For me, my lateral acoustic discs actually sound best on my Edison C-200 Adam with a Union lateral adapter. (For verticals below 14" diameter, I use a Jewel adapter, which tracks impeccably and has considerable range.) The advantage of the best acoustic soundboxes - and especially in the UK retrofitting soundboxes became almost an obsession with some gramophiles in the late teens and early twenties - was their clarity in the upper frequency range, while a well-designed horn like the Edison's actually lends some depth to the tone as well. On my Swiss exposed-horn machine I use an Edison-Bell "Regulator" soundbox, which is not only very responsive but has an inset dial with 5 different apertures to control volume. That element is not wholly successful, as you really only hear a big difference between the largest and smallest settings, but it's a very bright yet full-sounding soundbox. PC ________________________________________ From: phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org [phono-l-boun...@oldcrank.org] on behalf of Andrew Baron [a...@popyrus.com] Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 11:15 PM To: Antique Phonograph List Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Orthophonic vs. Electric?
Thanks Greg for this wonderfully concise and broadly comprehensive treatise. Andrew Baron Santa Fe On Mar 15, 2014, at 6:27 PM, Greg Bogantz wrote: > Here's the short history of the fidelity of recorded sound: The earliest > acoustic recording technology was VERY midrangey with no bass and no treble > being recorded into the grooves. Likewise, the earliest acoustic players > were also VERY midrangey and incapable of reproducing bass or treble. When > you listen to an early acoustic record on an early acoustic player, they > don't really "complement" each other so much as they do the same damage to > the sound. They sound like a loud telephone. That is, you get a VERY, VERY > or double-midrangey sound. The orthophonic era brought with it much more > extended and flatter frequency response in both bass and treble, both in the > recording equipment and in the acoustic playback. The net effect of playing > an early electric recording on an acoustic orthophonic player is one of > flatter, more extended frequency response. In short, a BIG improvement over > the pre-ortho days. If you play an acoustic record on an ortho player, it > sounds le ss midrangey and blatty than when played on an early player. Some people don't like this sound and consider it "not authentic", but it is actually flatter response than the "complementary" noise you get from a pre-ortho player. Likewise, if you play an electric recording on an old acoustic player, you get a more blatty midrangey sound than if you play it on a more modern player. > > The earliest electronic players were actually worse sounding than the > contemporary ortho acoustic players. The Victor 9-40, for example, which has > both ortho acoustic as well as early electronic playback sounds better in the > ortho acoustic mode than it does in the all-electronic mode. The reason is > that the earliest electronics and speakers were pretty primitive. The early > Victor electric players were odd designs in that they used an electric > reproducer-driver that was amplified by the orthophonic horn. This would > have worked out better if the driver design was better, but the net effect > did not produce as good a fidelity as the contemporary all-acoustic players. > They will play loudly, but their frequency response is pretty poor. The > electronic players from most manufacturers were generally not very good until > about 1929. The Victor RE-45 of 1929 was a revelation to listeners back > then. It is vastly improved over the earlier designs, and it compares very > favorably with much more modern players. If you are a collector of 1920s vintage radios, made it a point to listen to a Victor RE-45 or RE-75 radio/phono combination. The same radio and speaker was also used the in the radio-only models R-32 and R-52. There was no finer sounding radio set or radio/phono made in 1929. Electric recording playback on one of these sets is genuinely satisfying. > > Greg Bogantz > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard" <richard_ru...@hotmail.com> > To: <phono-l@oldcrank.org> > Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 7:03 PM > Subject: [Phono-L] Orthophonic vs. Electric? > > >> I've never owned an orthophonic machine, but have recently been offered the >> chance to buy one (see other post), and I'm wondering if I should. My main >> concern has been one of sound quality; I've always suspected that acoustic >> records sound better on older, acoustic machines, and orthophonic/electric >> records sound best on electric machines. But this opportunity has me >> wondering: How do orthophonic/electric records sound when played on an >> orthophonic machine sound compared to when they're played on an electric >> machine (say, from the late 1920's or early 1930's)? All opinions are >> welcome, but what I'm really looking for is a comparison -- not just >> "better" or "worse," but how they're different. And how do older acoustic >> records sound on an orthophonic machine? (In my humble opinion, they don't >> sound all that great on an electrical machine.) Finally, if I were to add >> one orthophonic machine to my collection someday, which one would you >> recommend if my top consideration is soun d q >> uality? >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Phono-L mailing list >> http://phono-l.org > > > --- > This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus > protection is active. > http://www.avast.com > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > http://phono-l.org > _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.org ________________________________ This email message and any attachments may contain confidential information. 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