Retro-tech – Turntables for your Car

Before the iPod, before the Walkman, and even before 8-track existed – Car Record Players were taking your music wherever you go! And just like the iPad, they also could do only one thing at a time…

(image from RCA Annual Report 1959, via)

We’ll start with a retro expose of the car record player… and highlight a few other vintage devices along the way, which still retain their novelty and coolness factor for collectors. Don’t miss our previous articles on Coolest RetroTech.

Car audio equipment has changed a lot over the years, and what used to be cutting edge is now buried in the realms of yesteryear. But, somewhere along the way and unknown to a lot of people, a record player was actually starting to gain a foothold as a choice for your cruising music source. Yes, a record player.

Now, these were not your standard "lift the arm and place it on a record" type players. Instead these were specially designed units that did their best to keep playing music even when bumps in life came along. But no doubt fiddling with a record in a moving car did little to keep it pristine.

The problems of playing and maintaining the humble record soon led to alternatives for automotive based music, but we thought it would be fun to take a glimpse during that short amount of time in 1956 that the car record player almost became a staple thanks to Chrysler.

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