last,and if they did that they would have to take out the radio and add more speaker it would definitely cost a lot.
I just heard about record players in cars yesterday. I work in a bar and one of our regs was telling me about having a car with a record player in it when he was younger. I thought it was one of the craziest things I've ever heard.. LOL
That 16rpm has always been a help for musicians. When you transcribe music, like a jazz solo, you can put a 33rpm album on that speed and it drops an octave, but you can hear what is going on at 1/2 speed in the same key. I spent years learning Charlie Parker solos like that.
I remember getting a record player from a friend with speed 16, which helped me learn Eddie Van Halen licks. Loved that it stayed in the original pitch, just down an octave.
If they did sort out the bugs in record players in cars, if you have ever been in a car in the summer you will know that any record that is inside it would just melt.
No you just inclose it so it can't capacitate uv otherwise it can melt in winter of you drive up a mountain where the sun works like a microwave.
Records just don't work for cars and it's not even just the skipping. That's an easy fix. The real problem is they are too big. 20 albums easily takes more than a cubic foot.
There's a pic of MUhammed ali with records all over his front seat and him inserting one. That
s what brought me here.
@@windtwist me too lol
I don't think you've ever been in a car from the 50s, they have an extremely soft ride.
hell yeah i have an 04 buick lasabre and it ride just like a classic.
Roads were worse though
Yeah, an 18 year old kid is telling us all about records and 1950s automobiles.
Dumb as all hell.
@@christo930 I bet you can't open Microsoft word you boomer.
@@chistinelane Not a Boomer, solidly gen-x and I have likely forgotten more about computers than will ever know.
I grew up under the tail end of records (though mostly cassettes) and there were still a number of 60s cars on the road and the occasional 50s car still being used as daily transportation. When I was an early teen, if you wanted singles 45s was the only way to get them.
The Highway Hi Fi was actually very well designed and did not skip when driving.
it sort of worked like a jukebox playing mechanism,the pickup and record were firmly held in place together and was spring loaded to hold the point against the record with a pressure of only two grams.
back in 89 while i was 11 years old, during in class i use to think about having a record player inside the vehicle. until the teacher called my name like three times, that woke me up. lol
I slept month ago, and started thinking about, were 50s people listening only to radio, or they had vinyl players?
Compact discs have all the same problems. This is why the cassette lasted so long in cars. Putting a proper suspension inside the player would solve the problem.
That hasn't been a problem with CDs for a very long time.
Who still uses CDs?? USB, Bluetooth, etc etc
I have had exactly one CD skip in a car player. The very first one I played. None have skipped since and I still play CD's in my car when the USB stick fails (which it is prone to do at times)
I use CD's when the Bluetooth fails which it does periodically. Probably my unit but at least the CD player still works
actually, i think he means that the CD player came out in the 80s, but it became mainstream in car audio only in the late 90s because of that damping problem to get better. Now we have players with buffer thanks to cheap RAM and the problem is very reduced, although i agree, can still be triggered.
Yo Jarrett! Just wanted to say thanks a ton for all the help. I had bought a Crosley (knowing nothing about turntables) and later discovered your channel.. A few days later I sold it lol. But my AT-LP60 just came in the mail and it does sound SO much better (with a $25 amp and MB42s) and now I can play my records without worrying about harming them. Just wanted to say thanks a ton for all the professionally made videos and advice. Keep up the good work!
+Garrett Mick awesome! I'm so happy for you!!
I entered the radio & TV servicing trade in the late 60's and there were still some of these Philips players around. I repaired a few (mainly just lubrication and new stylus), but I always told the owners it might be time to think about getting rid and installing a modern cassette player. The internal mechanism was suspended on springs to reduce the possibility of jumping. They still jumped, but only on the roughest of roads.
I just got a crosley cruiser record player for christmas and I think it is pretty awesome
I once saw one of these turntables.
The one thing I noticed was its own suspension system, with very sensible springs that allowed the turntable and tone arm assembly to literally "float" within its case.
