Which do you like best? 2 min or 4 min cylinders.

[Victrolacollector]

For the cylinder collectors and listeners. Which do you prefer 2 minute or 4 minute cylinders? I have both 2 and 4 minute cylinders and find myself more into the 4 minute cylinders because the play time is longer and there is a lot more of the material that I like on the 4 minute format. I think of the 2 minute cylinder as more of a historic format from the early beginnings of recording. I do enjoy the reproduction recordings of Enrico Caruso which was released by Norman at Berlin Phonograph Works.

[FellowCollector]

Mmmm...that's a tough question. I enjoy both equally I'd say. Some 2 minute wax cylinders have early recordings that are simply incredible (especially some of the brown wax!). The unfortunate part is you have to get up and down a LOT more often to change the cylinder. The four minute cylinders have some great stuff too!!

Doug

[Wes K]

I started with 2 minute indestructibles, so I am a bit biased

[PeterF]

Way back at the beginning, upon receiving my very first four minute machine, I excitedly played a four minute cylinder for my wife, for the very first time.

After the song had completed, she turned to me and quietly said: “I never knew four minutes could be so long.”

I am no longer allowed to play cylinders in the house when anyone else is home. A pox on the head of Byron G. Harlan!

[Chuck]

The 2 and 4 minute cylinder formats are two
distinctly different things.

The each have their own unique set of distinct
sonic characteristics.

Although a pristine black wax Amberol 4 minute
cylinder or a pristine Blue Amberol can sound
simply amazing when played on a high quality machine
with a reproducer that is in proper shape, my personal
observation is that there's still nothing quite like
a shiny, like-new 2 minute Gold Moulded cylinder
for sound that packs a real punch!

After playing several commercial mass-produced
2 and 4 minute cylinders, it always makes a very stark
comparison to then play some home-recorded new
brown wax.

Making home recordings is where the older 2 minute
format really performs.

[gramophone-georg]

Way back at the beginning, upon receiving my very first four minute machine, I excitedly played a four minute cylinder for my wife, for the very first time.

After the song had completed, she turned to me and quietly said: “I never knew four minutes could be so long.”

I am no longer allowed to play cylinders in the house when anyone else is home. A pox on the head of Byron G. Harlan!

LMAO. Are our wives related?

[gramophone-georg]

Way back at the beginning, upon receiving my very first four minute machine, I excitedly played a four minute cylinder for my wife, for the very first time.

After the song had completed, she turned to me and quietly said: “I never knew four minutes could be so long.”

I am no longer allowed to play cylinders in the house when anyone else is home. A pox on the head of Byron G. Harlan!

LMAO. Are our wives related?

[PeterF]

Well, if your wife is the most lovely kind and beautiful woman in the world, with impeccable taste in men, they might be identical twins separated at birth.

[Indestructible]

I personally like the 2 minute and yes I also think they are more of a historical listening. But when people and guests want to hear a machine I always put on a snazzy Blue Amberol for them to hear . An old brown wax 2 minute to a non enthusiast would be boring, I find them fascinating .

[Roaring20s]

Which do I like the best? 2 min or 4 min cylinders.

I like music in both formats, but will not listen to music I do not like. So in that aspect the format becomes irrelevant.
As to the wives reactions, I can feel their pain when 4 minutes, even 2 minutes, seem endless!

James.