Best sounding acoustic record label

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epigramophone
Victor Monarch Special
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Re: Best sounding acoustic record label

Post by epigramophone »

My main record collecting interest is acoustic opera, and my vote goes to Fonotipia which is in a class of it's own.

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Inigo
Victor VI
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Re: Best sounding acoustic record label

Post by Inigo »

I listen to those in varied equipment, a modern system, also orthophonic gramophones (the big reentrant, the smaller tabletop and the portables) and the short horn acoustic HMV gramophone tabletop style 3 (similar to victrola VI). Also an Aeolian Vocalion with larger "short horn" as in a victrola XVI. And yes, the reproducing system does much to overcome recording quality. In the orthos and modern equipment, all sound good, except for the noise of the surfaces. The better the system, the better it sounds to me...
Perhaps the most difficult and critical is the short horn tabletop. Very few sound good there... Many give a shrill tone (the infamous ringing tone) which I find unpleasant. Maybe it's my Exhibition that needs adjustment... Victors sound softer to me, Columbia blue labels with gold bands are scratchy, but sound louder, and some are surprisingly well balanced in sound. Victor batwings, I agree, sound a bit dull. Okeh sound very loud and clear. Cameo and the like sound clear, but a bit tinny.
I've got a real surprise from Pathé verticals, which I play on the convertible Aeolian. They sound loud and clear, although they have a bit of noise. I've been nicely surprised by Tito Schipa Pathé operatics! Fonotipias sound also very loud and well balanced to me.
Spanish odeon records are unequal, erratic, done sound good, but others sound tinny and shrill. Later examples of laminated facture sound much better.
Of course, I've been also surprised by the quality of Harmony family (Velvet tone etc) which sound very very good.
British Columbias and Regal laminated sound not so loud, but very well balanced.
Hmvs sound well, and surfaces of these are very kind and soft, with no noise.
And American brunswick for me are the best, crisp and clear, and nice surfaces too. Also winners in general are the british laminated Columbia recordings.
Of course this varies with steel or bamboo needles.
And also varies with the type of music recorded... Classical records (instrumental) sound softer and better to me in general (also electrical records) than the dance band or singing records.
I'm amazed with how clear are all the Victor /hmv acoustic violin recordings.
Just my biased and irregular opinion...
Inigo

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