The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just for fun I scanned this late 1925 ad which displays the " NEW His Master's Voice" models introduced to play electrical recordings. These are the "saxhorn" models are they not? Unlike Victor in the US and Canada, HMV merely installed larger horns in their existing line of machines. No waste...no slashed prices like Victor which cleaned out the non-Orthophonics in the summer of 1925. But was that humpback model at the bottom of the ad really sold with a larger horn?

Jim

Yes, all these models were old cabinet designs into which new horns and soundboxes were fitted. Some were cabinets still in stock at the factory, and some were unsold machines returned by dealers for conversion. The new sounbox was the HMV No.4 which had a larger diaphragm than the No.2. The "odd man out" in the advert is the Model 511, a conversion of the Model 510 which featured the short lived Lumiere pleated diaphragm.

The term "Saxophone Horn" referred to the new horns which took up the entire depth of an upright floor standing machine. Anyone reading HMV's advertising might assume that they had invented such a horn. They did not. The Apollo "Deep Tone Resonator" was patented in 1920.

Some say that HMV introduced the saxophone horn because they were reluctant to pay Victor for the rights to the Orthophonic design. Whatever the truth, they soon fell into line with the Re-Entrant, their metal version of the Orthophonic.

I am a huge fan of these HMV #4 soundbox equipped machines, and I own several, including the 511 and the large sax horn machines. They are stellar performers, and they are the members of my collection that I probably play the most.