It was a Dodge Coronet.
I found it fascinating!
I remember as a kid building a model car with a built-in record player exactly like the one in your picture. This was done because there was no other alternative. However, this was soon followed by 8-tracks, cassettes, and CDs, which were much more practical options.
Jarett, do a video on the difference between vintage receivers and modern receivers.
What I can't figure out is why they even bothered with record players in cars when open reel tape recorders were pretty well advanced by that time. A 10" player in the trunk with a rudimentary remote control and a slower tape running at 1 7/8" p/s could have given about 5 hours of uninterrupted music without skipping and fairly good quality. Also had the advantage of being user programmable.
They could have done this a full decade ahead of the cassette and 4 & 8 track.
I considered building a 7"-reel player for my car in the 70s but decided it was too much trouble and got a cassette.
The 45 RPM player was a really stupid idea. About 3 mnutes of music before you had to open it up to flip or change the disc? This one really made no sense, and I am suprised it made it as an actual product instead of the person who proposed it being escorted out of the building by security.
How is the court case with Crosley going? (Ha, loving the references!)
I have one in my car, I modified to play 12" records the needle floats in the air and the laser reads the groves.
never heard of that sounds awesome
You modified what to play 12" ? And it plays with a laser... Like an ELP laser turntable? Knowing how technically challenging the ELP is to produce I call BS
Hahaha I've just realised you are about 12yrs old. You're definitely telling lies.
+Lee Shepherd yeah but I did play a 7" in my dad's car with one of those paper record players I can play 12" on that. It's more of a joke, I will never use it to listen to a good record on it, so technically I am telling the truth.
Hilarious!!! You should be on the stage with jokes like that...
When did a paper cone become a laser?
And technically you're a liar!
My Dad had a 1960 Buick that had a 45 player in it. The model he had played the records upside down. He would buy bulk left-over jukebox records for cheap.
It was the technology of the day, 8-track was its replacement for cars.
I was looking for info on a US car my old man bought when we lived on Bahrain in the first half of the 60s. It was a DeSoto (Chrysler), but not sure whether a Firesweep, Adventurer or Fireflite. It had a slot-type 45 player, so must have been from '59-'60. I was just a kid, but thought it was cool. What wasn't so cool was the average temperature in Bahrain - usually around 40+ Centigrade. If you couldn't get into the car before running back to the beach to soak your towel to sit on, you can imagine what was happening to those singles! Yes, they bounced despite the smooth ride and the units being spring-loaded. This was before anyone had heard of 8-track tapes (pre-cursor to cassettes). Cassettes, by the way, also suffered from heat, either in the hot sun or the up and down of ambient temperatures in the car interior. Then they unravelled and you got tape salad. Tape repairs were the order of the day.
RCA made a 45rpm record changer that was available in Chrysler cars in the 60's that enjoyed some success. It was inverted and hung on shock absorbers that were quite good. It would play 10 records automatically. It mounted under the dash and plugged into the car radio. Those with a little electronics know how could modify non Chrysler cars to use the changer. It didn't last long as it was replaced by 8-track and then cassette tape players. There were limited players made and the RCA unit was copied by a company called ARC which was available for a while. Chrysler also had a spring delay (echo) unit that would add echo to the audio. The combination made for some interesting sounds and did wonders for some music. The teens of the day all had these setups if they had the bucks. As I recall in 1960 the changer was $150 or so and the echo about $80 and only available at Plymouth/Chrysler parts departments.
I think it’s crazy due to the heat that would happen in the car during the summertime. Vinyl records are actually quite fragile and the heat would ruin them.
Ok Jarrett, we get you don't like Crosley but you're starting to beat the dead horse now.
I remember the car record players. They were quite popular in Bermuda in the 60s and early 70s. While you were driving, the person sitting in the front passenger seat had the job of playing the vinyl 45s on the Phillips record player. You had to make sure you didn't leave the records in the car, the heat from the sun would warp the records.
