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Have you ever run across a set of records
where something seems a little… off?

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Take a look at these.

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This album is across three
discs. Here’s disc one, side one.

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And on the back is side… six.

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The fu--?

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Side two is on the next disc? Alright then
I suppose we should find side five on the

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back of this one and... yeah. Sure enough,
we do.

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Only this last disc has any semblance of normalcy.

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It seems like it ought to be
disc two, seeing that it has sides 3 and 4,

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but no! This is disc three.

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Did they just suck
at numbers in the ‘60s?

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Well a few people did, I’m sure, but in
fact this apparently bizarre numbering scheme

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is quite logical. You see, this record set
was designed specifically to be used in an

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automatic record changer. Arranging the sides
like this was often called automatic sequencing.

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Now, as someone who lived until the age of
13 or 14 before ever using any sort of record

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player, the idea of a record changer seemed
laughable.

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See, I had grown up with one of these things

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(those shiny things are called compact discs, they held music on them, and this is a compact disc changer,

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it’s pretty neat I did some videos on these things,

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oh look a card)

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so when I heard of record changers I envisioned

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some really giant version of this. But in
fact record changers were nothing more than

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an ordinary looking phonograph save for two
modifications; an extraordinarily long and

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funky spindle, and a weird floating arm thing.

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These things are certainly not rare by any
means, in fact they were pretty standard fare

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in homes from the 1940’s through to the
1970’s. They eventually fell out of favor,

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and Audiophiles HATE them!

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but in this video
I’d like to pay tribute to the cleverness

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that is the automatic record changer.

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Let’s start with a field trip to the 1920’s.
By this point we had already decided that

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cylinders were the Betamax of sound formats
and were all in on disc. Only trouble was

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that the 78 RPM records of the day could only
hold between 3 and 5 minutes of music per side.

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So, having just settled in listening
to your favorite set of tunes, you’d quickly

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have to get back up and do some good ‘ol
fashioned disc jockeying.

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Well that’s no good, is it? So, we humans,
ever looking for problems to solve, set to

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work on enabling a more leisurely experience.
If this website I found is to be believed,

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the first record changer with a design similar
to this was invented by Eric Waterworth of

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Hobart, Australia in 1925. However, his invention
never made it to market, likely due to difficulties

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in getting records to play upside down.

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The first record changer to really find a
groove was the Automatic Orthophonic Victrola,

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by our friends at the Victor company. This
design, from 1927, used a rather precarious

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looking arrangement of stacked records held
at an angle. A weird hoop thing would rise

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up, grab a disc from the stack, place it gently
on the turntable, then it would be played once.

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And then the hoop thing would pick it
back up and not-so-gently drop it down a padded chute.

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I mean, it worked.

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But yikes!

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To give you an idea how desperate we were
for automated record playing, the Victor VE 10-50,

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the first and most basic model with
the automatic changer, retailed for $600,

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which is worth about $9,000 in 2019 money.
And if you think nobody bought them, you’d

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be wrong, as an estimated 12,000 of these
things were produced in 1927 alone.

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We wanted automation and we wanted it yesterday.

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But let’s fast forward a few decades. Throughout
the 1930’s, ‘40s, and 50’s, record changer

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development continued at a breakneck pace.
Plenty of clever innovations made their way

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into the hands of consumers, as well as plenty
of duds, but by the 1960’s (and especially

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into the ‘70s) we had pretty much settled
on this design.

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This Glenburn changer is one

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of many, many copies of the infamous BSR changer.
If you bought any sort of stereo in the late

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sixties to mid ‘70s, odds are it had something
really similar to this in it. I have heard

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both that Glenburns were considered cheap
knockoffs and that they’re better than your

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average BSR, so take that as you will.

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So. How does one use this clever contraption?
Let’s compare this rather standard turntable

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from Sony with our miraculous Glenburn.

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The Sony is a no-surprises affair.

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You put the record on the turntable,

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and you put the stylus on the disc.

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That’s about it.

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But this record player.... There’s, there’s
more to consider! There’s this …

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thing.

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And look at all these selector levers! I don’t
know, Winnifred, this looks pretty complicated!

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[in a 1960’s instructional demo voice] 
Have no fear, as with a little knowledge and training,

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you’ll find a record-listening experience
that’s automatic beyond belief!

