The pics are great! I find all the "phonic" machines endlessly fascinating as you know. The interior baffle, that horn within a horn, would probably have the effect of making the treble response a little more prominent.
Jim
Another off-brand "orthophonic"?
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- Victor IV
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- Victor II
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Re: Another off-brand "orthophonic"?
It would be interesting to know if this eBay Tru-phonic has that baffle installed in the horn. The cabinet really looks very Viva-tonal, but it also looks like so much of the furniture of the day.....not to say that's a bad thing. Since I only paid $150 for mine, I feel like the opening bid of $449.95 is overly hopeful. Even the nice gold plated fittings don't really help it all that much. Still---it's interesting to see how various companies responded to the need for an improved machine to play the (then) new electrically recorded discs.
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- Victor Monarch
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Re: Another off-brand "orthophonic"?
From what I've heard Sears brand of electrically recorded discs of that time (Supertone) was pretty awful, far below the quality of late Acoustic material like Columbia.
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- Victor V
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Re: Another off-brand "orthophonic"?
Apparently, the "Supertone" name was used twice -- early on, following the introduction of the Silvertone label--but only for a short period, and then again in the Spring of 1929 -- http://www.mainspringpress.com/sears-labels.htmlestott wrote:From what I've heard Sears brand of electrically recorded discs of that time (Supertone) was pretty awful, far below the quality of late Acoustic material like Columbia.
I remember hearing or reading that only acoustic recordings were available in the Sears catalog at the time the Tru-Phonic line of phonographs was introduced in 1926, which this article confirms: "Gennett was the sole supplier by 1927, when Sears introduced electrically recorded Silvertone Truphonic records."
I have to say that the few Gennett electrically recorded records I've listened to are no match for the Victor/Columbia (Western Electric) discs or even the Brunswick Light-Ray recordings.
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- Victor Monarch
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Re: Another off-brand "orthophonic"?
I have several Gennett-produced Supertone discs, with the RCA Photophone system credit, they are truly wretched. You wouldn't know they were electric except for the credit.