Wow. This makes perfect sense. Never heard of it before though. You would think with a gyroscope attached they could keep the records stable like something out of the Jetsons.
I was in Turkey for a few months in the late 60s. I remember some taxi cabs had portable 45 players attached to the dash board. The tone arm would have a stack of coins taped to the cartridge to get the records to play without skipping. Invariably the volume would be turned all the way up and thus the cheap players' little amps were distorted to the max playing worn out Turkish pop singles with worn out needles...a quality audio experience to be sure!...But nonetheless a vivid memory 50 years later!
Actually, a guy at a 1950's car show in New Jersey came up to me, proclaiming that he had found 50 brand new automobile record players in an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. Although, when new, these "Norelco Auto Mignon" units were like $69, he was asking (and getting...) $125 each. Because it had to be soldered into the old tube-style radio, I had to find a radio shop willing and able to install it. Thank God for "Ralph's Radio" in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Believe that Ralph installed the sound system in, um, "Noah's Ark". It worked great, sounded great, and only skipped once, when I accidentally jumped an esplanade. Not only did the needle break, but I cracked the exhaust manifold, and the top and sides of my huge windshield popped completely out of its rubber gasket!!! YIKES!!! 😱 And although I had a friend who restored vintage jukeboxes, he could not locate another replacement needle... 😞😓😩😤😡 Still wish I kept that car and record player...
When I was in high school I had a full dj setup in the back of my car. Had a blast being able to drive somewhere, open the back hatch up and start djing
Informative - I had no idea about the long playback time. Great presentational voice as well.
Jarrett, this was so interesting! I had no idea record players in cars were ever a thing. Fascinating to learn about the 16 2/3 RPM discs. Love your videos and this was one of my favorites!
Personally, I think record players in cars *could* work if, instead of a stylus, they used a laser to read the records optically, like a CD. I'm pretty sure laser record players were a thing at one point, but they didn't catch on because the popping sounded far worse since the dust wasn't being pushed out of the way like on a traditional turntable. However, it's the only way I can see records being listened to in a car without significant damage to the records.
My 2nd. Car was a 1959 MGA and I owned it about a week and found myself back at the Sellers home to ask "How do I open this chrome tissue paper container?" He laughed, went into his house and came out with a 45RPM record? He asked me to start the car (which I did) and he put the record into the slot I thought was for paper! The MGA had a speaker right in the middle of the dash, and a second between the seats. Then he reached under the Center Console and not only did the record play but under the passenger seat was a Reverb unit! Never had a problem with either!
This looks very similar to what Seeburg developed when that company introduced its background music systems. The Seeburg 1000 was one of the more popular models. It used Seeburg's special 10" records which spun at 16-2/3 rpm and provided approximately 40 minutes of music per side.
One unique innovation was the player's ability to play both sides of the record sequentially without flipping, using a special platen and tone arm with two needles. A stack of records could provide up to eight hours of uninterrupted music. After playing the last side of the last record, the entire stack would be shifted back up and the player would start over.
Two other unique features were: microgroove technology similar to that developed by RCA, which worked well at the slow speed; and a larger spindle hole to prevent the records from being played on a standard turntable.
Hey, would you consider talking about or reviewing the laser-read turntable people are talking about 'ere in the comments? It'd be interesting to see how that sounds.
~ This was fascinating "new" information for me, and btw, I still play my cassette mix tapes and cassette singles IN MY CAR. The best sound I have at 75 mph is the cassette format. Cheers, DAVEDJ ~
Yes. Record players in Cars. I remember those days back home when sometimes I used to call a taxi, and there was a record player in cars and I still remember the sound was very good. Some records were extended; two tracks on one side, and two on side two. Sometimes the car drives on a bumper, etc. and the music never interrupted. I don't know how they made these players. I was very young in those days. I was around 17 Thank You.
