A beautiful self contained bakelite case with carry handle. Polished to a brilliant shine.

Shows a lot of reflection from the ultra smooth deck surface with almost no orange peel. Painted with 2 coats of metallic gold enamel and finished with 3 coats of clear coat enamel. Although not perfect, the metallic finish really pops out. A near automotive quality finish which took several days to dry and a month to cure.

Some of these old players had a gold foil disk on the spindle and others didn't. This one does and happens to look pretty good. It has been glued down with a water based glue stick and can be removed if desired. Never needs polishing.

Side view from the power cord side shows a lot of reflection from the polished case.

Original labels to most of the units out there are starting to deteriorate and flake off. The serial label you see is not the original, but a close facsimile to the original. The color and text are a close match; however, it is not reasonably possible to produce such a small label with gold foil text like the original. The serial number is unique to this unit.

Front of unit with lid closed. The latch that holds the lid tight can be a little tricky at times, requiring a gentle push on the top of the lid in order to lock in place and other times a little patience when unlocking.

Closeup of front RCA Victor label. Has been painted with a brilliant gold to look like it did when it was new.

Spring loaded handle automatically collapses to side of case.

"Golden Throat" label inside of bottom of case. Not the original but a close facsimile to the original. It seems like a lot of these are missing from units that I've seen. Hard to tell the difference between the original and the reproduction.

Side view opposite to the power cord.

Chassis label which is a reproduction to the original. In some repects a little better than the original, but not exact. Most of the original units out there have missing labels or they are torn, flaked off or stained. This one has been glued down with a water based glue stick and can be removed without damage with a little effort since both sides have been clear coated with matte enamel. Originally at the factory the cord to the left was either routed throught the label or off to the side. The cord is better through the hole, but didn't want to poke a hole through the label so it was placed a little to the right.

Bottom of chassis with speaker and tubes attached. The tubes are NOS (new old stock) and have never been used. The tube sockets have been deoxidized and retensioned. The magnetically shielded speaker was made in Germany and came with a two year warranty. The original speaker brackets have been replaced with heavy gauge iron rod that has been baked at a high temperature with an oil coating resulting in a polymerized finish. Very tough and corrosion free. The magnetic shielding is unnecessary, but is useful as a heat shield. The cone is poly coated. A better speaker than the original Alnico one in most respects, but not all.

The original pieces have been re-vulcanized through a special process UserX developed more than 20 years ago. Others have copied the idea, but never got the exact details to produce a superior product.

Bottom of chassis. Speaker output transformer has been rubber coated where leads come out of the windings. This will keep the connectors from getting weak and eventually breaking off. A common problem avoided. Also, connectors have been crimped on between components to make the unit easier to work on.

The cord and plug are new. The plug is as close to the original as possible. Interestingly, if you squeeze the blades together you can unhook the cord from the plug. The cloth covered wires have been rubbed with colored wax to strengthen the insulation. The PVC covered wires have been coated with a special chemical conditioner in order to keep the insulation from getting brittle.

Ultra smooth metallic finish deck with some attachments. Unlike the original operation the on/off switch does not rub the deck. The original tonearm rest is spring loaded so that the tonearm can rest without coming loose during travel. Originally very tight and hard to operate without both hands. This one had a break in it and has been repaired and modified slightly so that the tonearm can be set down with one hand with ease. Operates better now than when it was new.

Another photo of the deck under different lighting conditions.

Bottom of the deck which like the rest of the bakelite case has been polished several times in order to give a very smooth and brilliant shine.

Bottom side of the handle which has new cork inserts. The old cork was too hard to be of any real use. The new cork softens abrasions from lifting the handle and tends to be a little quieter. This one is from a different unit and is the same except that the screws are not black.

This photo is a view of the chassis with the speaker and without tubes attached. Very difficult to find a speaker that would fit this unit and still sound as good or better than the original. The speaker here has much better specs and sounds a little bit better than the original.

The original Astatic crystal cartridge with sapphire needle has been replaced with a new ceramic one with diamond needle. It is most certainly superior to the original. The original wiring had three aluminum wires coming off the cartridge, one being a ground. This has been replaced with new copper wire and insulated near the brass connectors. The housing from the original cartridge was modified in order to accomodate the new cartridge and has been placed in accordance with the original needle location to ensure proper tracking. Notice the metal cantilever on the new cartridge. Most are made of plastic. This one is much better. Should get about 800-1000 hours of play before the needle would need to be replaced. The original sapphire needle may have only lasted about 200-400 hours before needing to be replaced.

Top view of the chassis. All capacitors and resistors have been replaced with superior modern ones. Very clean and nicely done.

Closeup of the volume side electronics which looks dirtier than it really is. A fair amount of time was spent cleaning every little crevice, but the flash from the camera and high resolution make it look dirty. You can't see this level of detail without a magnifying glass. The new electronic leads were wound into a small coil and tightly slipped over the leads of the old pieces. The soldering process avoided burning delicate pieces and a snap to remove if needed. A technique learned from veteran electronic techs who specialize in vintage audio. The volume potentiometer operates flawlessly since it has been deoxidized and lubricated.

Another closeup of the volume side electronics.

A closeup view of the power cord side electronics. The working space is somewhat tight and the photos make it look like pieces are touching each other when they really aren't. Special care has been taken to keep pieces spread apart.

The back of the original deck had copper plating loss exposing bare steel. For this reason it has been painted to keep the back from rusting. Each metal piece was painstakingly scrubbed, cleaned and lubricated. The motor is in excellent shape and shows no sign of bearing wear. The rotor was polished and lubricated on both ends. There is a small spring wire that pushes the tonearm that acts as a skating/antiskating device. This ensures proper tracking with less weight on the tonearm. This wire can be adjusted as needed.