Have you ever noticed the total absence of audio equipment from the luxury houses presented in glossy architecture and interior design magazines? It makes the inhabitants of such property come across as rather uncultured.
In fact, not only is an audiophile grade sound system a minimum requirement for the home of anyone affluent enough to hire an interior designer, but it is important to choose a designer who can appreciate the aura of sophistication and intellect projected by a beautifully restored vintage disk recording lathe, set in a handcrafted custom cabinet, in a conspicuous corner of the living room!
Tasos of Epos Laboratory (a Grado retipping specialist) from the beautiful south of Greece is the lucky owner of this 1950's Rek-O-Kut disk recording system.
It consists of a Rek-O-Kut Model V 16" turntable, which he found in the USA (where else?) as a non-runner. The motor was in bad shape and refused to run at all. Even if it would run, it was expecting to be fed on a regular diet of 110 VAC/60 Hz!
A customer recently imported a vintage Presto 75A disk recording lathe from the USA, with a view to cutting records in Europe.
He quickly discovered, like many people before him, that it was spinning a bit slower than it should, when operated from 50 Hz mains, via a simple step-down transformer. As with most vintage record cutting machines, the platter is powered by a synchronous AC motor, which "locks" to the line frequency.
It would appear that 50 Hz conversions of vintage "made in USA" disk recording lathes are becoming rather fashionable! Last week we examined how we converted a Rek-O-Kut Model V by machining a new capstan and making a special transformer, Type 1760.
We have done 50 Hz conversions (and even some 60 Hz ones!) on many different lathes and turntables, using all of the possible methods of doing so: New rubber rollers, new capstans, new belt pulleys and even electronic frequency conversion (Agnew Analog Type 191 frequency converter) for professional disk mastering systems.
This week, we will have a look at the Presto 75A, a high quality machine, dating from the 1930's, which was even used by the BBC as a broadcasting turntable!
With powder coated end-bells in Agnew-cream-white and our fancy engraved stainless steel product plates riveted on, with type designation and serial number stamped by hand as a seal of approval following our extensive testing and quality control procedures, our transformers now look as good as they are!
Presto disk recording lathes are often still in active use nowadays, nearly 80 years after they originally left the factory in New York. Let us have a closer look at what keeps them spinning!
Back in 2015, we started a big lathe project, taking a beat-up Fairchild lathe from the 1930's, fitting it with an RCA cutter head, and eventually going full-on with a stereophonic feedback cutter head, vacuum clamp-down platter and automatically variable pitch.
