As a follow up to the post on new portable turntables earlier this week we’re doing a post on vintage portables released in the period from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s. Although lots of new and interesting portables have seen the market lately most of them still lack the style and charm of the good old ones. Our favorite is the Sound Burger. What’s your favorite?

Audio Technica AT-727 Sound Burger

The Sound Burger (gotta love the name..) was designed as a response to Sony’s super popular Walkman, and came with some quite neat earbud headphones. It’s of course battery powered and can handle 45 and 33 1/3 RPM records. However tempting it might be to take this one for a walk it only plays properly on a solid surface, but it should be a real killer for record fairs. It’s belt driven and from what we’ve heard replacement belts and stylus cartridges are still available. The Sound Burger is famous for its high-quality sound, but if you want one, be prepared to shell out some serious money.

General Electric Wildcat

The Wildcat was released for several years in the late 60s and early 70s, and they are quite popular.  Some people also go a long way to make their own pimped up versions.

Imperial “Party-Time” Portable Record Player

The Imperial comes wrapped in a suitcase made of cardboard and paper, so not the obvious choice for a rainy day. Nevertheless, some of these are alive and well and it’s a nice piece of electronics, although it comes with no automatic needle-drop, no auto-changer and only two speeds.

Fisher-Price Turntable

The Fisher-Price is a portable for kids and is naturally built to be rock solid. This makes it a great pick for the more demanding environments. The ones above are from the 80s.

Wilcox-Gay Recordio

The Wilcox-Gay Recordio is popular among collectors, but we have to admit this is not our first choice.

Philips 1970s Record Players

This line from Philips came in red, white and yellow with speed and volume control. It has a stylish lid that also works as a speaker. A friend of us has this one and the sound quality not the best, but the design is quite good. It’s not too pricey either. A well-functioning copy can be bought for around £75.

Lenco 811

The Lenco 811 was made by the Swiss Lenco Company and was made during the 70s. It comes with a nice carry case and plays all three speeds. Apparently some owners have experienced static-type noise from the in-built speakers. Nevertheless, a great looking vintage portable we would love to own.

Some Previous Posts on Turntables:

Awesome Portable Turntables

Vintage Turntables (1971-1983)

The World’s Most Expensive Turntables

Tags: portable turntables, vintage

This entry was posted on Friday, April 3rd, 2009 at 9:48 am and is filed under Turntables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.