Califone Record Player

[CJ]

this thing

 

[CJ]

6L6 cathode bias

doubler for pwr tube supply

then xfmr for preamp with innerstage xfmr

got a new camera! Nikon D3300. which is old.

 

[rock soderstrom]

Incredibly, a turntable with a built-in mini PA and a mixer!
Was that meant for karaoke?

 

[Brian Roth]

I remember Califone branded units in my elementary (grade) school. At some point, Califone was purchased by the Rheem company, better known for HVAC equipment.

Bri

 

[rock soderstrom]

doubler for pwr tube supply

yeah and no mains transformer for the power tubes.

 

[k brown]

That looks like one of my tube builds inside!

 

[Brian Roth]

Rheen Califone also sold guitar amps:

https://reverb.com/item/1368362-rhe...guitar-amp-jensen-mod-reverb-tremolo-free-ups
They also sold reel to reel recorders....and "combo" organs.

Bri

 

[JohnRoberts]

Incredibly, a turntable with a built-in mini PA and a mixer!
Was that meant for karaoke?

Unlikely Karaoke, which didn't become a thing until maybe 1960-70 and in Japan.

It looks like school A/V gear. Coincidentally it could have been used to sing along to a recording, but not for karaoke as we now know it.

JR

 

[k brown]

6L6 cathode bias

doubler for pwr tube supply

then xfmr for preamp with innerstage xfmr

got a new camera! Nikon D3300. which is old.
View attachment 112376View attachment 112377View attachment 112378View attachment 112379

I really dig some of the older Nikons - I just got a Coolpix 990 'twist-body', and I love it! Decades of shooting film with a TLR, the waist-level mode is just my cup-o-tea.

 

[CJ]

Square Dancing was popular back in the 50's.

They could fit a pwr xfmr big enough for the preamp, but not the power tubes. So the doubler off the line is not grounded to the chassis but the preamp supply is grounded to the chassis. This is going to cause huge him problems thus the inner stage transformer.

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[rock soderstrom]

It looks like school A/V gear. Coincidentally it could have been used to sing along to a recording, but not for karaoke as we now know it.

Yes, the target market was probably schools and education, maybe also small religious communities.

A similar function was fulfilled in Germany in the 50s and 60s by the portable Grundig and Telefunken R2R recorders.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/grundig_tk64.html
There were even modified special versions for the education market.

Later it was film projectors with built-in mini PA and mixer to realise a voice over in class.

I must admit the turntable above is very well equipped with its 2x 6L6 power amplifier. Here it was a maximum of 2xEL84. Everything is bigger in the USA.

 

[TimG]

Unlikely Karaoke, which didn't become a thing until maybe 1960-70 and in Japan.

It looks like school A/V gear. Coincidentally it could have been used to sing along to a recording, but not for karaoke as we now know it.

JR

In the 1970s we used the Califones for square dancing at school!

“Bow to your Pardner!, now the Gal across the Hall, do a ‘do-si-do’!…”

We had records of songs and they booklets of square dance calls to read out over the

 

[Ricardus]

Square Dancing was popular back in the 50's.

Inexplicably, we did square dancing in GYM class well into the 80s.

 

[cyrano]

Square dancing is still popular over here, at least in certain circles...

In the area where I live there are at least 4 "ranches" within half an hour with horses, cowboys and even an occasional indian. All appropriately costumed in a fake western decor. With Cars like Ford Mustang, Chevy El Camino or Dodge Ram in the parking lot. One of them also has a small free rock and roll festival in summer. Cover bands, bbq and hotdogs and lots of booze. The best thing about it, is that it's small...

 

[Dave Obergoenner]

We also had square dancing in the 50s & 60s in my grade school. Our Gym teacher was really into it, and really good at calling. I thought it was a blast!

We had similar Califone record players, driving a pair of 12 inch Califone speakers. Sounded really good too.

Dave O.

 

[Tubetec]

Cheers for the memories Dave ,
Was just going to say , a pair of 15's with horns on that set up would have equated to enough power to dance several hundred people back in the good old days ,

In Ireland we had school dances too , boys school went over to girls school around the corner , we all brought our favourite cassette tapes and jockied for position as DJ ,
I ended up 'borrowing' a cassette of U2 live at Red Rocks from a girl who left her tape behind ,
was no worries I returned it personally to her house , we became an item for a bit
20 years later in the local pub right around christmas time she came up to me , grabbed me and demanded to be kissed .....

Bono's only a kiss ass nowadays compared to then ,he stopped saying anything controversial a long time ago in case it hit his share price.

 

[HP200CD]

Incredibly, a turntable with a built-in mini PA and a mixer!
Was that meant for karaoke?

Back when I was in school, these record players were used in language labs. The records always said "Repeat after me." We also had Califone reel to reel tape recorders, and some players without record amps. They all hummed. That's how you knew not to forget to turn them off after class.

 

[Tubetec]

Like the German Klangfilm concept ,
all (good) regimes had their propaganda machinery,
we simply could not have become the Ubermensch without it ,

If I was a redneck back in the old days ,i'd have been fixing to rob that turntable amp combo as a party rig for my shed .
Schools out m'ther'****** ,forever

 

[TimG]

Once upon a time i did a survey to see what if anything was useful in the common solid-state Califone…not so much

https://groupdiy.com/threads/whats-the-next-thift-score-item-to-hoard-for-diy.79811/

 

[Disco Volante]

Yes, the target market was probably schools and education, maybe also small religious communities.

A similar function was fulfilled in Germany in the 50s and 60s by the portable Grundig and Telefunken R2R recorders.

https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/grundig_tk64.html
There were even modified special versions for the education market.

Later it was film projectors with built-in mini PA and mixer to realise a voice over in class.

I must admit the turntable above is very well equipped with its 2x 6L6 power amplifier. Here it was a maximum of 2xEL84. Everything is bigger in the USA.

In Scandinavia, we had Tandberg R2R on rolling tables with built-in amps and "speakers". And they showed 16mm films at the public library for us kids. I just wanted to look at the machine...