The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I stumbled upon this site, profiling a number of models--Victor, Columbia, etc., produced and sold in Japan-- and thought I'd pass it along:

Original Japanese Version -- http://www6.atpages.jp/omat/pages/grammophon.html
Google Translated Version -- https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... 5iA#VV1_90 (Not the greatest translation, but you can still cull some information from it.)

I noted some very interesting differences between the American originals and the Japanese versions, especially, the horn's design, and cabinetry.

OrthoFan

Thanks for sharing it!

Despite a few translation mistakes, it's a great read. Thanks Ortho Fan for posting.

Fascinating site. Thanks for sharing.

Barry

OrthoFan wrote:I stumbled upon this site, profiling a number of models--Victor, Columbia, etc., produced and sold in Japan-- and thought I'd pass it along:

Original Japanese Version -- http://www6.atpages.jp/omat/pages/grammophon.html
Google Translated Version -- https://translate.googleusercontent.com ... 5iA#VV1_90 (Not the greatest translation, but you can still cull some information from it.)

I noted some very interesting differences between the American originals and the Japanese versions, especially, the horn's design, and cabinetry.

OrthoFan

Hello,

Kei Ikeda who is very famous for his knowledge about acoustic phonographs in the world published in the magazine Record Collectors about Japanese Orthophonic Victrolas, most of which are table top models. Except VV 1-90 and VV 1-91, which have wooden reentrant horns, others have all wooden straight horns. I used to own VV 1-50, which has low level parts like the sound box without the spider on the diaphragm. I used to own a Japanese-made table-top model made by Paragon, which had a tar covered inside horn, which produced quite good sound.

Hideki

Thank you Ortho Fan.. That documents one of the portables manufactured by RCA Victor the 2-12 or j2-12 in japan. I knew it was manufactured in Japan but I also believe it was manufactured in Mexico or somewhere in South America as the 2-12. Only one left is the one with RCA on the record holder. Tom B

Many thanks for posting this excellent resource. Information on "overseas" Columbias has always been hard to find. Here is my machine :

What really amazes me is the style of the horn installed in the J VV-1-80, etc. -- all those angular bends, with no attempt made to taper the flare. You'd think it would have sounded like "carp." (I deliberately misspelled that...) But, based on some of the videos I've spotted --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVzW9fOJmH8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR4myklkYNs

-- it seems to sound on par with any well made portable of the era.

OF