The X-100

This page includes facts and photos about the Gerinvex X-100.

What are the facts about the X-100?

Not a lot in my view! I've never seen any hard evidence that these machines existed.

The only fact I've found relating to X-100 is the copy of an X-100 brochure page featured in Franz Urs Linder's 'Swiss Jukebox Art' book.

The brochure is promoting the X-100 'background music player' and the page apparently shows a very clear photo of an X-100 Discomatic.

But look closer. This photo is a mock-up.

You'll see that the Discomatic logo has been air-brushed off the front panel and there is a white block covering the Discomatic legend on the control panel. There's also no mention of Gerinvex or Discomatic anywhere in the brochure text, though perhaps there was an additional page of contact detail.

If the X-100 didn't exist, what type is the Discomatic in the brochure?

I believe it is an EL-POR 'V4+', the final evolution of the V4 build version as the example in the photo features all the incremental minor changes that took place in the life of the EL-POR V4.

OK, so maybe that defines the X-100 as an EL-POR with a set of minor changes to refresh the design and a change in model number to make it look like a 'new' player?

I don't believe so. I do know from my serial number records that these changes were not made at one time. They were introduced progressively through the later life of the EL-POR V4 starting with the 'AR' serial number range and largely completed by the end of the 'AX' serial numbers.

If these minor build changes were the reason for the model name changing from EL-POR to X-100, then at what point did the changeover take place? Was it when the lid hinges changed? Was it when the buttons changed? Was it when the cable tidy changed? I do know that these changes had started by the 'AR' serial number range and were largely in place by the end of the 'AX' serial numbers.

Why did the brochure exist?

There could be a few reasons.

Maybe as the seventies progressed there was reduced interest in the Discomatic for home use? Other formats such as hi-fi cassette had come along and cassette mixtapes offered a much more compact alternative to a Discomatic and a box of singles.

Gerinvex had also moved on and become better established as a manufacturer of jukeboxes.

So, perhaps Gerinvex were hoping to sell the X-100 through the same commercial channels as their full-size jukeboxes? The brochure description of background music player doesn't seem to be aimed at the home user.

The brochure also claims a total playing time of 12 hours from 7" LPs. That works out to approximately 9 minutes per side. This would make sense of the two speed pulley fitted to later Discomatics. If it were possible to buy a rack of 7" background music records that played at 33rpm then a player could be switched to 33rpm to play that rack.

12 hours unattended continuous play would have been hard to match with any tape player at that time.

There must be some examples of X-100?

If there are then I've never seen any. I've serviced many Discomatics that look exactly like this and also own some, but whilst these machines look like the X-100 in the photo their basic construction is identical to the final, V4 EL-POR. I've seen several V4 EL-POR with a nameplate on the back panel to confirm their identity. These all have Discomatic logos, not blank panels like the X-100 photo in the brochure.

Why the name X-100?

It could be that Gerinvex had originally planned to extend the cabinet and rack and release a 100 play version of the Discomatic for background music use. They did already have 100 play and 120 play mechanisms in their jukeboxes after all.