The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Physicist,

Thanks for the examples of your spectral analysis that confirm my anecdotal observations with my own HMV193. I've found much research on-line of audio engineers attempting to overcome the directional nature of acoustic horns with the aim of preserving both fidelity and volume for listeners who are "off axis."

HMVDevotee

physicist wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 8:54 am The height of the horn does matter - insofar as it can make it more inconvenient to get your ears on axis with the horn.

Evidently horns are extremely directional. There is significant loss as the sound wave propagates away from its center axis, both in volume and frequency response. My comment referred to a on-axis comparison between an EMG/Expert and any internal horn machine.

My Expert sits in a corner on a record cabinet, and of course the horn can easily be moved from side to side.
The centre of the horn mouth is five feet above floor level, which I find ideal for listening from my armchair.
Not so easy to achieve such good results with a big internal horn machine.

This is funny! I also sometimes listen to my HMV 163 sitting on the floor or on a very low stool, but I would have never figured that this habit might have been pictured and displayed back then!