*nearly* eliminating blast/rattle on Edison reproducers
Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2017 7:02 am
For those of you that know me, and I mean....REALLY KNOW ME......I find subtle weird noises annoying. Very annoying. Like an 11yr old child weeping at the dinner table because they are too tired to eat the dinner you spent 2 hours preparing. To the extent that I lose sleep over the process of problem solving. In my own personal Edison cylinder reproducers I have been using silicone gaskets, as it is really the closest thing to the original gum rubber that allows the diaphragm to vibrate sufficiently, without clamping the life out of it between two pieces of hard rubber.
With the Edison Standard Speaker, Automatic, and Model C / H you will encounter what I call reflexive-blasting. This is what happens when sound energy travels off the cylinder, through the stylus bar and linkage and meets the diaphragm. If the diaphragm isn't able to match the low/mid band frequencies.....by vibrating and converting the signature to compressions and rarefactions of air (sound).....it has to go SOMEWHERE. And what we encounter is the mechanical energy finding other paths to travel......usually sounding out of the wire linkage and sapphire bar itself (sapphire bounce). If the diaphragm isn't allowed to reproduce the frequencies, the sound energy itself must dissipate elsewhere, usually with uncomfortable results. This is stuff that Lieutenant Bettini not only knew about and understood, but was second nature to his inventive thinking. Much like asking Nicola Tesla or Charles Steinmetz why AC travels further down a copper wire than DC. To them, a Ritz cracker. To some of us, a whack in the head with a frozen pot roast.
SO! back to my rant. Stay with me here, because what I have devised as a solution is actually very simple, and my early holiday gift of phono-tinkerage to you.
The biggest offender for blasting is the Edison Automatic. It's glass diaphragm is about as intolerant as your Swedish grandmother of Paul Whiteman 78s and your autographed photo of Tom Stacks smoking. What I have devised is the use of capillary surgical tubing in a SINGLE PIECE configuration. Look at the first picture.....the gasket surrounds the glass diaphragm like the letter "C.". Not only does this method keep the diaphragm centered in the reproducer body, but the material itself is thin, so it fits in the reproducer body nicely, and isn't thicker than the original gaskets. On brown waxes, it plays back better than anything I have ever used. AND, it works miracles on the copper alloy diaphragms of later model Edison reproducers.
THE ISSUE is installing it. The tubing is 1mm wide, and I have engineered a way to cut a slot in it uniformly, along the natural inside curvature of it. Handling a glass diaphragm, while seating this stuff around the edge is a struggle, even for me (now that I might need bifocals...........BOLLOCKS). And could result in cutting yourself or cracking the diaphragm.
This isn't an upgrade for those with low tolerance levels for fine motor skills. The material is 1mm OD .5mm ID silicone tubing. I have a jig to cut the slot in it. I will post further photos of a simplified method for doing this next week. Aside from replacing the old rubber with this stuff on your diaphragm, it is also a good time to rotate your sapphire to a new facet (Model C / H), or replace your sapphire with a new one if your original one has a flat on the tip of it (Standard Speaker / Automatic).
IMPORTANT: when installing the reproducer top (Automatic) or lock ring (Model C), only install to feather tightness. DO NOT CLAMP IT DOWN HARD. You just want to seal the edges, not clamp down on it, otherwise the diaphragm won't be able to "breathe."
With the Edison Standard Speaker, Automatic, and Model C / H you will encounter what I call reflexive-blasting. This is what happens when sound energy travels off the cylinder, through the stylus bar and linkage and meets the diaphragm. If the diaphragm isn't able to match the low/mid band frequencies.....by vibrating and converting the signature to compressions and rarefactions of air (sound).....it has to go SOMEWHERE. And what we encounter is the mechanical energy finding other paths to travel......usually sounding out of the wire linkage and sapphire bar itself (sapphire bounce). If the diaphragm isn't allowed to reproduce the frequencies, the sound energy itself must dissipate elsewhere, usually with uncomfortable results. This is stuff that Lieutenant Bettini not only knew about and understood, but was second nature to his inventive thinking. Much like asking Nicola Tesla or Charles Steinmetz why AC travels further down a copper wire than DC. To them, a Ritz cracker. To some of us, a whack in the head with a frozen pot roast.
SO! back to my rant. Stay with me here, because what I have devised as a solution is actually very simple, and my early holiday gift of phono-tinkerage to you.
The biggest offender for blasting is the Edison Automatic. It's glass diaphragm is about as intolerant as your Swedish grandmother of Paul Whiteman 78s and your autographed photo of Tom Stacks smoking. What I have devised is the use of capillary surgical tubing in a SINGLE PIECE configuration. Look at the first picture.....the gasket surrounds the glass diaphragm like the letter "C.". Not only does this method keep the diaphragm centered in the reproducer body, but the material itself is thin, so it fits in the reproducer body nicely, and isn't thicker than the original gaskets. On brown waxes, it plays back better than anything I have ever used. AND, it works miracles on the copper alloy diaphragms of later model Edison reproducers.
THE ISSUE is installing it. The tubing is 1mm wide, and I have engineered a way to cut a slot in it uniformly, along the natural inside curvature of it. Handling a glass diaphragm, while seating this stuff around the edge is a struggle, even for me (now that I might need bifocals...........BOLLOCKS). And could result in cutting yourself or cracking the diaphragm.
This isn't an upgrade for those with low tolerance levels for fine motor skills. The material is 1mm OD .5mm ID silicone tubing. I have a jig to cut the slot in it. I will post further photos of a simplified method for doing this next week. Aside from replacing the old rubber with this stuff on your diaphragm, it is also a good time to rotate your sapphire to a new facet (Model C / H), or replace your sapphire with a new one if your original one has a flat on the tip of it (Standard Speaker / Automatic).
IMPORTANT: when installing the reproducer top (Automatic) or lock ring (Model C), only install to feather tightness. DO NOT CLAMP IT DOWN HARD. You just want to seal the edges, not clamp down on it, otherwise the diaphragm won't be able to "breathe."