LL Capella 5812 radiogram

[stiften]

From a good friend I have been given a Danish radiogram: LL Capella 5812 - vintage 1958 with a built-in Delphon turntable.



It is very stylish in teak finish but will be in need of some work to get going like in 1958. Also a bit more than I had expected at first glance.



I have not yet plugged the radio to the mains, as it has been standing for some years now. Slowly working up the voltage with a vario-transformer must be the way to start the diagnose.

I imagine some capacitors and valves must be worn out, but testing will show, with help from a good friend with the knowledge and proper testequipment.

The turntable seems a first glance to be in good condition - with a reservation about the auto stop.



It seems that the turntable for some strange reason have been forcefully removed from the cabinet, destroying the bakelite switch for the auto stop and ripping some wires apart.





If anyone knows a source for such a switch, I'd be glad to know, otherwise I will eventually bypass the auto-stop mechanism.

The Ortofon pickup-head is in need of a new A unit, but this is less of a problem, as I have these new old stock in a drawer.



So... Yet another project.

It will take some time to find the missing autostop-part, and perhaps it will also take some time before I get the funds to restore the radio, but I guess it will at some point be a fine restored piece of audio history from the long gone Linnet & Laursen factory.

[tnapsfoo]

Hans thats is very beautiful .....Good luck with the switch

[stiften]

Received a switch that seems to be a drop in replacement, so I hope I am now a step further. Greetings from Denmark.

[RR1957]

Hi Hans.

A great looking cabinet and surely something different
than I am used to see in Holland.
I hope you will make some pictures of the technique too....
Have a lot of fun with it.

Greetings from Holland
René

[ratfink]

Hello, nice turntable!
Is this an MC or MM system?
I think this was the first Ortofon MC from around 1950and the tonearm is called A 212 or so.
Greetings Dieter

[RR1957]

By the way:

http://www.grammofoon.com/Delphon/Delphon_GS5.htm



http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/linnet_kapella_5812.html

[stiften]

Yes, René. It is the two units combined, that is inside the nice cabinet.

And Dieter is right about the Ortofon MC cartridges (worn out A cartridges in AB headshells) and the A 212 tonearm.




There is quite some work and investments ahead, before the radiogram is working, but at least now I has the parts to make the mechanical parts of the turntable in working order. I also have a good spare A cartridge for shellac (I don't think it is such a good idea to play vinyls with the rudimentary A 212 plastic tonearm on the Delphon turntable).

[RR1957]

"I don't think it is such a good idea to play vinyls with the rudimentary A 212 plastic tonearm on the Delphon turntable"

Why not?
As long as you keep it doing with old fifties records and not the mint ones.
The hard vinyl is different from the soft vinyl after 1960/62 and more capable
to be used with heavier tracking force.
I play a lot with my Philips AG1005; singles and 25cm lp's (tracking force 6 gram).
Great fun.

By the way, Philips used the term 'Capella' also for the luxury radio's in Germany.
Like the one I use now: Philips BD663A ' Capella' (1957). Great sound for a radio.
As you see it on the pic, seven speakers is used with OTL (still mono of course).

[syncopeter]

As long as the stylus is in good condition 7-10 gram VTF shouldn't be any problem when playing 50s mono records. After all these discs were made when even the very best cartridges tracked at 10 gram or more. It wasn't until the advent of stereo that companies like Shure and Stanton developed cartridges that would track at lower VTF's because of the softer type of vinyl needed for those discs.
So as long as you limit yourself to pre-1958 discs you should be fine.

[calamean]

I had not noticed your post yet Hans Henrik. This is beautiful indeed!

[RR1957]

As long as the stylus is in good condition 7-10 gram VTF shouldn't be any problem when playing 50s mono records. After all these discs were made when even the very best cartridges tracked at 10 gram or more. It wasn't until the advent of stereo that companies like Shure and Stanton developed cartridges that would track at lower VTF's because of the softer type of vinyl needed for those discs.
So as long as you limit yourself to pre-1958 discs you should be fine.

Indeed, that is what I meant too.
The old mono records wear by breaking, the later stereo ones mainly by distortion.
On the old ones is (at the beginning of the fifties) said: unbreakable.
But with some force they can break, only not so easy as shellac.


 

[syncopeter]

Unbreakable only meant that they didn't break when you dropped them. The early hard vinylite records could be broken quite easily.
However they were made to withstand needle pressures up to 20 gram without serious wear. They were more vulnerable to bad handling than 78s, simply because the grooves were narrower and far closer to each other. That said, I had quite a number of 1949 Columbia jazz Lp's that still played perfectly, albeit with some surface noise because of bad handling. But I had one Benny Goodman Sextet Lp, quite probably transferred from the original lacquer masters that sounded better than any re-issue on LP or CD I heard.
Early Lp's can sound breathtakingly good. René knows all about it.

[RR1957]

Unbreakable only meant that they didn't break when you dropped them. The early hard vinylite records could be broken quite easily.
However they were made to withstand needle pressures up to 20 gram without serious wear. They were more vulnerable to bad handling than 78s, simply because the grooves were narrower and far closer to each other. That said, I had quite a number of 1949 Columbia jazz Lp's that still played perfectly, albeit with some surface noise because of bad handling. But I had one Benny Goodman Sextet Lp, quite probably transferred from the original lacquer masters that sounded better than any re-issue on LP or CD I heard.
Early Lp's can sound breathtakingly good. René knows all about it.

Indeed.
I couldn't agree more. 

[stiften]

"I don't think it is such a good idea to play vinyls with the rudimentary A 212 plastic tonearm on the Delphon turntable"

Why not?
As long as you keep it doing with old fifties records and not the mint ones.
The hard vinyl is different from the soft vinyl after 1960/62 and more capable
to be used with heavier tracking force.
I play a lot with my Philips AG1005; singles and 25cm lp's (tracking force 6 gram).
Great fun.

By the way, Philips used the term 'Capella' also for the luxury radio's in Germany.
Like the one I use now: Philips BD663A ' Capella' (1957). Great sound for a radio.
As you see it on the pic, seven speakers is used with OTL (still mono of course).

You have a wonderful sense of style. A very nice corner you have there!

My main interest as a record collector is shellac records, and as refurbishing the old Ortofon MC cartridges isn't free, and my funds are limited, I find it sensible to use most of my cartridges for microgroove and stereo in better tonearms than the A 212.

I guess the A 212 is not quite as gentle to the records as the better 212-arms from Ortofon, although I know, that for example a His Master's Voice (Triotrack in your part of Europe) can sound better than expected using an Ortofon A mono in the standard plastic tonearm.



At one point (while I was waiting for the auto stop switch)  I considered swapping the A 212 for a better tonearm, making it possible to use also lighter tracking C monos and SPU stereo cartridges, but I have now decided to keep the radiogram as original as possible.

[RR1957]

Thank you for the compliment!
It is a 'great fun corner'.

Triotracks were surprisingly good despite their small size.
I have had a couple of them in the past, to use them on different
tube radio's. Most of them in Holland were with a Ronette cartridge.
Later I changed the Triotracks for Garrard 4HF's, which I still use
on my fifties hifi set together with the Lenco L70.
The 4HF is mainly used for shellac records, with a Ronette TX88.



A successful cartridge for me on a Triotrack was an Astatic cartridge (stereo)
so I could play stereo records on it too, if it was necessary.

Glad to read you keep the Capella as original as possible.
Historically seen it has its purpose today.