I met Peter Goldmark in early November of 1977 at a symposium commemorating the phonograph centenary that was held in Syracuse, New York. He was such a nice, intelligent man. I did not know anything about these machines until now, but I was aware they existed. I had no idea Peter Goldmark was the inventor. Steve Allen had one of these in his car. What really surprises me is that such an intelligent man as Peter Goldmark would throw together something stupid like this especially since he was the guy who designed and invented the successful LP format. Two previous attempts by others were technical failures and therefore short-lived. Exactly one month after the symposium, in early December of 1977, Peter Goldmark was killed in a car crash.
Today we could solve the issue by reading the record while it was locked onto a disk using something like an optical/laser scanner so that 0 tracking force is applied. This one company in japan actually makes one something like this although it is quite expensive and I don't think it would be worth it. Plus I like having my iPhone shuffle through about 100+ albums when I'm driving. Records for me are that thing I play when I want to just relax and play a full album with a cup of tea or coffee.
I've heard about those optical record players, but the problem is that the laser reads *everything*. So a bit of hair that would get kicked aside by a needle will end up as a pop in the audio spread across several revolutions. This really would be something used in a laboratory grade clean room to archive old records. And the records with custom designs and holograms and such moulded into the playing surface would be unplayable.
This is also why you don't see this being used even in really high end audiophile record players costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Somehow , the whole idea of an in - dash record player seemed better suited to an Edsel .
they have record players that read with a laser instead of a stylus, so they could use skip protection like a normal cd, downloading a few seconds to a buffer, and if you do hit a bump, the laser may be able to compensate for angle change with vibration, since vinyl spins so much slower than a cd. also, even if it does skip, at least there is no needle to scratch the record, since the vinyl is being read by a laser. You wouldnt even need digital encoding, even though it could improve the sound, but laser listening devices detect vibration in the air or on a wall to listen in on what sound is being produced on the other side of the wall, the same analogue tech can be applied to reading vinyl records using a low pressure, flexible fiber optic whisker instead of a needle, and have the laser read the vibrations from the whisker as it rides in the groove.
Isnt that kinda similar to how audio on a Laser Disc worked???
The concept of record players in cars is awesome! If it were possible to create a compact record that didn't skip from vibration, I could totally see it as a popular modification on modern cars.
It’s called the CD
It was a pure legendary genius to place a vinyl record in a car just like back in my college days i bought a record player at my dorm.
Well done Jarrett, one of your very best videos. Very few people are aware of this particular “tech” in cars.
I really love your series!! I thought I knew a lot about music, but I have learned a lot from your videos. Keep up the really awesome work!!!
I have a Car-Record Player too, but it plays also only 45RPM records…But a cool thing is, that it is automatic, and when its playing, the tonearm can`t move up and down, so it skips less!
Actually Philco has one out early. Bing Crosby hosted the Philco Radio Time which promoted this system. If your interested I have a few of the original commercials for the Philco system.
Keith Perron: I had come across an old magazine ad for a Philco hi-fi console record player from around 1948 which advertised that it played records using "a beam of light" instead of a traditional needle, so that your records would therefore "last forever"! I'm sure this was not any kind of LASER light, being that this was 1948, but certainly, this shows that Philco, and it's parent company Philips, had the idea of playing records using a beam of light early on...
Perhaps you should put a new crosley to the test - check its stylus weight with a microgram scale, test it’s rotational speed/fluctuations/flutter with the RPM app, test its tracking ability [most easily done by putting a laser disc on the turntable, turning it on, and putting the stylus on the spinning disc - if it’s stationary then tracking force is correct. If it moves in or out on its own, then it’s out of adjustment and will put more pressure on the side of the groove the arm moved towards]. I’m not a fan of Crosley and they’re cheaply made machines, yes, but I think they get an unfair rep from guys like you trash-talking them without putting one or two or three to the test.
Thank you !!
