Link to an article I contributed to Michele Catalano’s I Have That On Vinyl website about the first record player I owned as a kid in the 70s, a portable model from RCA.
https://ihavethatonvinyl.com/essays/my-first-record-player/
Bedroom rising from an old growth tree
Bringing out the sawmill, cutting the 12 inch beams
Building a pattern, the reservoir to fill with dreams
Rings like Saturn telling their old story…
Big Thief “Red Moon”
I don't remember the brand of my first record player sadly. I do know that it was a hand me down from my dad. He went out and bought a Rotel kit - turntable and amplifier - with some Wharfedale speakers from a local electrical supplier. Spent what was then quite a bit of money. Sounded great as well but he would insist on only playing his large collection of country and western stuff which grated with me a bit. So he gave me his old stuff. It had 16, 33, 45 and 78 as the speeds of choice. Later, when I had my first part time job, he fronted up the cash for my own Marrantz system - turntable, amplifier and cassette deck paired with a couple of booming seventies JVC speakers (did I just give my age away there...?). I paid him back weekly and it took me about two years or something stupid. He didn't like my music nor I his. But we both recognised a fellow music lover when we saw one. Bless him.
You can imagine the battle of wills in our house:
or
I had a Rotel amp and turntable too until the buttons snapped on the cassette deck. The speakers are still in the loft. Didn't let my dad any where near it with his Slim Whitman and Jim Reeves records