Christie AW3 and AW3R (have not seen the latest ones, though)

I have not worked with but think I would like:

Kinoton
Strong (current model)

I have not worked with but think I would hate:

ORC Super Platter

Platters I hate
Eprad
Applied Energy (Rank)
Xetron/Neumade
Wassman
CFS

Second thought all platters are evil it should all be on reels anyway

Also during college, two of our theatres used the Simplex Airomatic (I am pretty sure that was the name). Yes they were very noisy and did produce heat. We had several comments from customers that sat in the back of those two theatres of hearing either airplanes or sirens. It wasn't until about six months before I left that they retired those things and put in two more used Specos.

My only experience with Christie was not very good. It was a new location and we were getting a lot of thrown prints. I was not there long enough to get the glitches out of them.

1) Teco - very reliable, tight winding platters. Variacs do go bad from time to time. Aside from that, no problems.

2) Eprad - Why were these even made? I had the model with the damn pole in the middle at past theatres. You had to take up on the top platter if you planned to move anything on Thur. night, otherwise, you broke it down on 6k's and spun it back up.

3) Christie AW's & AW3's. Didn't like them. They were older models and the threading pattern seemed to be a big PITA, IMO. I was (un)lucky enough to have a five tier system feeding two houses in Wilmington. I hated that thing with more than a passion. Rollers on the floor, on the wall, on the cieling. It simply left too much room for error, IMO. Also had a brief experience wit the mini-winds. I *believe* these were AW2's?

4) Strong - Probably my favorite out of all platters I've ever used. I have the microswitch variety now (Model 35-AP3) Replaced a few micro-switches in my time, but that only takes 5 minutes to do. The only drawback I see to these platters in when a microswitch DOES go bad DURING the show, you have to spin the platter manually. I've had this happen a total of 4 times maybe in the last 10 years.

5) ORC - I have no clue what model they were. They had a spring loaded payout head in the 'brain' that had a little pin which could be moved into one of 5 different holes. I'm guessing this allowed for the payout speed adjustemnt? I was 16 at the time and can't remember many specifics about these units. I don';t recall having a lot of problems with them however.

Grade "B": Xetron XNR-335/535 of the early 1980's vintage, as long as the drive pucks are up-to-date, and the reed switches have been replaced with micro switches. Would be very happy to have.

Grade "C": Strong/Potts A-3. Would be happy to have.

Grade "D": LP Associates. It certainly is not a bad machine. I do like them, but never had one.

Grade "E": CFS or the older POTTS. I would accept them if I had to. I can keep them running without too much problem.

Grade "F": Any platter with the ORC name...Not in my booth!

Grade "0" (Ziltch, Zero, Zip) Eprad. Not a chance!

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged

 |  IP: Logged