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First, lift the record stabilizer arm out of
the way. Next, be sure to select the appropriate

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diameter of the disc you’ll be playing.
This standard LP is a 12 inch disc, so we’ll

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set it to 12. Then, double check the speed
setting.

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33 and a third and how!

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Now that we have all the settings dialed in, we can
place our record on the spindle.

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Uh-oh!

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It’s all wonky!

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Not to worry! Reposition the record
stabilizer, and we’ll be just one step away.

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With our record sitting neat and pretty, simply
switch on the turntable by moving the selector

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from Stop to Start, and then to Auto. It will
spring back to the Start position, but don’t worry!

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Automatic operation is underway!

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Now your record automatically drops into place,

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and the tone arm travels to the outer edge
to play it.

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Beautiful!

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When your record is over, the record player automatically returns the tone arm to the resting position, and

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even turns itself off! Plus, it secures the
tone arm in place.

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What marvels we enjoy today!

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But… wait. That’s just a real Rube Goldbergian
way to play a record automatically.

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What was the point of holding them up in the air like that?

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I’m glad you asked! The notched spindle
prevents the disc from falling until this

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actuator moves to the left. This action both
decreases the effective diameter of the spindle,

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allowing the disc to fall, and it also pushes
the disc past the lip it was resting on.

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But - and here’s the real kicker - thanks to
this second piece, we can place another disc

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on top! When the bottom record is pushed off
the ledge, the very piece that does the pushing

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prevents the disc above it from falling, too!
The result is a machine that will play a stack

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of discs automatically one-at-a-time!

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But… last time the record player stopped
when it was done playing. What’s to keep

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it from doing that again?

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Why, the record stabilizer, of course! Notice
how it rests higher-than-usual when braced

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against a record. This tells the record player
that there’s another disc to play! After

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the last disc has fallen, the lever drops
down, and now it knows it’s time to stop

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after this disc is done. It’s just like
magic!

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Well it’s not really like magic.

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Ha ha,
it sure is! The recor--

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No. Stop it.

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We’re done with that.

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This is actually one of the
most basic designs of record changer, as they

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really peaked in performance in the late 1950’s
and early ‘60s. After that, many of their

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more advanced features dwindled away. For
instance, many record changers could automatically

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determine the diameter of the discs, negating
the need for this selector. Some did this

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by using the tonearm to deliberately bump
into the edge of the disc it was about to

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play to determine its size. Other methods
were used, too, though a common theme with

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those machines was that mixed sizes of discs,
if they were supported at all, had to be stacked

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largest to smallest. Not always, but usually.

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Can you see now why this record set has the
sides in such a strange order?

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With this record player, it’s not weird at all!

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If you stack the three discs like this, with side one on

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the bottom, 2 in the middle, and three on
the top, then it will play each of those sides

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in that order. Then, flipping the entire stack
over plays the opposite sides in reverse sequence,

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so it will play side 4, then 5, and finally
6.

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Automatic sequencing of records goes back

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pretty much as far as record changers have been available.

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These rather delightful Looney
Tunes children’s sets are auto-sequenced,

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and, uh, they’re from 1948. But certainly
not everything was, awkward pause as I reach

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for another set of records, these selections
from Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore

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are sequenced as normal. By the way, these
things - they’re called record albums. They’re

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like photo albums, but they hold records.
Before the advent of long-play records, a

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group of songs was sold in one of these record
albums. And that’s where the name comes from.

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Fun fact.

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The most clever thing about these machines,
at least from my perspective, is that their

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automatic functions are achieved using the
same motor that spins the turntable. This

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record changer, along with the vast majority
of others, is entirely mechanical. The tone

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arm’s movement, along with the dropping
of the next record, are driven off the turntable

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itself. In fact, with the record player unplugged,
we can make it go through its automatic routines

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by simply turning it by hand.

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Thanks to the miracle of precarious rigging,
we can watch what the mechanism does as it

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changes a disc. It’s all just a bunch of
cam drives, pushing on this and pulling on

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that. This piece here is attached to the tone
arm, and you can see how changing the size

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selector changes where the tone arm will stop.

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It’s really a fascinating bit of engineering cleverness.

