oblem.

It all started with a search for tube amps on my local clist. I ran into an ad for 2 mono block amps that were buried in these little things called RCA 45 EY2's.

I have a pretty decent pile or two of modern hifi tube equipment and am particularly fond of 300b tubes.

So, while the clist poster advertised these for tube amp parts, I wondered if they would work or be fixable. I took the leap of faith and picked them up. There is no way I could rip these apart.

Sure enough one of these RCA 45's work, I had to beat a path to my local goodwill store to find a 45 record to try on it and sure enough, a scratchy distortion filled sound slowly arose from the speaker after the tubes warmed up. So, the basics are there. The second one hums and after further examination there appears to be a rivet that holds the wires to the speaker frame. That rivet has eroded to nothing. Anyway, I am sure unit number 2 is fixable as well.

Anyway, I am hooked. Once I saw these I knew there had to be a way to restore them. In my search it looks like caps and replacement tubes are available on eprey and I read where some folks are attaching newer phono cartridges and getting decent sound out of these.

It seems to me that idea intrigues me a lot. I am also finding a fair amount of 33 and 45 vinyl, for some reason big band music is interesting to me. Some of the 33's I find are mint condition and I can play them on my hifi stuff. Some of it though would be perfect for an good old fashion tube based record player.

Anyway, am I doomed? Are these things going to populate themselves like Tribbles?

This leads to my next question or two. If I wanted to buy an RCA 45 player already done with an upgraded cartridge, where do you find them? I have seen a couple restored ones on eprey. They seem to go for $150 to $250. The price doesn't bother me but how do I know the electronics were done correctly?

Also, what is out there for 33's.

What a wonderful site, apologies in advance for so many questions.

Thanks

Tinpan

The best thing to do is ask for pictures of the restoration work. Any restore person worth their salt won't mind sending pictures of their work. If they don't want to send pictures, that would be a red flag. There are people out there who claim to restore vintage electronics; but, they often do the least amount possible to get some sound out of it. In order for them to be reliable and perform their best, they need to be overhauled.

There are many options out there for playing other types of records. All the major companies had decent multi-speed hi-fi and stereo units during the '50's and '60's.