Jarrett firstly a big thank you for all the advice on your channel, I'm just getting into vinyl and thanks to your vids I've been able to avoid many costly mistakes (ie avoiding horrendous options such as the 'cute retro' bollocks in the stores at the moment - the word is getting out there). I've gone for the Audio technica lp120 but there is a waiting list of two months! No probs though, it gives me time to sort out my set up. A question: if I get a set of active speakers, can I still control the sound as I would be able to on an amplifier which act as an EQ (equalizer)?
Hey! Thanks so much for watching my videos! Well, most active speakers don't have that option, they simply just have a knob that increases or decreases the volume. So if you're looking to fine tune your bass and treble, like by adding an equalizer, or separate amplifier/receiver, I'd recommend PASSIVE speakers. Good luck!
Jarrett many thanks mate, I'll go passive, seems even more fun to tweak the sound. Btw, not sure if you've heard of Massive Attack's album Mezzanine (or if you like that type of trip hop genre), but the vinyl re-issue is AWESOME!
sweet! I'll check it out! thanks!
I think the idea is awesome and paved the way for cars to have CD players in 90s/00s
we could probably do it now in days with a fine point laser taking the place of a physical stylist. this would also allow for a digital buffer to prevent skipping.
A friend of mine mentioned that he had a record player in his car in El Salvador along time ago. He also mentioned that the roads were made out of stones (perhaps cobblestones?) He said that the needle never skipped. Also the cars back then had a smooth ride, even some cars felt like you were driving on air, so I kind of hardly think the car record player with its inverter to supply AC voltage to the tubes failed due to skipping
Mark
My cousins from Waycross, Ga. in1969 drove to Atlanta, & the one who owned & drove the car had a 45 record changer under the dashboard. That was the first & only time that I had ever seen or hear of a record player inside of a moving vehicle. It Very Interesting !. ( I'm was only 13 !.)
Five years ago, I began my mid-life crisis. My hot rod choices came down to a new 2016 Mustang GT or a 1997 Dodge Viper GTS coupe. The bonus with the Viper was, it has a single DIN Radio slot and I was looking into what 8-track players would fit. To my surprise, several would have. But, the power, handling and warranty of the Mustang won me over instead. Problem comes from there's no room in the Mustang to install an 8-track deck. Ah well.
I experienced the Philips in my Dads Buick 59 Electra and it was great. I was only 6 but I remember it well. the music was great. the only problem was when you forgot the records binder in the car, they warped in the sun.
I brother had this in his car, (the philips player using regular 45 rpm records) in India..there was no 8 track taperecorder available in India so in 1963 when the cassette was invented it was a big relief to dump the car record player.
The issue is more the warping in the heat. Also, tape cartridge systems were around, and not forgetting radio!
I knew about this, and it was due to old books by Tad Burness and others that I read both at the library and bought myself.
But I'm glad you're here to tell the world about them.
My brother had a Philips 45 singles player in his car ,your right, the tracking weight was massive and it soon wrecked any record used in it !
Wow this makes 8 Tracks not look so bad for in car audio , at least they did not skip and had better quality sound and you could actually get music from bands and groups you've actually heard of.
make a video about laser turntable technology.
In my 6th grade language arts class, we read the Watsons go to Birmingham and turntables in cars were featured in it. Our language arts teacher showed it to us.
When I was in elementary school in the 60's my uncles had those slot-loading Norelco (Philips) 45 players in their cars. Not only was the high tracking force bad for the records, but leaving those records in the cars meant they often ended up unplayable because the hot sun would warp them and they were unprotected from scratches.
Keep up the high quality videos Jarret! I find alot of them very intresting.
+Brad Taylor thanks for watching Brad!
Intresting Vs. Interesting.
meh
we in holland had "platen slikkers" record eaters
with spring loaded needles and not more then a slot to put the record in
and even better it played normal 45's
robot797 hoi Holland ik kom uit België 🇧🇪
I've seen these devices in a Wim Wendes movie!
