EMG Gramophone - Beyond All Hope?

[Garret]

Graham,

Good luck with this new project! I am quite confident of your success.

Garret

[Orchorsol]

Many thanks one and all for your kind and generous thoughts---much appreciated.

Andy, I agree comparisons are probably not much use objectively via YouTube but, actually in the room, it is hard to describe what the exact degredation of sound on the damaged horn is---certainly a clouding of clarity and definition can be heard. There also seems to be less base.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhbHYjaRzao

FASCINATING, thanks so much for posting this new video Graham! Even listening via the 'tube, there's now some clear difference apparent. To me, the sound from the derelict relic sounds more "pinched" and the sound from the EMGCR horn more fulsome, open and detailed - as one might expect!

Equally, less bass is surely to be expected, due to the final bell diameter being who knows what (much reduced anyway) and the mathematical/acoustic result, a higher cutoff.

Excellent to have these things confirmed to some extent. What an amazing thing, this creature from beyond the grave, and the stories you're enabling it to tell!

[Frankia]

Have just heard the latest interesting upload. While the obvious lesson to be drawn from the long thread on the forum some time back comparing EMGCR and Expert was how wrong an impression one can get from youtube, and I fully agree with Orchorsol's earlier comments here in that vein, at the same time there is a very marked difference between this latest upload and the one with the old horn, with the fibreglass horn streets ahead with regard to depth of sound, general "synthesis" or "roundedness" or "wholeness" of reproduction, and that cutting edge clarity that is so much part of the Oversize listening experience.
The old horn, God bless its cotton socks, sounds lovely until one hears the healthy and vibrant younger sibling.
Listening to the whole thing is so pleasurable though, and the realisation that this oldtimer, down on its luck, will sing again like new is icing on the cake of all of us who love these wonderful old instruments!

[estott]

Makes you wonder just how distorted one of these horns would have to be to render it unplayable? When they get bent and malformed it does diminish the sound, but they still sound good.

[emgcr]

A year ago I was asked how a broken off EMG Mk IX horn sounded and so I made a video---again, rather tongue in cheek. It might just be relevant and amusing to repeat it in this thread..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wILO4UU2Dp0

[Retrograde]

Makes you wonder just how distorted one of these horns would have to be to render it unplayable? When they get bent and malformed it does diminish the sound, but they still sound good.

maybe it has more to do with the machine than it does the horn?

I have a tough time judging sound quality on youTube, most videos sound a bit less-than-perfect to me.

[FloridaClay]

A year ago I was asked how a broken off EMG Mk IX horn sounded and so I made a video---again, rather tongue in cheek. It might just be relevant and amusing to repeat it in this thread..........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wILO4UU2Dp0

Amazing how much sound there is even with no horn.

These are interesting machines. Hope to see one in person some day.

Clay

[emgcr]

Clay, if ever you find yourself in England and have a few spare moments, I should be delighted to demonstrate. Best wishes, Graham.

[2Bdecided]

Makes you wonder just how distorted one of these horns would have to be to render it unplayable? When they get bent and malformed it does diminish the sound, but they still sound good.

I've also heard sagging horns which sound fine. There must come a point where the neck of the horn is too constricted, but a reasonably gentle sag doesn't seem to do much harm - as long as you're happy to sit on the floor or put your chair underneath them!

I think you can hear some unwanted "darkening" of sound from the wrecked horn - the upper midrange has gone. If the record or soundbox was overly "bright" this might be quite a nice effect, but with everything else reasonably balanced this is just wrong. It's quite helpful that you walk around while videoing Graham - hopeless for listening to the record, but perfect for appreciating the sound of the machine.

btw Graham, your video camera appears to have audio AGC (automatic gain control) enabled (maybe there's no option to disable this?) and the microphone sits near overload most of the time. While it's impossible to capture the true sound of a gramophone in a room and reproduce it using a hi-fi, you can get a lot closer with a decent microphone and manually setting the recording level so there's no "pumping" due to the AGC.

Best wishes with this amazing restoration project.

Cheers,
David.

[Orchorsol]