Indian Audio Icons – Philips GA 242 Turntable

Previously in this series, we looked at the affordable portable record players by HMV that made vinyl records accessible to the Indian middle class in the ’60s and ‘70s. Although they were a gateway into the world of records for many, they left much to be desired in terms of audio quality.
HMV’s higher end offerings too tended to be integrated systems designed for casual users in mind, resulting in a lack of choice for more avid listeners wanting to move onto a more serious component system.
While high-quality solid-state integrated amplifiers from Cosmic, Sonodyne, etc… started to hit the market by the mid ‘70s, their turntable offerings tended to be rather expensive, and perhaps intimidating for the newbie Hi-Fi enthusiast – the solution to this vacuum in the market came around 1977, in the form of the Philips GA 242, no-doubt one of the most popular and iconic turntables in Indian audio history.

The Dutch Philips brand has been synonymous with high-quality consumer electronics in India since the 1930s. After Independence, the Indian division of the company went on to become one of the largest manufacturers of radio sets in the country. By the 1970s, Philips began introducing more Hi-Fi oriented products to both the Indian and international markets.

The Philips “Electronic” GA 242, introduced in India around 1977, was a belt-drive turntable with a servo-controlled DC motor. Until this point, most affordable turntables in the Indian market had relied on AC synchronous motors and idler drive systems that often exhibited, by modern standards, excess wow and flutter (speed fluctuation). The GA 242’s transistorised motor control circuity was a major improvement in this regard.

A very unique pick-up cartridge was provided with the turntable – The Philips GP 390. This was a ceramic type cartridge, but had an extremely low output requiring the use of a phono-stage. The moving-magnet phono input of an integrated amplifier was often used, ensuring correct RIAA equalisation on the cartridge output – an important step that was often neglected with the high output ceramic cartridges of cheaper turntables.




The GA 242 featured a good quality counter-weighted tonearm of a somewhat unusual design in typical Philips fashion. The head-shell accepted standard ½” mount cartridges, thus the ceramic GP 390 was often replaced with the magnetic EEI 100 or 700 cartridges that were available locally at the time.
Despite being a major upgrade over other low-priced turntables in the Indian market, the GA 242 will still a rather old-fashioned design by international standards. Philips phased out the model in favour of more up-to-date offerings in the mid-1980s, such as the “Direct
Control” F7213 – a belt-drive featuring a large sub-platter with closed-loop speed regulation, and the typical Philips design quirks. By then Japanese brands such as Pioneer and Technics were becoming more commonplace as import duties and restrictions were reduced under economic liberalisation policies. Philips, thus fell off the radar of modern-day audiophiles. Iconic vintage gear like the GA 242, however, serves as a reminder of the Dutch firm’s immense contribution to the development of high-fidelity audio.
Read more: Iconic Indian Hi-Fi Brands – The Story of Sonodyne
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