"Holland"
Great video man!
The Crosley part, LOL! True. I do have a question though, why didn't they continue with the microgroove record concept on keeping it half speed with smaller vinyl? Wouldn't that in a way be more convenient in cost in size?
A heavy weight tracking force dosen't destroy the grooves it just wears them down very slowly
Philip had car turntables in the 40s until the mid 50s. RCA also had them. As did Telefunken, Grundig, Philips and AEG.
We have a philips record player in our car, It's spring mounted inside so basically has it's own suspension lol
Modern polymer banknotes were first developed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation or CSIRO and first issued as currency in Australia during 1988, to coincide with Australia's bicentennial year. We've had them for decades.
One thing that was not brought up was that often times people would drive to a spot with a view or some thing and park and listen to music so besides the fact that old cars in the 50s drive extremely smooth, it’s not an issue at all once you park.
well I could see a possibility of a laser turntable one day possibly in a turntable which might solve the issue of the needle in the grove and I would have one if that was a case LOL but I have attempted to use a turntable in a car and it did well under 40 miles a hour I used a stackable BSR turntable and it handled things in town beautiful but getting out on the highway and getting up to speeds of 70 forget it the needle would just slide across the records no tracking at all but it was a fun experiment
Soo, a CD?
There was a turntable that used a laser to play records but it only worked well for black vinyl. I think it was made by Bang Olfson .
As a small child i had a behemoth Ferguson Stereogram. its record deck had 4 speeds. inc 16 and 78. so your video has cleared up a mystery for me of what was played at 16rpm. Thank you very much for that.
You couldn't play these highway Hifi records on your streogram. They used a narrower groove (ultra microgrooves) and a standard stylus would've destroyed them. The 16rpm speed was mainly used for talking books although some music LPs were produced in the format too. Contrary to another video on here all 16rpm records except the highway Hifi ones used normal microgrooves so you could play them with a normal stylus.
+Lee Shepherd i forgot to mention the Garrard deck in the stereogram had a double stylus. so you flicked it either way for what you required. i remember on the plasic bit it said 33 one side and the other i dont know. but the flip was colour coded blue one side and red the other.
+Darren Richardson that was a 33/78 stylus. They never produced a reversible ultra micro groove stylus. In fact I don't think they produced one for any player other than the highway Hifi one.
The special records usually had pretty decent music on 'em like mainly pop hits of the time and majority course being doo wop, also cause the cars back were very heavy and all steel they really absorb and really take a lot that didn't effect the ride inside the car, I know a guy who has one in his 59 Edsel and it works perfectly
Very cool im 67 and started buying records at 16 i would get one for looks but use the reissue records and have a cd player also in my 1965 corvette stingray it be cool Tommy and Timmy
First, they were not mounted to a console. They were mounted under the dash, and used the radio amp and speaker. Second, ride in a 50's car....they rode incredibly. It was the design of the record players, meaning not having enough insulators against the vibration, that caused the problem.. they are an extremely cool piece of an America with ingenuity.
Saw a video of an RCA Victor player in a car that played standard 7 inch records but could be stacked upside down in the player. The owner said it has never skipped once. Use worn records though, the tracking force is high!
my unit player 45 rpm records.the kinks,stones,beatles.dave clark 5 and beach boys sounded great 1966
Cool to hear Jan and Dean and the beach boys on it while cruing. Im still cruing after all these video's
I always assumed they went with 16 rpm to accommodate deep wide grooves to help prevent skip and still get okay play time. Like 20 minutes.
A possible solution would be a tangential tracking record player, so after it locks on the "starting groove" it will be kept at a very precise position and vibration won't be much of a problem.
The vibrations would still transfer to the speakers.
pick up the vibration from the car with a sensor and then exclude it with a filter from the audio that's picked up
+Betamax Flippy I don't think that would have worked in those days. They could have picked up the vibrations with another cardridge and phase changed it but because of the record grooves already influecing the vibrations i don't think that would have worked. Or whats your idea behind that?
