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VE 10-69 E

RARITY: ¤¤¤¤   VALUE:  ¤¤¤ 

The VE 10-69 was an automatic record-changer console with fully electronic amplification, installed in an elegant Early English cabinet, in the buyer's choice of light or dark stained oak. It was a phonograph-only model, without radio. Introduced in the fall of 1928, the 10-69 offered Victor's 'Second Generation' automatic record changer (right) in combination with a tube amplifier and paper-cone speaker. The concept of a fully-automatic record changer was still relatively new in 1928; Victor had introduced their first-generation design with the VE 10-50 a year earlier, but this pioneering changer system was too costly to produce and took-up a great deal of space, requiring a very large cabinet. The new (second-generation) changer was a lower-cost and more compact system, but did not meet with much success. The new design was prone to mechanical problems and was arguably much harder on records than the earlier version; completed discs were literally "flung" off the turntable and into a storage area when each side was completed. This same second-generation record changer was also used on the VE 10-35 and 9-56 models as well as a few others, but after experiencing slowing sales and ongoing reliability complaints, the new design was quietly discontinued from production by January 1929.

The 10-69 models were manufactured only during the final few months of 1928, but this product remained in the Victor catalog through 1929. Sales of this model (still in dealer stock) remained very sluggish, and by the following year, the 10-69 was being sold at a significant discount from list price. When The Depression hit in October of 1929, sales of expensive machines ground to a halt.  By that time, RCA had purchased Victor and was evaluating what to do with the vast amount of unsold inventory sitting in the factory. Per factory data, Victor made around 1,800 10-69's expecting the same type of success they had experienced with the VE 10-50 and other automatic-changing models; however these optimistic sales figures were never realized, in part due to the unpopularity of Victor's Second Generation changer system. A company-wide recall of the unreliable changer mechanisms was undertaken shortly after the product was introduced. When the changers were upgraded and returned to the owner or dealer, new data plates were issued for the machines, and serial numbers were re-started at s/n 6330. So if your machine has a serial number above 6330, it has the updated changer. If it is prior to 6330, your machine was never sent back to the plant for the necessary recall work. However, many serial numbers were skipped prior to 6330, so it is nearly impossible to confirm the total factory output of this model.

In 1930, RCA promptly designed a less-complicated 'Third Generation' changer, and paired it with the latest RCA radio, and put this new package into the unsold 10-69 cabinets; it was then sold as the RCA "RAE-68" at a significantly lower price.  It is also possible that dealers and distributors returned thousands of unsold 10-69 models to the factory, where they were gutted and updated with the new RCA radio/phonograph system. Based on the serial numbers of surviving examples, it appears that a very limited number of 10-69's were actually sold over the course of a few years, while the predominant remainder were converted into RAE-68 models. Consequently, making sense of surviving serial numbers is nearly impossible. 

The original 1928 selling price of the VE 10-70 was $850.00, which equates to almost $13,000.00 in today's money. However, it is unlikely that very many buyers actually paid this much for this model, since it was being discounted shortly after introduction. While collectors today prize these early automatic changer models, the complexity of repair and required maintenance of these machines limits the current market valuation.

The current survival database shows the earliest existent 10-69 to be S/N 562 and the latest to be S/N 9945.    

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