why?

[bostonmike1]

hello my friends------as a newcomer(2 years) i am curious. i started collecting and restoring Edisons because my first unit, of which i now have four, just caught my eye and attention. why did you fellow members decide or choose your particular preference (Victrolas etc.)? in simple terms,it is a great hobby and community,but what the hell got you started and how frustating can it be for you as it can for me at times? your friend michael when i work on my machines it brings me peace and my blood pressure down possibly 10 points, but getting the "true" parts required can drive me insane!

[Edisonfan]

I bought the Edison, becuse I always kept finding Victrola's all over the place. Plus Edison's were different from Victrola's. The DD machines play a thicker record, and use a diamond stylus, as opposed to a steel needle. The cylinder machine was, because of the cylinders themselves. As for reapir, I mostly had the stylus in my DD phonograph replaced, but by a pro, not myself. Plus the machines I bought were in great shape to begin with.

Paul

[Victor78]

Thats a good question, and it's always a good conversation starter when meeting someone new in the phonograph world. My parents collected for many years, and tried like hell to get me interested like they were. It wasn't until I started to listen to some big band music again (played trumpet in high school and in a jazz band) and heard some pretty good trumpet records. One thing led to another, and had gotten a machine from Dad, a Pathé #7. Then I wanted to fix one up, and he just happened to have a VV-XI in the garage along with an Edison A-100. After those were done, the hunt began and it's been running wild ever since. I also enjoy working on my machines, and also find that its calming and quiet work for the most part. It's amazing how fast time go's when working on a cabinet or rebuilding a motor. It's fun, and I enjoy getting something working that sat for years and years and can make me happy as well. If only those machines could talk, and tell you the people that sat and listened to them along the years. Great topic!

Jim

[larryh]

I have a love/hate relationship with edisons. I started with Victors, and soon after ran in to a William and Mary Console. Now this was a long time ago and it cost me a whole 12.00 in a resell it type store. It had some good records which in retrospect were Electrics but I didn't know it at the time. I knew after hearing it that it was a different sound than the others. For a while I pursued them managing to find a number of what now are rare cabinets, all of which as you know I parted with.. I also ran into a collection of over 1,200 new records a fellow traded me for something I owned plus two expensive machines, the Sonora Bombay Walnut and a Walnut Louis the IV Edison. As usual when I tired of them I parted with them cheaply..

So after having no edison for nearly 30 years I went back into the a couple years ago now. I still find the sound to be somewhat better than others in many ways, but after lots of listening an working with diaphragms I also find them to be hard to take for a long period. I think it is the concentrated sound that sometimes if so intense it is unpleasing. I grant you my Brunswick sounds a bit muddled in comparison on certain things, but then that is somewhat of a advantage as it takes that hard edge off that makes the Edison tiring quickly to me.

So I am still wondering which I like better. Those darn flat Victor and Columbia Records have a lure of their own and yet I still want to hear a Edison piece when I find it too. At the moment I am stuck liking both which is evidently very common here. I keep thinking as I get older that I would like to cut back to one system for space and clutter. But so far my attempts at that are thwarted by the records. Every time I play one I don't want to get rid of it or the system that plays it.

The Edison is a unique machine and so it remains a luring system. Something about the records especially to me in the Orchestra form is appealing due to the longer playing time. I was playing my Credenza this morning while preparing breakfast and I am always amazed at how fast the small records end after playing edisons a while. That is one feature I hate to give up.

[Neophone]

Michael,

Great topic! I always loved the look of the standard early twenties upright and the average outside horn machine-I like most non-collectors thought they were Victrolas. I never bothered to investigated actually buying one because I assumed they would be far to expensive, well when I finally looked into it thanks to a kick in the proverbial butt from my late grandmother and thanks to a close friend's E-Bay account I found something I never knew existed, the table top Victrola. I found a Walt Sommers' listing of an oak VV-VI and I fell in love with that little box! His pictures are always beautiful and you can see every aspect of the machine-I learned and fell in love. I bought an oak VV-VI-a (not that one sadly) then a VV-IV which surprised the heck out of me when I saw how much smaller it really was than the VV-VI. I then found a local VV-XI and later a local VV-X and I was hooked. Victrolas as so amazingly simple to my mind, not to mention they are so common they are easy to find parts for and the most inexpensive in general. I think they are the perfect starter machine.

Regards,
John

[flashpanblue]

Hello,
I think these new fangled flat 78 records are just a passing fad!! Give me a cylinder player any day!! Just kidding! I have some twenty machines in my collection. One Columbia,eighteen Edisons, and one lonely Victor III.I try to play two or three machines every day.I really enjoy hearing the old tunes the same way the original owners did some hundred years ago.Its true that wax cylinders are fragile and subject to mold. I try to find Columbia two minute indestructable cylinders.They play very well with good volume and you don't have to worry about breaking them. They sound great on a 1901 Edison Standard. If i was only allowed to have one cylinder machine it would be a Triumph model D with eleven panel cygnet horn and an O reproducer. The sound is excellant with the O reproducer which will play both two and four minute cylinders. As time and money permits i will be looking for more Victors and Victrola's
Pete

[Duchesne]

I came across a Columbia vacationer 8 years ago. I didn't think much of it. I was told It played, but not very well as one of its three springs were broken. Last year, I found a Columbia Grafonola on ebay in my area , and the seller didn't want to ship it anywhere. I jumped on the opportunity since it was only 120$!

I brought it home and fixed it ( it came with two reproducing heads, one broken and one working. It also came with about forty 78's .
Sometime after that, I came across a small Silvertone Deluxe Portable.... It payed louder than the Grafonola, and it was only going for 20$!
The Seller was an antique dealer who was reluctantly having to sell his stock at ½ price.... I dunno what I was thinking; but i saw he'd previously marked it as 40$ and I dunno, I gave him what he originally wanted instead of the sale price. I guess he reminded me of Myself and How we all have hard times and thought if I could help him in some way but not put myself beyond my own means.... Who knows......Anyhow, I figured I'd be able to fix it when I got home.....
For a week though, I worried. I needed opinions, advice or some such from other Collectors online. A Gentleman I had sought advice from via his own website, suggested I join a site where this sort of dicussion takes place. I did so. And in just a few short trips via google and picking brains of other collectors/enthusiasts on such forums as these, I bravely tore into the Sspring barrell and safely fixed the broken spring. I was delighted to hear Edith Piaf singing La Vie En Rose! It sounded perfect with the scratches too!

It pleased me very much....
It's so empowering to stumble with one's inate mechanical ability or artistry and to be able to return something to near-new as it had been when the artist that made it was still alive ( I've done a couple of Pianos ) .. That something so beautiful in it's simplicity; yet clever in design could survive so long in our harsh ( and often unkind ) human environment, overwhelms me just thinking that it has survived such odds. And to grace me with its presence, just seems like icing on the cake you know?

..... Puts a Smile on my face.
I can't really call it anything else but perhaps it's a love for a thing.
A love for a thing of beauty.
A thing that "talks back to you", flattering the human ego as it does so.

I could go on and on...... But I think i'm gettin' kinda mushy...

Cheers all
Great to be back!

josh