Are these records 78's

[flashpanblue]

Hello,
Can anyone tell me if these older records are still 78's and if they can be played on a Victrola with a steel needle??
thanks
Pete

[Curt A]

Yes, they are 78s. They can be played on a Victrola with a steel needle, but they are technically made from a different composition than earlier 78s and there is concern that steel needles may cause abnormal wear... others on the forum can probably address this issue, since these are later than the records I collect and play.

[Wolfe]

Lot of laminated records in there. I would opt not to play those with a steel needle...others on the forum can probably address this issue, since there are a lot of opinions on this ever burning topic.

[Phonofreak]

I play these on a Victrola or Victor, but I use a Chromium needle such as a Merritone, or something similar. If I have some Tungstone needles, they work good, too. I don't see record wear like with the regular steel needles.
Harvey Kravitz

[marcapra]

These are fairly common albums from the 40's. Since these records are common and only worth about $1 or $2 each, many play them with steel needles. Since these records were recorded at much higher volume levels than acoustic records with much higher fidelity, you should use a soft tone needle, preferably with an electronically amplified phonograph, or at least one designed to play electric records such as a Credenza. I doubt the wisdom of playing them with a Tungstone needle if preserving them is your goal. These needles that were designed to play many records before the point wore all the way down, are more harmful to records than steel needles that are switched on every new side. Victor advertised them profusely during the Orthophonic era, but by the 30s, the ads for them stops. If they were so great why did Victor stop making them? I think it was due to excessive record wear. That is why Victor went on to promote new and different color-tipped steel needles, before moving on to sapphire styli coupled to crystal cartridges in 1938.

[flashpanblue]

Hello,
Thank you all for your thoughts on these late 78's. A fellow wants to sell me these 78 albums. He has 65 Albums like this and is asking $200 for them. However if I can't really play them on my Victrola "L" door then they would not be of much use to me.
Pete

[marcapra]

$200 for 65 fairly common 1940s albums is about $1 a record, which sounds like a good price, but only if you are picking just what you like. I probably wouldn't pay more than $100 for 65 albums in bulk if they were mostly good music and only about $50 if there was a lot of junk in there. But if you are looking for records to play on your L door Victrola, you should look for the pre-1925 acoustic records. They are not as rare as you might think! There are tons of Victor Batwings and Columbia blue label discs out there, and they are easy to tell apart from the electrically recorded records. Good luck. Oh where do you get them? Well a phonograph show such as CAPS or Union or the Wayne, NJ show are great places! Ebay also, but you have to pay shipping, which is OK if they send them Media Mail with 5 to 10 in a box.