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The designers were aware that any sort of
drag on the turntable is likely to introduce

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some wow and flutter, so the mechanism is
effectively disengaged from the turntable

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unless some sort of automatic function is
being performed. Of course it’s kind of

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impossible to convey this over video, but
I can definitely feel that it’s difficult

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to spin the turntable as it does its rigamorol,
but as soon as the tone arm settles to where

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it would be playing a disc, the mechanism
diesengages and it becomes much easier to

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rotate. In fact, there's so little drag on
the turntable, pretty much just the friction

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of the motor and idler wheel, that it takes
a fair while to come to a stop. But, as soon

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as the tone arm makes it to the center, it
re-engages the mechanism, and now the turntable

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no longer spins freely.

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Actually, I suppose
I can convey this over video.

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Here. It’s spinning nice and fine but as soon as it starts
moving the tone arm… it quickly comes to

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a stop without the help of either my hand
or the motor to keep it along.

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Of course one of the downsides of this approach
is that the speed of the changing is impacted

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by the RPM of the records you’re playing
(in nearly all of these turntables). The movement

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is fairly graceful with long play records,
but introduce some 78s like those Looney Tunes

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ones we saw earlier into the mix and it
gets real herky jerky.

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These discs, by the way, are 10 inch discs so I’ve put the selector into the 10 position.

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And of course, if you happen to have a set of spoken-word or

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other records that play at the rather uncommon 16 and ⅔ RPM speed,

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the once-graceful movement
becomes annoyingly slow.

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Finally.

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And now let’s talk about why

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Audiophiles HATE them!

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First, let’s address the simple truth that some audiophiles apparently are incapable of appreciating.

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Most humans will happily make sacrifices to quality for convenience.

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I feel that needs repeating with greater emphasis.

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Most humans will *quite* happily make sacrifices
to quality if the experience is more convenient.

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If you value quality over all else, that is
fine. We salute you in your pursuit of perfection.

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But do not judge your fellow humans for tastes
that be different to yours, and do not try

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to convince us that our standards are too
low.

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Also--what is convenient is in the eye of the beholder.

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That deserves consideration, too.

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Alright, now that I’ve checked that off
my list, let’s start with the more tenuous

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concerns regarding record changers. Notice
that as more records get stacked, the angle

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of the tone-arm changes. This makes the angle
at which the stylus sits in the groove not-quite

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optimal, which may impact the quality of the
sound coming from the cartridge.

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Blasphemy!

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Let’s see how bad it really is, though.
Here’s what a record sounds like being played

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resting directly on the turntable.

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[Music
plays]

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Alright, and now stacked on top of 5 other records.

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[Music plays again, with
no appreciable change in quality.

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Even in person before the digitizing and compression that I and then YouTube did to it these sounded identical.

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Seriously, I think I have pretty good ears, and these two recordings in their uncompressed nature are indistinguishable in person through some pretty great headphones. But obviously my ears are just not good enough to enjoy music correctly]

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[Wow I didn't know you could fit that much in one caption]

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I’ll even switch back and forth
repeatedly. Spot the difference!

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[A different track plays, with the recording switching
back and forth at random.

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It’s completely unnoticeable. But then again, I’m no audiophile

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(I just play one on TV)]

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Did you see that ludicrous display last night?

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Yeah, I can’t hear it either.

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OK, then the other, slightly more legitimate
concern is that the act of stacking discs

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is just plain bad for them! I mean, you don’t
want to just go around touching the surface

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of a vinyl record. Surely letting them rub
together when the stationary disc falls on

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the rotating one will result in a disaster!

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Well, not really. I mean, think about this

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for a second. The sound recording on a record
isn’t ON the surface of the disc. It’s

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below the surface, between the grooves. Sure,
in theory, a big piece of dust or other debris

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might cause cause some sort of a scratch during
the brief period of acceleration from stopped

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to moving, but generally discs rubbing against
each other proved to be pretty harmless. Again,

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the only parts that touch, under normal circumstances
anyway, are the tops of the groove walls which...

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don’t actually contain any of the sound.

