CJ Walker 55 Turntable

[gordonscobie]

I have one of these. I quite enjoy it. It has an Linn LVX arm and a Dynavector 10/5 cart on it. Does anyone else on here have this deck, and if so how do you find it? I ike the fact that it is solidly made. Not sure when it was produced from and to.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I had one many years ago when it was a current model, also with LVX arm. If you have one you'll be well aware of it's main "features" being almost all wood construction and a platter made from tufnol/paxolin. It was a good TT IMHO.
Early 80's was IIRC when it came out and there was another slightly cheaper model later on. Walker was importer and distributor for several brands going back to maybe late 60's before becoming a TT manufacturer. IIRC he ran it with his wife and the "CJ" was for Colin and Janet.

 

[Martyn Miles]

Very successful in their day, were the Walker turntables.
They were unusual in the fact they used a material called ‘Tufnol’ for the platter.
I saw one ‘in the flesh’ and thought it was well made.
The Reviewers of the day seemed to like it.

 

[Craig B]

I remember the C J Walker turntables well, as, unusually, there were two different dealers carrying the brand here in the early 80s.

IIRC, CJ55 was their first and most auspicious model, and was unusual not only for being mostly made from wood and wood composites, but also for featuring a 4-point coil spring suspension on a novel rectangular shaped frame sub-chassis. It was also a good looker in real tree veneer with a Linn LP12 like armboard (the latter more cleanly inset into the plinth top). Not long after, model CJ58 arrived with a cheaper vinyl clad plinth and featuring a take on the old AR T-shaped sub-chassis layout but in wood rather than metal. In some ways this model also seemed to be a nod to Systemdek IIX but with springs in compression rather than in extension. The Systemdek 'nod' continued with the release of CJ61, a wooden biscuit tin (hat box?) looking similar to Systemdek II (and Ariston RD40), less the turrets.

 

[Vinny]

FWIW, Tufnol is a UK brand/company.
They produced some of the very first engineering, primarily thermoset, plastics/composites, probably best known for their paper and formaldehyde resin, and cloth and formaldehyde resin composites. All of their products are currently very widely used across numerous industries.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

/\ It has several names and is what cheaper/older PCB's were/are made of in the form of SRBP, Single Resin Bonded Paper.

 

[Subito]

No Spinal Tap/Nigel Tufnel shout-outs here? Shocking...

 

[cobbers]

Had a CJ58 with an LVX many years ago and really quite liked it but the materials quality of the frame and subchassis was really rather poor

 

[Subito]

Many turntable owners fret about wow & flutter, Walker owners dread termites.

 

[cobbers]

Termites would starve in that fibreboard in the CJ58 frame there was so much air in it

 

[Chops54]

/\ It has several names and is what cheaper/older PCB's were/are made of in the form of SRBP, Single Resin Bonded Paper.

Paxolin?

 

[Vinny]

Paxolin?

Resin-bonded paper, a type of SRBP - S is synthetic. I'm not sure who owns the trade mark - it has been in existence for a very long time, probably pre WW2. The binder resin is in the same family as Bakelite.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Paxolin?

Yes.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

Resin-bonded paper, a type of SRBP - S is synthetic

Oops! You know when you hear something say 40 years ago and maybe misheard it and have been repeating it ever since!? That makes more sense and a swift google confirmed it

 

[Vinny]

The use of S - synthetic, probably reflects the antiquity of the product. Go back far enough and resin meant things like tree sap and not much more.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

The use of S - synthetic, probably reflects the antiquity of the product. Go back far enough and resin meant things like tree sap and not much more.

I thought "single" sounded odd but had so long ago (when I was 14 ish prob) accepted it without question that if I had to guess I would maybe have thought there was also a twin-pak resin used in another version....

 

[calorgas]

Does anyone else on here have this deck, and if so how do you find it? I ike the fact that it is solidly made. Not sure when it was produced from and to.

I have one, fitted with a Hadcock arm. I don't listen to vinyl much any more for various reasons but I do like the deck. It looks nice and like you say feels well made, plus very quiet in operation and so far has been totally fuss free.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

I'm vaguely recollecting that Walker were the distributor for Hadcock arms...

 

[Craig B]

I'm vaguely recollecting that Walker were the distributor for Hadcock arms...

Yes, and only a decade before, C J Walker & Co had signed on as distributor for a then new Scottish turntable called Ariston RD11, by ordering 40 units of same, after having encountered such at Harrogate in 1971.

 

[Taff63]

When I was a student I heard a CJ55 with Oddysey arm, Hafler pre/power amps and AR925 speakers at Moorgate Acoustics in Rotherham. Sounded bloody marvellous at the time.