Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

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GabrielePfr
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Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by GabrielePfr »

I recently had the luck of acquiring this 1941 Columbia 204E machine, equipped with The Meltrope III soundbox! Pretty good condition, just some usual wear to the outside. Barely any tarnishing to the fittings. To my surprise, nothing in the soundbox needed replacing, the gaskets are still supple and don't seem to have aged, at all. The diaphragm is extremely thin, I accidentally bent it just by touching. It was just as easy to straighten out, though.
It sounds pretty fantastic and definitely brings a new life to my records. I should mention it was a bargain at 50euro. Lucky!
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nostalgia
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by nostalgia »

Congratulations on your very nice find, Gabriele:)
I have myself acquired a great interest in Columbia portables during the last months since I joined
this forum, and also was lucky to aqcquire two Columbia portables at the end of 2019 at fairly good prices.
Your blue Columbia 204E, looks very nice, lovely color..and also the price was very good.
:)

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GabrielePfr
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by GabrielePfr »

nostalgia wrote:Congratulations on your very nice find, Gabriele:)
I have myself acquired a great interest in Columbia portables during the last months since I joined
this forum, and also was lucky to aqcquire two Columbia portables at the end of 2019 at fairly good prices.
Your blue Columbia 204E, looks very nice, lovely color..and also the price was very good.
:)
Thank you very much! I too love Columbia portables. Although this one is basically identical to the HMV 97... Still a brautiful machine!

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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by epigramophone »

The Columbia 204 and the HMV97 were the first portables designed by EMI for the British market after the two companies merged in 1931.
I have a very early 204 bought new in 1934 as a 21st Birthday present for my favourite aunt, who bequeathed it to me when she died in 1963.
I have many rarer and more sought after portables, but the 204 with it's family connection is the last that I would ever part with.

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GabrielePfr
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by GabrielePfr »

epigramophone wrote:The Columbia 204 and the HMV97 were the first portables designed by EMI for the British market after the two companies merged in 1931.
I have a very early 204 bought new in 1934 as a 21st Birthday present for my favourite aunt, who bequeathed it to me when she died in 1963.
I have many rarer and more sought after portables, but the 204 with it's family connection is the last that I would ever part with.
You're so lucky to have such a special family heirloom!

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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by epigramophone »

Here it is :
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Columbia 204 001.JPG (128.78 KiB) Viewed 1840 times

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GabrielePfr
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by GabrielePfr »

epigramophone wrote:Here it is :
Wow, it's beautiful.

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nostalgia
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by nostalgia »

What I have come to realize, is that portable Columbias are often priced much lower than portable HMV's. The portable Columbias I own also in my ears has a very rich sound, and well, is also very well built. The fact that they also were manufactured in many different models, in different parts of the world, makes it also very interesting. Suddenly one may come across a Columbia made in Japan, that hardly ever has been seen even by the experts on the forum, and this is of admittedly awakening the investigator/pioneer spirit in myself:) It is like rediscovering that particular gramophone model all over again.

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Inigo
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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by Inigo »

You're fortunate! I am the only one gramophone fan among family and friends. And I don't own my grandpa's gramophone and records, which went to a part of the family who live far from me, and don't know anything about it, not care for it. I'm sure that poor machine, which has the spring broken since the mid 1950s, has not played a record since then, and is closed in a room full of other things, forgotten and will end sold to any antiques dealer or lot jobber...
Just think that I would be able to get it running in a week, makes me sick! :roll:
Another fabulous external horn gramophone from an aunt, went to my cousins too, and at a given moment i it had be sold as bargain because of life facts... Where is it? It was a marvelous Spanish hmv luxury model, with a three spring motor and a speartip mahogany horn. I having played with it in my youth... And wow! The original owners were wealthy people, and the records they had were a pretty bunch of expensive one-sided opera records... :roll:
Inigo

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Re: Columbia 204E and The Meltrope III !

Post by epigramophone »

nostalgia wrote:What I have come to realize, is that portable Columbias are often priced much lower than portable HMV's. The portable Columbias I own also in my ears has a very rich sound, and well, is also very well built. The fact that they also were manufactured in many different models, in different parts of the world, makes it also very interesting. Suddenly one may come across a Columbia made in Japan, that hardly ever has been seen even by the experts on the forum, and this is of admittedly awakening the investigator/pioneer spirit in myself:) It is like rediscovering that particular gramophone model all over again.
Values are affected by what we in the UK call badge snobbery. Post-1931 Columbia and HMV portables almost identical in specifcation, such as the 204 & 97, 206/9000 & 102, are typical examples of this. The HMV variant will almost always achieve a higher price than the Columbia. It's all about the badge.

An extreme example of badge snobbery concerned the big HMV Re-Entrant 202/203 machines. When these were making five figure prices in the past, some collectors were prepared to pay more for machines with "His Master's Voice" inside the lid than "La Voix de son Maitre" and other European versions.

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