I mean that a software could spot parts that are not supposed to be in the record by picking up the vibration from the vehicle itself and subtract the signal of interference from the music, so it can be amplified without the noises from the car's vibrations
+Betamax Flippy So you basically meant the same as i did but with software. Still wouldn't be perfect. Why do you even wanna use vinyl in cars nowadays? Just put your USB-stick with flac files into the amp and you got way better quality.
I didn't know about this Chrysler record player, but my grandparents did have an RCA record player that played regular 45's (which RCA invented). The record player was mounted with springs to reduce the vibration of the car and meant they didn't have to increase the tracking force. It was completely automatic. You slid the 45rpm record into a slot and the record player played it and ejected it. You almost needed at least two people in the car since you only had 2 - 3 minutes before you would have to insert another record. Also, what happened to the records on a hot day in sun? That made the car record player die even though the RCA version of it was pretty good.
i wonder if there's a way to sort of...stabilize a record. have a needle thats on a very rigid arm or slider even. and have the record supported on all edges by some clamping system to prevent wobble. that way if the car jolts up, everything moves together in one single frame of reference. keeping everything sort of 'tied down' to prevent jostling. or maybe some self contained suspension system. sort of like a box within a box surrounded by springs so to speak so when the car vibrates, the springs absorb the energy before the vibes hit the record player. could be a neat science project. make a working stable mobile record player.
edit: imagine one of those ultra high density records in say, a 3in form factor. could maybe fit 20 mins of music on each side. could design a small portable record player with stable systems and the slow rotating motor would provide excilent battery life i'd think.
Would record players have continued in cars? Nope. The very idea is actually flawed, but I still have to give Chrysler props for trying. After all, a convenient and inexpensive tape format didn't exist at the time, and records were all Chrysler had to work with. Yes, I'm sure Chrysler could have refined the idea, but I doubt all the problems could have been solved, and as it was, the Chrysler Highway Hi-Fi system was a very expensive option, available only on selected (pricier) Chrysler products; worse, there was a very limited selection of records offered for it. The tape cartridge systems of Muntz and Lear, and later the cassette, were far superior for an automotive environment, even though they had their own headaches (though generally less significant).
Incidentally, the suspensions of those older cars weren't 'bad', as you imply - just radically different. There wasn't much of a concept of 'handling' back then; cars of that era were sprung very lightly for the smoothest, most comfortable ride possible. Take a ride in a '60 Mercury or Buick sometime and you'll see what I mean. They'll wallow in a turn, but they do ride smooth. Unfortunately, no matter how softly-sprung the cars, potholes, railroad crossings, and curbs were going to play havoc with a record player inside the car - and there were still quite a few 'unimproved roads' at the time.
Actually the idea is perfect you just need a computer to read the record and correct for turbulence 😅 kinda like a CD but not a CD .
As someone else said, reel to reel would've been a much saner choice and could give hours of music with reasonable quality if done at a low speed.
I'm surprised they didn't think of this, as well as a caddy design so you could load the R2R tape into a cassete shell without having to do the threading on the machine itself. Of course, records were cheaper so.... :-\
This would be a novelty at best. There is no mass market appeal for an in car record player today no matter how advanced and error free you make it.
The ship sailed back in the 50/60s for in car phonographs.
Of course, in early low rider culture you sometimes saw phonographs, but this was a bling thing, along with a B&W TV, and it was just a normal record player that would only be used when the car was stationary.
They would have been perfect for that era. People used to park their cars in groups, or at least young people did. I recall that even in the 70's we would hang out in well lit parking lots and just talk.
