HMV ID

Discussions on Talking Machines & Accessories
schweg
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HMV ID

Post by schweg »

I don't see this one in the new book on HMV gramophones. Can anyone tell me what we have here & when it was produced?
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schweg
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Re: HMV ID

Post by schweg »

Oh wait- the HMV book is only acoustic machines. Sorry about that..

gramophoneshane
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Re: HMV ID

Post by gramophoneshane »

It's an HMV 520 from 1929/30. Quite a rare machine!

schweg
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Re: HMV ID

Post by schweg »

Thanks for the ID Shane. I appreciate your help on this one. I had no idea.

Steve

Lenoirstreetguy
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Re: HMV ID

Post by Lenoirstreetguy »

Here's a quick scan of ad ad for what I think is this machine...although it looks like a smaller model. They don't give a model number in the ad.

Jim
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gramophoneshane
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Re: HMV ID

Post by gramophoneshane »

That's the 520 Jim.
When introduced, the 520 was £75 in oak, & £80 in walnut, but by Oct 1930 they were reduced in price to £60 for oak & £65 for walnut.

*I just found this article in the Nov 1929 Gramophone magazine too

http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page/No ... GRAMOPHONE

I also came across this record sleeve ad online-
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HMV 520-gramophone-radio.jpg
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schweg
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Re: HMV ID

Post by schweg »

I finally got a new battery for the camera. Some additional pictures in case anyone is interested. There was lots of loose veneer and unfortunately 1 lost piece that I haven't replaced yet. Other than that, it appears to all be there. It still needs some cleaning in the back. For a little fella, it is really heavy.
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What's this black box with a "B" on it?
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gramophoneshane
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Re: HMV ID

Post by gramophoneshane »

Thanks for posting these Steve. You dont get to see these rare early HMV radiograms very often.
As you can imagine, these didn't sell in huge numbers like their Victor or Brunswick equivelants, and those that didn't get upgraded at a later date with more modern changers, simply became landfill once they stopped working. Their upright gramophone cabinet styling would have been very unfashionable within the first year or two of the 1930s, and with advances in radio receivers like the superheterodynes etc that quickly followed, along with price reductions due to the depression & more cost effective manufacturing & technology, I'm sure many owners would have opted to simple buy a new replaement, rather than bother with getting their very outdated 520 repaired.
Even it's replaement model, the 521, probably stood more of a chance, if only because of it's more acceptible modern styling, & unlike the big 3 piece Model 600, it wasn't a huge investment being discarded & replaced.

I hope you can keep us updated as it's restoration progresses. There's WAY more involved with these compared to a regular talking machine, but I'm sure all the hard work (& expense) will be rewarding in the end.
Once it's finished, it'd be interesting to hear how it compares to Victor & other equivelant US models.
Most of these early radiograms all sound pretty much the same to me, especially when similar tube counts exist, but phono motors, pick-ups & tracking etc seem to vary enormously from brand to brand.

Lenoirstreetguy
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Re: HMV ID

Post by Lenoirstreetguy »

Quite an elegant little machine, with it's deco doors. A lot of the early " electrical" radios...the early mains operated sets...got traded between 1935 and 1940 for an " all wave" model when short wave listening became quite the fad. Had I lived then I'd have been tempted to do the same...those 1934-38 sets are really superb.
Jim

condenser
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Re: HMV ID

Post by condenser »

Rather late to reply, but the black box houses the voltage setting arrangement transformer for the amplifier unit, as you may have gathered from the plug! The other black box is the "pot rectifier", a power supply for energising the field coil of the loudspeaker. Later of course the field coil was incorporated into the HT smoothing circuit, but they hadn't thought of that in 1929.

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