I want to qualify this post on the "sound" of 1950s jukes. I own some
Wurlitzer and Seeburgs and find they sound nostalgic. 45rpm records
have pops and ticks and the speakers in these older jukes don't have
much high-end clarity. The cabinets tend to resonnate mid-bass
frequencies and given the lack of damping, you can get rattles.
Re-caping the amp is a good start. The tube amps have what some people
call a warm sound. Tube amps exhibit soft clipping and tend to have
even order harmonic distortion which is more pleasing than odd-ordered
harmonics. I have a Wurlitzer 2500 with a stereo tube amp. I simply
re-capped the amp and changed the needle. It sound fine. I think it's
a bit 'boomy' in the bass, but you can't expect 1950s or early 1960s
technology to sound like a modern stereo. It's a different sound.
It's a time capsule for me ... it takes me back. It's like asking is
B&W better than Color for movies. I have a great new stereo with CDs
and I also have a loaded MP3 player, yet I love my jukes. They're just
different animals for me. I have one in my office, one in the garage,
and one in the gameroom (basement).
The Seeburg R has five speakers, a nice well designed mono-amp, and a
good mono pick-up. I think Seeburgs are better engineered than
Wurlitzers of the same year. If you're not too worried about being
original, you could swap out the speakers with more modern ones. You
could also re-cone them - there's a guy in Colorado Springs that's
good. You could also consider upgrades to the tonearm pick-up wires.
I personally used good capacitors when I rebuilt the amps and in some
cases I replaced some of the critical wires with more modern ones.
So ... among the Seeburgs, I like the HR100R. For a stereo box, I like
the Wurlitzer 2500S because it's inexpensive, sounds nice, and looks
decent. You can still see the mechanism and it's height (somewhat low)
was ideal for my toddlers. I also have a Wurlitzer 1700 which I think
looks great, but honestly doesn't match the Seeburg in terms of sound.
If you've listened to earlier Wurltizers (like the 1015 bubbler) with
original 78s, you sometimes wonder why people pay so much money for
them. I agree they're works of art, but you don't buy them for the
sound.