Maybe if it had a gear mechanism that would advance the stylist at the correct pace inline with the groves on the record it could work but I don't think car companies will ever start to put them car again. It would be an interesting engineering project for some collage kid. The groves often various depending on the base or how close to the center of the record you are so you would need some type of laser measuring system so know how to adjust the speed for the tone-arm. It might make sense for the recored to be stationary and the whole upper platter system to do the rotating and everything else. . . . . . . There's an complicated idea for someone.
well since they are making digital turntables that will play the vinyl like a cd with a lazer that don't touch the groove. you wonder if they can make a special version for cars that can play 60 mins on a 10 inch record. with auto reverse lasers. that would be the best way to play vinyl and you can hear the highest sound possible but analog laser set up.
There are several problems with laser turntables.
First, they only play black vinyl records. Not necessarily a deal breaker, but there are a lot of colored vinyl records that you would never be able to play. This could probably be overcome with more advanced lasers, but that will only increase its cost.
Second, they can't distinguish between dust and actual groove information. Well, neither can a regular stylus. BUT, since a stylus is physically in the groove, it can push some dust out of the way and not play it. A laser obviously can't do that, so it instead plays that dust. SO, records need to be extremely clean or else there will be MORE crackling and pops.
Third, they're extremely expensive. And they will likely never be much cheaper.
It's a very complicated design, as records were never designed to be played in such a way. Also, much more robust laser-read media already exist that is already extremely cheap, so there is little reason or incentive for this to become cheap or widely available.
The main purpose for laser turntables is preservation. Because they read parts of the groove that styli normally don't touch (the upper edges by the surface) even well worn records can potentially sounds good.
incredible and informative vids
The only possibly way that I could see something like this working is to implement some kind of image recognition device which scans the surface of the record to convert the wave images to audio as it loads the record. This would prevent skipping, but it would be rather pointless since it would pretty much come out digital any way.
HAD ONE CAR RECORD PLAY IN A VAUXHALL CRESTA IT WAS A COMPACT DECK WITH PUSH IN FOR PLAY AND EJECT SYSTEM WORKED VERY WELL
My father had exactly the same Philips record player in his first car, a 1960 Simca Aronde. It played only 45rpm records. The platter was spring- loaded, but it was still prone to skipping. Not to mention that changing the record every 3-4 minutes is not very practical while driving!
What they'd need is a electric track that moves as the music plays. Kind of like a how an Optical lens works. I always wondered if someone made something like this.
Electric track? Do you mean a track used to correct for wobbliness in a record so the needle does not skip? Still wouldn't work too good, and you would need to add more (then) expensive electronics thus making it unaffordable to most consumers.
If you mean a magnetic coated record with no physical grooves- that would've been way more doable and all you would need is an inexpensive worm gear for the playback head.
I guess they didn't go this route because they wanted to use existing record pressing machines.
Again cost rules all.... :-\
Only if the record is read by a laser. There are some rare record players that use laser to read but they're very expensive. Even with modern cars with better suspensions, most roads are in disrepair nowadays so the thing would skip like crazy. It's best to put music on a USB stick or use streaming audio (or old fashioned radio) for vehicles.
This reminds me of the ‘I can’t believe they invented it’ segments from The Simpsons. ‘The car chandelier.’
this is a fun history video, keep in mind as well that storing vinyl in a car will warp and ruin records so don't store records in your car
Every vinyl eyezz video: "crosley sucks" and "fRamiliar"
*hits pothole*
*destroys record*
I think it might be a good idea if they figure it out that could be a good way to listen to some good electronic music while u drive or really good albums all the way through if the do that thing where the next song starts right after the last,and if they did that they would have to take out the radio and add more speaker it would definitely cost a lot.
I use a mobile stereo receiver at work and it has a magnetic phono input.
Can you make a video about costum vinyl record making by companies? I want to try it myself but I don't know what to expect.
I just heard about record players in cars yesterday. I work in a bar and one of our regs was telling me about having a car with a record player in it when he was younger. I thought it was one of the craziest things I've ever heard.. LOL
(3:05) You should have added a scary music there 😂
Wow ,, never knew that ... I love vinyl and just could never imagine playing them in a car .... Till I saw your video .