Record changer
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Image:Record changer dscn1667a.jpg A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays multiple gramophone records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s.
The first commercially successful record changer was the "Automatic Orthophonic" model by the Victor Talking Machine Company, which was launched in the USA in 1927. On a conventional gramophone or phonograph, the limited playing time of 78 rpm gramophone records meant that listeners had to get up to change records at regular intervals. The Automatic Orthophonic allowed the listener to load a stack of several records into the machine, which would then be automatically played in sequence, providing a long uninterrupted listening session.
The purely mechanical mechanisms of record changers were ingenious, and often very complex. Changers typically had an extended central spindle that the records were stacked on, and an extra arm designed to hold the stack steady. Some units had an arm which could detect the width of each record (7", 10", or 12") and position the tone arm accordingly; the more basic models required the record diameter to be set manually, and hence did not allow records of different sizes to be stacked together.
Record changers were provided in most mid-priced consumer record players of the 1950s through 1970s. They were met with disdain by audiophiles because of the compromised fidelity resulting from changes in tone arm angle with the height of the stack, and concerns about changers' seemingly rough treatment of discs, particularly slight but cumulative damage to the spindle hole, as the records were effectively dropped from a height of a few inches onto the record platter. More advanced changers, such as the 224 model from Thorens, went some way towards addressing these issues.
Record changers became rarer in the 1980s, mainly due to the introduction of the compact disc.
Auto-coupling
The numbering of the sides of the discs in many double and triple albums (and boxed sets of LPs and 78s) is explained by the fact that they were designed to be played on record changers. After the discs were stacked and one side of each disc played, the stack would be turned over together as a unit and replaced on the changer. Thus, to be heard in the proper sequence, the discs of a four-disc set would contain, respectively, "sides" 1 & 8, 2 & 7, 3 & 6, and 4 & 5 - a practise known as "auto-coupling".
See also
External links
- Early Record Changer Videos - video clips of changers in operation, including an Automatic Orthophonic, a Thorens 224, and a "both sides play" Lincoln changer
