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Astra 5

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:47 pm
by chunnybh
Hello All,
Does anyone have any information on the Astra 5 soundbox. I believe Astra soundboxes and accessories were being made since the very early 1920's . I read somewhere that the Astra 5 was made using a patent from EMG.

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 12:48 pm
by HisMastersVoice
chunnybh wrote: I read somewhere that the Astra 5 was made using a patent from EMG.
It sure looks like it, at least!

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:50 pm
by epigramophone
Astra soundboxes were retailed by The Gramophone Exchange, and I have also read that they were built under license from EMG. The question is, why would EMG have entered into such an arrangement?

Here is a period advertisement for an earlier version of the Astra :

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:30 pm
by emgcr
Here are a few extracts from "The book of the gramophone" issued by The Gramophone Exchange Ltd giving some background to the general "Astra" products that company made available---presumably throughout the nineteen-thirties. It does not answer the question of exactly who was responsible for the detailed design of the latter-day EMG/Expert type of leaf-spring platform soundboxes which were offered but does refer to Mr Russell being the "inventor" of the earlier pressed silk variety pictured in Roger's 1925 advertisement extract.

Page 13 refers to the Number 5 Super Model having been "designed specially for The Gramophone Exchange by the greatest authority on acoustic soundboxes in this country". Is this a reference to Balfour Davey perhaps ? Clearly there had been many influences on soundbox design at that time including the work of Henry Seymour and Percy Wilson (amongst many others) but I wonder if it is known for sure to whom this reference specifically referred ?

The Super Model cost 50 shillings which was dramatically more expensive than the numbers 2 & 4 EMG models at 30 shillings but cheaper than the numbers 1 & 3 at £3 each---as advertised on page 15. The Number 3 Astra retailed at a more competitive 25 shillings. In passing, it is also interesting to observe that the Meltrope contributions were available for the substantially lesser cost of twelve shillings and sixpence.

It is worth noting that the Astra No.5 was designed without a tonearm clamp ring to be offered to customers with any type of gramophone---an omission which one would have thought might actually have reduced the appeal and general usability.

It seems reasonable to speculate that all EMG and Astra soundboxes may have been built in the same workshops or by the same craftsmen but exactly what the commercial arrangements were is perhaps information kept secret in contemporary days and now lost in the mists of time ? Maybe EMG were not able to secure cast iron patents on "their" soundbox design and were vulnerable to competition ? Certainly Michael Ginn continued to repeat the essential principles in the later Expert boxes begging the question as to who made those ?



Click on images to enlarge.

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2014 7:02 am
by emgcr
Here is an extract from a small publication "The Magnificent Music Machine" by Michael Ginn's son Joe in 1996 which sheds more light on the subject. The comment in relation to the lack of patents at that time is particularly interesting. Additionally, "the greatest authority" referred to above might well have been Percy Wilson ?

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 4:51 am
by Orchorsol
Fascinating, thanks to all for posting.

How does this one sound, Chunny?

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 10:10 am
by chunnybh
How does this one sound, Chunny?
It sounds as good as any 2-spring EMG or Expert soundbox. It's as least as heavy as a 4-spring especially with that solid mass where it connects to the tonearm. Pretty much identical to an EMG soundbox minus the Meltrope patent. That is it's drawback as it's not easy to fit it securely to a tonearm.
I wonder if Meltrope ever got any money for the use of their patent.
Thank you Graham for the uploads.

Re: Astra 5

Posted: Thu Sep 25, 2014 3:08 pm
by emgcr
The full details surrounding the story of EMG/Expert/Astra soundboxes are not precisely known but Frank James, author of the definitive and famous book on the subject “The EMG Story”, knows more than anyone and comments thus:


“It is my understanding that Horace Hill made the EMG and later, Expert soundboxes, but no one knows who actually assembled the early ones, based on the Exhibition.....I might hazard that they were designed and assembled by Henry Seymour, but it is only a guess. I know that Edward Creese assembled the EMG boxes, and later the Expert boxes, and I believe he did the basic tuning, which was fine-tuned by Dave Phillips.
As to the Astra No 5, I was told that these were made under licence to the Gramophone Exchange from EMG, but whether Horace Hill made these too I do not know.”


“Hill produced for EMG up to the split, but afterwards moved out from Grape Street, but he continued to make boxes for EMG, as I have been told, as he was all tooled up for them. I have never found a patent, nor seen reference to one anywhere, but licensing the design to the Gramophone Exchange would have been a gentleman's agreement I guess. After all, in those days there were still gentlemen !
That's all I know.........until someone discovers more ?”


Many thanks Frank and thank you Chunny for the original question which has prompted this clarification.