They are the first of their kind

mmd · April 10, 2011, 02:20:43 AM

Really, these two are. The WE302 being the first (at least popular) all in one phone, and the bottom well, the first CD player.

~~http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/Evilweredragon/phoneandcd.jpg~~ ( dead link 11/10/17 )

Adam · April 10, 2011, 02:33:05 AM

And it's hard to believe that CDs have already been supplanted by another music distribution media... (MP3s)

mmd · April 10, 2011, 02:39:00 AM

I don't like MP3's or any of the modern digital formats. They are just compressed versions of music CD's (I say that based on the same 16-bit 44KHz they use).

CD's just sound better. Now yes, I'd rather albums, but CD's are cheaper, and this player isn't that bad.

rdelius · April 10, 2011, 11:02:01 AM

AE beat WE with self contained desk telephones- type 34 and type2.Many foreign sets such as Siemens W28,and other sets from Europe were first. The 302 was one of the last sets. I think it is one of the best though.I have a Sony cdp101 in original box in storage that does not work.
Robby

mmd · April 10, 2011, 11:45:17 AM

Quote from: rdelius on April 10, 2011, 11:02:01 AM
AE beat WE with self contained desk telephones- type 34 and type2.Many foreign sets such as Siemens W28,and other sets from Europe were first. The 302 was one of the last sets. I think it is one of the best though.I have a Sony cdp101 in original box in storage that does not work.
Robby

I know how to fix cdp101s, but the part is expensive.

rdelius · April 10, 2011, 04:31:20 PM

The CDP 101 I have was not economical to repair when it failed about 20 years ago. I have just kept it as a collectors item. I think the 302 set was better than most others is because any part is replacable , no soldered or riveted parts to fool with. This was forgotten with most 500 sets with riveted in switches and networks (except Kellogg-ITT). If the capacitor in the network failed, the network had to be replaced .Switches were soldered to the earlier networks also.
Robby

Dan/Panther · April 11, 2011, 01:57:51 PM

Here is the first CD player Philco 1946.
D/P

gpo706 · April 11, 2011, 02:06:50 PM

Dan what on earth is that?

Does it load on a tray like a CD?

Astonishing!

Adam · April 11, 2011, 02:15:56 PM

Astonishing, indeed!

One wonders how many 78s it ate as opposed to played...

jsowers · April 11, 2011, 02:16:23 PM

That Philco is the "Bing Crosby" model. He advertised it on Philco Radio Time. Bing was also a proponent of magnetic tape, speaking of firsts. I think he got first dibs on recording his radio show when that technology was very new and just brought over from Germany after the war. Bing was always looking for ways to get out of doing his show live, so he could spend more hours on the golf course, or the track. He was also a top movie star at the time, so he had a lot going on.

About the rivets in 500 sets, I've seen plenty of bad feet, but I don't recall seeing a bad network. I've seen some that have been replaced with a bolted-in network before I got it, but very few. I guess they figured those pieces were going to last seemingly forever and most of them did. So make them non-removable so they never come loose.

bingster · April 11, 2011, 02:17:35 PM

The record slides into a slot at the front. The unit takes 10 inch or 12 inch 78RPM records. I have the phono-only 1200, but I'd love to get a decent 1201.

There's really nothing inside to break a record, though. So the records are rather safe. Much safer than a record changer, anyway. The problem of course is that it plays one side and then you have to pull the record out and slide another in. That gets very old after a while.

Jim Stettler · April 11, 2011, 02:23:55 PM

Quote from: jsowers on April 11, 2011, 02:16:23 PM

About the rivets in 500 sets, I've seen plenty of bad feet, but I don't recall seeing a bad network. I've seen some that have been replaced with a bolted-in network before I got it, but very few. I guess they figured those pieces were going to last seemingly forever and most of them did. So make them non-removable so they never come loose.

I have heard several 20-30 year telephone men say 1-2 bad networks (tops) in their career.
Trimlines failed much more consistently. Very early on the BSP tells how to repair the handsets. They quickly decided that field swapping the handset was most cost effective.

I am still looking for the trimline bsp with the repair info. ( I can find the BSP # if needed).

Jim

gpo706 · April 11, 2011, 02:35:08 PM

Quote from: jsowers on April 11, 2011, 02:16:23 PM
That Philco is the "Bing Crosby" model. He advertised it on Philco Radio Time. Bing was also a proponent of magnetic tape, speaking of firsts. I think he got first dibs on recording his radio show when that technology was very new and just brought over from Germany after the war. Bing was always looking for ways to get out of doing his show live, so he could spend more hours on the golf course, or the track. He was also a top movie star at the time, so he had a lot going on.

Ahhh Bing was in on it!

He was into Ampex VTR's from early on, using them on his TV shows as he figured it was the best way to get his shows on prime-time given the time difference over the USA (I think he was on the board of Ampex).

That record player must get some gasps of surprise from visitors, what an incredible machine.

Dan/Panther · April 11, 2011, 04:58:23 PM

Ampex had the exclusive rights to video tape. It kept the commercial rights and sold the home rights to Sony because they said; "There would never be a market for home video recording". Sony paid $1,000,000.00.
Dan

GG · April 12, 2011, 01:45:40 AM

Dan, check your first sentence, serious typo there.

According to my dad who had some contact with the broadcast industry, one of the first major uses for video recording was in sports, for instant replay. The problem for home users was the size of the tape reels and the delicacy of adjustment of the r/p head mechanism.

I did some studio music recording in the late 80s/ early 90s and the standard recorder was the Studer A-800, 24-track, using 2" wide tape. At the beginning of every session, I had to do a procedure to align the recorder. This was a sensitive machine, and the early open-reel video recorders were quite a bit more sensitive, so they probably required a specialist to do a procedure at the beginning of every period of usage. It's not too far-fetched for a company such as Ampex, that was also big in music recording at the time, to conclude that these things would not be suitable for home use. Also back then it was common to underestimate Japan's engineering capabilities. Today people routinely make similar disparaging remarks about China; meanwhile China is building nuclear reactors, high-speed rail, and launching "taikonauts" into Earth orbit. Twenty years from now we'll be telling similar stories about how an unknown Chinese company picked up some piece of technology that nobody thought would succeed...

Re. that 1946 record player: how did it manage to feed the record in and get it onto the turntable without scratches? Was there a movable carriage in there, that dropped the record onto the turntable, or did the turntable rise slightly once the record was in place?

News:

They are the first of their kind