The most likely reason the speakers were replaced is that those Magnavox's had a high attrition rate. Open circuit voice coils were a common problem. It appears the your speakers were originally 12 inch types and the baffles have been changed to suit the 8 inch Rola Plesseys.

Famous Australian speaker researcher A.N.Thiele once worked for EMI (he was no doubt fiddling around with Magnavox's ).

OK ... now i'm wondering whether there are any cosmetic non-original features on this unit. I'm hoping it at least looks original.

Any info yet on which model this unit is ?

Hi guys. I'm also interested in the HMV radiogram. I'm tossing up between a 60s HMV Caprice and 60s Kriesler. Apparently the Krieslers had a more powerful amp and more speakers does anyone know if this is true &/or which unit is considered better? Thanks!

does anyone know if this is true &/or which unit is considered better?

I can't speak for HMV as I have no experience of that gear, but back in the day my parents were wedded to Kriesler gear (radios, radiograms and TVs) and having grown up around them I consider them solid performers.

The Kriesler 'Multisonic' radiograms are very nice units. They have tweeters and woofers and even mid-range speakers in some models. If I had the room and the inclination, I'd like one of those in my house.

That may not take a lot of refurbishing. I have our original 60's HMV Record (only) player an it has quite a few 630V styroseals in it.

Apart from being susceptible to damage when soldering, I have not had one fail. Metal rectifier: Different story.

A warning: I have had several turntables in the last few years that are having various issues, including motors slowing & stopping & change mechanisms freezing, all due to lubrication. Mainly the lack of it.

A lot of the soaps in grease have dried and one BSR is known to weld the platter to the bearings. Old grease has to be removed as it can chemically react and solidify the new soap (C.A.S.A).

Do service the moving parts, there is some info about, but around 500Hrs is mooted by some.


Marc

Hi all,

I know this is a quite an old post but really interesting.

I've just got my hands on a 1960's HMV Caprice which I need to get going. Looks like someone's already beaten me to replacing the power cord and all the paper caps. It's working well however there is a fault... The balance control seems to do very little in that when turned it will ever so slightly make one channel louder than the other with the speaker which should be off still producing plenty of audio. I've metered out the balance pot and it seems ok in that the central position has a 0 ohm resistance and when panned I get about 1k resistance in both directions either side. I've tried these both on the radio and gram inputs.
I'm thinking I have some high out of spec resistors somewhere?

Would anyone happen to have a copy of a schematic diagram for the HMV Caprice they would mind emailing to me? My email is displayed. It would really speed track my fault finding.

Thanks so much.

Here is a PDF service manual & service updates for the HMV N3-4Y Caprice. Also, it is confirmed the unit that is the original subject of this thread is indeed a HMV N3-4Z Lyric

HMV Technical Data Volume 72
HMV N3 4Y Circuit Diagram

Thank you so much! this is going to be a great help!