Unusual Portable Found At The Rose City Collectors Show

[startgroove]

This weekend last, Lori and I attended the OTAPS meeting on Saturday where we enjoyed the comraderie of fellow collectors, bought a few neat items and talked about the worlds problems. The next day, we attended the Rose City Collectors Show. To our joy, there were many nice phonographs available and tons of related items. We were a little slow getting into the buying spirit, so we missed a deal on a decent Columbia Imperial with an 11 panel nickel plated horn. However, since Lori has been gathering portable phonographs in recent years, we focused on the 3 or 4 that were there. A nice Victor VV-50 was priced at $150. We found a very interesting one called a Swanson. It features a wooden tone arm that has a butterfly volume control near the back opening. The tone-arm opening points into the left corner of the lid, so the lid then becomes a sort of horn. Another cool thing about it is the hidden spare needles compartments. The ID tag swings forward to reveal two compartments for new needles and one for used needles. The entire unit packs up into a moderate 11X13X8 inches case. Russie and Lori Ofria. Here are a couple of photos:

[SteveM]

Interesting. So how does the music get from the tonearm to what is presumably the horn underneath? Does it have a decent sound?

Hmmm ... I have an old reproducer with the aluminum diaphragm marked "Swanson." I just always assumed somebody had cut it out of a TV dinner tray

[Joe_DS]

As Swanson portable was one of the first machines I acquired when I started out in the hobby some 35 years ago. I was "negative five years old" at the time. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it!) I sold it about five years later, when I was zero years old .

I remember that the case was well made, and it had a very strong motor. Once I replaced the gaskets holding the diaphragm in place, it had a very nice, mellow tone, though not much volume, of course. The sound was reflected at the corner of the lid, and projected forward.

I've only seen a couple of these turn up since that time.

At $35.00 when new, in 1923 -- See: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 82,5215289 -- these weren't cheap machines.

Joe

[Joe_DS]

Interesting. So how does the music get from the tonearm to what is presumably the horn underneath? Does it have a decent sound?

Hmmm ... I have an old reproducer with the aluminum diaphragm marked "Swanson." I just always assumed somebody had cut it out of a TV dinner tray

Basically, all it is, is a free standing tonearm. The sound comes out from the end of the tonearm and is reflected against the corner of the lid.

The recessed area you see on the right side of the turntable is not horn "mouth," but a storage area for the tonearm, which is removable.

Joe

[startgroove]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've played several records so far and it seems to have plenty of volume, about as much as my VV-4. However, I note the volume control is not very linear, it seems to only have good range control at the end of rotation when closing, the first ½ of the rotation (starting from full open) seems to have little affect. Indeed it seems to have a strong motor, I didn't want to crank it all the way to the stop, but it played two records through on the test cranking. I also found that the discard needle cup is removable from the top and has an unusual long cylindrical shape. Cheers, Russie.