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New member Username: Vanguard1313Toronto, On Canada Post Number: 1 Registered: Oct-05 | I recently inherited my fathers turntable, an old Checkoslovakian model that he had bought some time in the 80's in Budapest. The make is tesla litovel - I don't know if that means anything to anyone, I certainly have never heard of them - aside from having tons of sentimental value, the thing appears to be a fairly nice record player - it certainly ways enough. Anyway, my problem is that I would like to use it but the sucker runs on 220v/50hz euro electricity and I live in Canada. I thought that I could just buy a transformer, but then I learned about the whole hz issue and discovered that a simple 220/110 stepdown won't be enough. I tried taking it to my local 'high end' audio store but the guy wanted an astronomical amount of money to convert it - something about machining new pulleys, changing the power supply, and switching out the motor. I said forget it, why pay someone else when I can do it on my own! I've been trying hard to find information about how to go about doing the conversion but have come up empty handed. Any ideas? I need to know about power supplies, pulley ratio calculations, motor types etc. Ideally I would like to make all the changes inside the machine, but I would be satisfied with just changing the pulleys to accommodate for the hz difference and using an external power transformer. That's it. Anyone have any ideas? |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6230 Registered: May-04 | "I tried taking it to my local 'high end' audio store but the guy wanted an astronomical amount of money to convert it - something about machining new pulleys, changing the power supply, and switching out the motor. I said forget it, why pay someone else when I can do it on my own!" " I need to know about power supplies, pulley ratio calculations, motor types etc. Ideally I would like to make all the changes inside the machine, but I would be satisfied with just changing the pulleys to accommodate for the hz difference and using an external power transformer." Quite obviously you can't do it on your own. You want someone else to do the work and you'll just plug it in. I doubt you'll find that sort of "help" in a forum. Good luck. I wouldn't lose the guy's phone number if you really want this to work properly. |
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New member Username: PlatoWoodbury, NJ Post Number: 7 Registered: Oct-05 | Some converters (not transformers!) do convert from 50 to 60 hz. Check into it. |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6258 Registered: May-04 | Depending on the motor type used in the table, this may not matter. |
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Bronze Member Username: Uncle_festerTransylvania Post Number: 14 Registered: Apr-05 | These were produced by the Teslar company that was based in Litovel in Czechoslovakia that normally traded under the Tesla brand. It manufactured anything from light bulbs to tape recorders, but was especially famous for its turntables that turned up in the west under a variety of names including National Aura and Thorens. When the company was broken up in the early 1990's the turntable manufacturing part continued and produced the original Pro-Ject turntables. The motors speed is very probably dictated by the mains frequency, but without details of the model, it is difficult to say how best to convert it to Canadian supply. It could be that purchasing an old Thorens deck on Ebay, based on a similar Tesla model, but which was made for 120volts/60Hz and swapping the internal bits may be the best (and cheapest) solution. Try using the 'contact' icon on the Pro-ject website, they may be able to help (though probably not, since they may well still have the Eastern European/communist block approach to customer service - but worth a shot!). Fester |
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Gold Member Username: Jan_b_vigneDallas, TX Post Number: 6264 Registered: May-04 | Good going, Fester. |