Pathé Salon records

[briankeith]

Looking for a couple decent clean playable (not cracked) Pathé Salon cylinder records. Ok if the boxes are damaged and/or missing as I have plenty of those, but all my records have cracks or big chips. I want to see if this little open works machine can actually play an entire Salon record from start to finish. The spring is rather robust on this machine and can easily play two 2-minute cylinders without a re-wind. And it's very loud and clear compared to my Columbia Eagle which is about the same size machine but smaller spring barrel, etc. Thanks.

[phonogfp]

You should have no problem, as the Salon cylinders don't generally play any longer than standard-sized cylinders.

George P.

[briankeith]

Wow, thanks George! I thought since the slide-on mandrel was so much larger, and the actual record was so much bigger that it would play longer than four minutes or so. Very interesting, BUT I would still like to buy a couple decent Salon records to play on this twin-mandrel machine.

[phonogfp]

Your Pathé machine plays 2-minute cylinders, and the same feedscrew will deliver the reproducer from one end of the mandrel to the other in the same amount of time. Whether the cylinder is standard-size, Salon, or 5-inch, the playing time will be the same.

The original theory behind the larger-diameter cylinders was improved fidelity and volume due to higher SURFACE speed. The mandrel will still revolve at, say, 160 rpm, but the tracking speed of the stylus in the groove will be faster on a larger diameter cylinder. This will allow the recorded information to be spaced farther apart - presumably enabling higher frequencies to be recorded/reproduced and resulting in less distortion. This same theory came into play with disc records too; 78rpm being an acceptable compromise between playing time and fidelity until better recording processes and record materials allowed slower speeds. The diameter of disc records was also increased not only for longer playing time, but for improved fidelity on the larger (and thus faster-moving groove) diameter records - as earlier practiced on the larger diameter cylinders.

George P.

[briankeith]

Thanks George - this is great information that I honestly did not know!