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The one bit of damage that was known to occur
(and quite frequently, mind you) was a bit of

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chewing up on the label right around the hole,
especially for the discs on the bottom of

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a tall stack. You might potentially have the
weight of 4 or 5 vinyl--or even shellac--records

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resting on just this little shelf, and when
the disc gets pushed off of it, that might

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do some nasty things to the label. But I mean,
when you imagine a record as a delivery medium

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for the day’s popular music, and not a fragile
collector’s item to be protected, who cares?

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No seriously, now you’d shout bloody murder
over the wearing down of the center hole,

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but back when this was popular… not so much.

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Nevertheless, the general public did eventually
grow to view these as less-than-ideal for

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the preservation of their discs. It took a
great long while, though, as remember until

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the 1970’s a record changer was more-or-less
the norm. I think a few things contributed

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to their demise. First was the fact that the
truly elegant designs of the ‘50s and ‘60s

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were standardized into these cheaper, ineloquent
hunks of OK I guess.

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By the 1970’s, record changers had become pretty mediocre.

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Sure, they worked fine, and honestly this one sounds very nice

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(aside from the fact that it runs
ever-so-slightly too fast which infuriates me)

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But by the 1970’s, changers just weren’t
very good record players.

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And very good record players, almost without exception, weren’t changers.

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Additionally, the market was moving away from
monstrous console systems which these would

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fit nicely into, to more compact bookshelf
and component systems, meaning that the extra

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height and bulk of the changer suddenly became
a disadvantage. And lastly, and I’ll admit

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this is just me musing about human tendencies,
I think they just went out of style. Ya gotta

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admit this Sony unit is a whole lot sleeker
looking than its Glenburn counterpart. Yeah,

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it’s quite a bit newer, but without a tall
spindle and the extra depth required for the

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mechanism, it could save quite a bit of space
in the Z dimension.

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But regardless of who or what killed the changer,
I hope we can appreciate its cleverness for

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a little while longer. I especially like the
automatic sequencing, in my eyes it’s almost

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like a hack. And, one other thing I didn’t mention
about that--even on a manual turntable, assuming

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you’re willing to stack your records, it’s
arguably more convenient. Play side one, then

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put two on top of it, then three on top of
that. Flip the top record over to play four,

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flip the top two to play 5, and flip the whole
stack to play six. I suppose though if you’re

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unwilling to let the vinyl get a little cozy
with its partners,

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then yeah it’s a pain in the ass.

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Oh, and although we shunned the idea of stacking,
turntable automation didn’t die out completely.

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Fancier turntables could start a record automatically
with the press of a button. And while that’s

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a little advanced for this guy, he’s still
happy to return the tone arm for you and shut off.

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And of course, it also uses the movement
of the turntable to provide movement of the tonearm.

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Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed
this video. Now comes the time where I thank

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00:17:22,120 --> 00:17:26,000
the fine folks who support the channel on
Patreon, with a special thanks going to the

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00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:30,770
people scrolling down your screen. Your support
has really been a life changer, and it’s

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00:17:30,770 --> 00:17:34,900
making sure there’s always another video
waiting to drop. If you’d like to join these

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00:17:34,900 --> 00:17:39,030
people in supporting the channel, check out
my Patreon page. Thanks for your consideration,

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00:17:39,030 --> 00:17:40,320
and I’ll see you next time!

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00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,560
♫ sequentially smooth jazz ♫

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That was real!

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00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:49,480
YES!!!

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00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,620
Ha ha ha! On the word
“Drop!”

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00:17:55,180 --> 00:17:58,560
No video fakery this time, ha ha!

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00:17:58,560 --> 00:18:02,410
I promise, that was actually real! I’m
so.. Yeah if you can’t tell by the smile

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00:18:02,410 --> 00:18:05,600
on my face… uh.

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00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:07,300
YES!!

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00:18:07,500 --> 00:18:11,700
Let’s compare this rather standard turntable…
I used the hand motion wrong

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Other methods, other… ugh that was a really
good take and then we screwed it up.

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Then it will play each of those di -

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[stares
intensely at the camera]

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Should have thought that through, Jared.

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00:18:23,180 --> 00:18:24,660
That’s
right, Clover.

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00:18:24,660 --> 00:18:27,180
“You’re just coming up with names on the spot!”

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00:18:27,180 --> 00:18:28,380
No I’m not!

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00:18:28,380 --> 00:18:29,200
“Yes
you are!”

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00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:29,760
Yes I am.