The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Due to some moving at home, my music room has become our dormitory, and my collection of records has been moved to a small study room. The Old Queen of the music room, an HMV194, still stands on its place, now the dormitory. So I've lost the comfort of listening to records directly from the shelf to the turntable. Now I must do a selection of records and take them to the dormitory for listening. Not a bad solution, but you loose the immediacy of taking one record from the shelf as soon as something suggests you another song.
Due to this, and as the small study has no room for the Old Queen, I'm planning to use a portable directly beside the shelf for that casual, impromptu, non-programmed listening.
And my first thoughts go for the superb HMV102. But looking out on the web for good sound portables, I've found that the Decca models 120/130 have a similar sound, if not better, as also have the Columbia 202 and similar models. I'm most intrigued by YouTube videos featuring these machines, such as
https://youtu.be/xl9BN2HMuwE
or any of the videos published by organlover1968 using his Decca 120. Particularly these have an astonishing sound. I don't see where the microphone is placed, but the sound he gets is marvellous.
So my question for the experts, or the opinion poll I'm starting, as you may prefer, is this:
Which its the best portable ever...? Which machine do you advise me to use for listening in a small narrow room, one wall completely covered by the shelf with 78s (5x5 feet, 25 square 32" cells containing 110 sleeved records each, the famous IKEA Expedit model)...?
In any case, thanks for your advice.

Would a smaller tabletop work? If so I'd go for something like an HMV 130.

You may want to have a look at this site:
http://myvintagetv.com/updatepages1/cha ... tables.htm

The HMV 102 and the Decca 130 are, in my opinion, the best portables ever made. The Columbia 202s are superb machines, but they nearly all suffer from pot-metal fatigue at the point where the base of the arm joins the internal horn, causing the arm to flop about, or break off entirely. The same problem is present in the 202's little brother, the 201, and the 112a.

The Decca 120 and 130 differ significantly only in their motors, the 120 being single spring and the 130 double.
They have the largest acoustic system of any portable I know of, and when fitted with the later Decca Meltrope design soundbox will play as well as most table models.

If you decide on a table model, most collectors rate the HMV Model 130 and it's rare successor the 150 easily the best ever made.

I love my 2-65. The best thing about it is that it plays acoustic records just as well as it plays electrical ones.

I am continually delighted by the sound of my Victor 2-65. Not as much bass as the standing machines, of course, but there is an added clarity. It's a great machine - and probably easier and cheaper to find than the wonderful HMV machine.

The Vic ortho portables sound great and work well, but suffer from weighing way too much and having potmetal back brackets.

The Columbia v-t portables also sound great, as well as also weighing too much - but some (eg, the 163) have beautifully finished interiors with gold-tone trim and richly-finished wood. There is also a clever way of extending the horn, using the opened lid and large flat metal lid braces on both sides to focus the sound and reflect it forward.

Some of the Deccas have a cool reflector bowl in the lid, which is super clever, and good looking.

But hands down my faves are the HMV 101 and 102, which sound incredibly good, are well-made and durable, are compact and space efficient, and most importantly weigh lighter than the competition.

I see your opinions... Thanks for the link to the portables' analysis, it's very interesting.
Seeing it all, it seems that the hmv102 is a very good and very well designed machine, for its sound and lightness, and the readiness to find replacement parts, etc. It is difficult to point any other better....
The only drawback i can put on the 102 is about its short tonearm and bad alignment; at the outer rim of 12" records it is very skewed. This maybe can be corrected somehow, making a rubber connector with a compensating tilt.... Not difficult if you use silicone. This worries me for damaging the records.

The HMV 102 is certainly a good all round machine and is very easy to find, but most portables were not designed with 12 inch records in mind. Many in their old age struggle to maintain speed through a 12 inch record without rewinding.

If you have the space a quality cabinet gramophone, by which I mean one whose horn occupies the full depth of the cabinet, will play your 12 inch records better than any portable. Because of the space they occupy they can be surprisingly good value for money.