too many turntables

I’ve had my Marantz turntable for most of this year and has been working pretty well. I do play music on it quite often, especially with guests over at my tiny converted garage ADU.

Turntables for the most part are easy to fix. There isn’t much going on inside them as most of the fancy engineering happens inside the cartridge. In fact, its good that not a lot is inside as the more moving parts or electronic components there are, the higher chance for noise interference picked up by the cartridge.

I do enjoy restoring old equipment , its adjacent to the line of work I am currently doing and there’s a certain mixture of artistry and engineering involved. On top of the appreciation for mechanical history and yearning for more “buy-it-for-life” products vs planned obsolescence.

So I picked up these two turntables to see if I can repair them and flip them for profit afterwards.

They’re not high quality turntables like my Marantz, both come from the mid 20th century with their BSR record changers, the mass produced Crosley’s of yesteryear. At least they were cheap.

A Panasonic RD-7703 turntable. I got this one from Facebook Marketplace, the seller didn’t know what he was selling or how to use it. Fair, because this turntable just falls apart. A lot of work will be needed to reconnect the mechanics and wires. And swap out the cartridge to something modern.

The 2nd I picked up from a local thrift store. I saw the speaker turntable unit and was like oh that’s really cool.

It was 25 bucks and I was like DAMN that’s really good even as a ‘for parts as is’ unit. Instant buy. This thing is heavy AF and unwieldy, perfect for campsite turntable playing.

The record changer still works on this thing but the cartridge is completely gone. No worries, I think it’d be worthwhile to consider a modern adapter anyways, same as the other turntable.

On it says this is a RCA Victrola VHP70e. I couldn’t find anything about this model online so I’ll have to make a rough estimate on pricing once its done. That is if I want to sell it and not get too attached.

I couldn’t get any output from the speakers so that might be the first area to look at before anything else.

That is my general overview of the two. I have yet to start full repairs as my hands quite full at the moment but I’m excited to get them playing something. Online forums label BSRs as quite cheapy and harsh on records so I might consider using my engineering skills to improve on the mechanism a little to make it…not destroy expensive collections.