I was one of two A/V guys at my grade school of about 900 kids. So I shlepped around a LOT of pounds of Caliphone stuff. Might have been a few Newcomb's in the mix too.
I should add...The Califone players at our school were all tube-type. Mostly purchased in the late 1950's I'd guess.
They ran forever! Even grade school kids couldn't kill those things. Maybe knock the tip off the stylus, but that's all. We kept stock of those. Smaller ones had the flip-over ceramic stylus/cartridge combo, and an 8 inch speaker up front. They sounded OK.
The bigger units (Caliphone Promenade), like the one used for square dancing, and in the big auditorium had the 6L6 P/P outputs, and a GE VR-II magnetic (variable reluctance actually) phono cartridge. The 12 inch speakers had "whizzer cones" for the high frequencies. I used to set-up the speakers in the corners, so they sort of became bass-reflex.
Mellow, but surprisingly good sound for those days. They really could fill the auditorium with a lotta sound for only about 25 watts.
Those were the days!
Dave O.
