The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have about 10 Diamond Discs in my collection that have high surface noise and blotched gray surfaces. They are playable, but that is not a pleasant experience due to the noise. While part of me hates to throw away anything entering its second century, I am wondering if it may not be time to put them out of their misery.

Is there anything that can be used to treat the surface of such discs to reduce noise that will not harm turntable felt and the stylus?

Clay

Unfortunately, no, there's no treatment to quiet the surfaces. However, it is possible to design a diaphragm to absorb more of the high frequency noise which would help somewhat. Best bet is to look for later pressings of these records (if they are avalable).

The noisiest Diamond Discs are the etched label discs that have a pressing date code under the Edison signature on one side. The code looks like "B6", "A3", etc., where A = 1916, B= 1917, C = 1918, and the numbers indicate the month. The codes run from A6 to C5. The earliest and latest codes are OK, but most of the others are pretty bad. See Copeland and Sherman's "Collector's Guide to Edison Records" for detailed, month-by-month info.

Yes, these are mostly WWI era poor compund discs.

Clay

52089 wrote:

The noisiest Diamond Discs are the etched label discs that have a pressing date code under the Edison signature on one side. The code looks like "B6", "A3", etc., where A = 1916, B= 1917, C = 1918, and the numbers indicate the month. The codes run from A6 to C5. The earliest and latest codes are OK, but most of the others are pretty bad. See Copeland and Sherman's "Collector's Guide to Edison Records" for detailed, month-by-month info.

Oh, that's great info to have for someone looking a DD's blindly in the old junk piles.

I have a couple dozen or so that are so noisy, they're basically useless. I'll know better how to weed them out now.

Keep in mind that some of those were not in the catalogue for very long, not issued as Blue Amberols, or the best copies ARE the Blue Amberol 'dubs' ! Oh, the complexity of Edison ....

Edisone wrote:Keep in mind that some of those were not in the catalogue for very long, not issued as Blue Amberols, or the best copies ARE the Blue Amberol 'dubs' ! Oh, the complexity of Edison ....

Yes you have all the following to deal with:
1) Great titles not in the catalogue for very long, (i.e. only available in the higher surface noise period)
2) Best copies of titles like 1) above might be the dubbed Blue Amberol copies except for;
3) Many titles like 1) above were never dubbed to Blue Amberol, only available on disc.

If that is not enough to confuse, you've got;
a) disc recordings never released on disc but only as dubbed Blue Amberols
b) directly recorded Blue Amberols sprinkled well into the 5xxx numbering as re-releases from old 4 min wax masters.

Valecnik wrote:

Edisone wrote:Keep in mind that some of those were not in the catalogue for very long, not issued as Blue Amberols, or the best copies ARE the Blue Amberol 'dubs' ! Oh, the complexity of Edison ....

Yes you have all the following to deal with:
1) Great titles not in the catalogue for very long, (i.e. only available in the higher surface noise period)
2) Best copies of titles like 1) above might be the dubbed Blue Amberol copies except for;
3) Many titles like 1) above were never dubbed to Blue Amberol, only available on disc.

If that is not enough to confuse, you've got;
a) disc recordings never released on disc but only as dubbed Blue Amberols
b) directly recorded Blue Amberols sprinkled well into the 5xxx numbering as re-releases from old 4 min wax masters.

And on top of that are condition issues. I have some DDs made during the bad compound period that were carefully cared for and show little wear that still sound good. But when you find copies with those blotchy gray areas, they are pretty much goners.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:

Valecnik wrote:

Edisone wrote:Keep in mind that some of those were not in the catalogue for very long, not issued as Blue Amberols, or the best copies ARE the Blue Amberol 'dubs' ! Oh, the complexity of Edison ....

Yes you have all the following to deal with:
1) Great titles not in the catalogue for very long, (i.e. only available in the higher surface noise period)
2) Best copies of titles like 1) above might be the dubbed Blue Amberol copies except for;
3) Many titles like 1) above were never dubbed to Blue Amberol, only available on disc.

If that is not enough to confuse, you've got;
a) disc recordings never released on disc but only as dubbed Blue Amberols
b) directly recorded Blue Amberols sprinkled well into the 5xxx numbering as re-releases from old 4 min wax masters.

And on top of that are condition issues. I have some DDs made during the bad compound period that were carefully cared for and show little wear that still sound good. But when you find copies with those blotchy gray areas, they are pretty much goners.

Clay

And then there are the delamination crack issues... I got ~ 140 etched label DDs with an A250. A large portion were Operatic, mostly in really super clean condition except for delamination cracks just along the edge of the music pressing on the outside of the disc or emanating from the center of the label into the music area. I'd say ~90% of the discs had delamination issues on at least one side, often both sides even though they'd been very well cared for...

And then there are the records from the the worst of the " bad" period that aren't overly noisy. And those paper label copies that aren't much better than an etched label from 1918. So it often boils down to " Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chance."
Jim

Valecnik wrote: And then there are the delamination crack issues... I got ~ 140 etched label DDs with an A250. A large portion were Operatic, mostly in really super clean condition except for delamination cracks just along the edge of the music pressing on the outside of the disc or emanating from the center of the label into the music area. I'd say ~90% of the discs had delamination issues on at least one side, often both sides even though they'd been very well cared for...

Yeah: unfortunately, the ones that have splits are the prewar 'transfer' copies, which had very good sound....