Who are we? C'mon--voice an opinion

[pughphonos]

Edit: I just thought about it and realized I need to make a sub group in Culturalist...

I am an AESTHETIC Culturalist. I don't necessarily care about history... I care about MUSIC. And I listen to music from all time periods up to the present day. I don't just like jazz or classical or country or blues... I like great music of all kinds. Most people specialize and become experts in genres. But I prefer to focus on creative excellence and just skim the cream off the top of all genres and time periods. Sometimes I think I may be a rare bird.

Gotcha. At root you're a Culturalist. I too like more than the Jazz Era; it comes down to being excited about GOOD and GENUINE performance. That's why Culturalists can get into antique phonographs; they're willing to put up with surface noise, etc., as long as they can discern something good and genuine.

That makes the Culturalists different from many audiophiles--who insist on having the latest and supposedly best forms of reproduction out there, even if what's been recorded is crap. I had a friend who was that way; funny he was a friend as we disagreed about pretty much everything.

[52089]

There is also the "pure dealer", who buys mostly as a means to sell for a profit, and also the "dealer/collector" who definitely collects, but who also buys and sells, at least partially as a way of building a collection.

I fit into several of these categories. I'm not an early machine person, nor am I a "one of each type of model of (whatever)" person. Due to space constraints, my collection is merely representative of various types of machine without specializing in anything. For example, in my display I have 1 acoustic Victor, 1 Orthophonic Victor, 1 Diamond Disc, 1 portable, 1 Pathé, 1 Brunswick, and 2 Edison cylinder machines. The only reason I have 2 cylinder machines is that 1 is an Amberola 1A, and the other has an uncommon faux wood grain cygnet horn.

I am also an "opportunistic" buyer, meaning I will buy something I already have - or don't particularly want - if the price is low enough that I think I can make a small profit on it. Having said that, I have always felt that there was kind of an implicit rule that anything sold on this board was intended for personal use, not for resale, and I live by that.

I do take the care of these machines and records seriously, hoping that whoever gets them after me will enjoy them as much as I have. I believe in careful restoration, but not "over restoration", meaning that I don't think that something that's 100 years old should look like it's brand new. YMMV.

[Wolfe]

Crap recordings - like many 78's - can certainly benefit from being played on high quality kit. Especially Billy Murray records.

[CarlosV]

1) The Collectors: "Collect to Own"
They collect for the thrill of comprehensive ownership and/or investment; they treasure early and unadulterated phonographs.

2) The Mechanics/Restorers: "Collect to Repair"
Those who collect to repair/restore; they like mechanical and woodworking challenges.

3) The Culturalists: "Collect to Play"
They collect phonographs as windows to the past; they play their machines more than the rest and also collect records for use; they like the later models as they sound better and are more versatile.

Ralph, your classification is quite interesting, and probably can be expanded to any kind of collection. As to myself, I am definitely the "collect to play" type, as I value sound much more than looks, but certainly I also like to own the machines and records, as well as I like to fix them but only when I have to, as I find very frustrating to keep a silent machine for a long time at home - which is the case with some that are missing that seldom-seen part. I do not take my collection as investment, I know better than deluding myself into thinking that obsolete industrial products will ever amount to attract large sums of money in the long term.

As much as I enjoy and admire collections that are neatly arranged exposing all variants of any given type of phonograph, I really get my satisfaction out of the hands-on experience of listening to a well-preserved record played by a well designed and well kept machine.

[PeterF]

My own situation inhabits all three of the categories presented. I love playing them, fixing them, and finding and displaying/demonstrating them.

The only thing in this thread I find so far to disagree with, might be the restoration bit - not being fond of shiny new plating and refinishes. I clean and polish and lubricate/repair my stuff, but prefer them to show their age. I'm not one of those guys who dresses in old timey clothes and drives a Model A around while wearing a hat; the stuff is a century old, and it just makes more sense to me for it to show that. Contradictory perhaps, because even though it can look old it must sound and run as good as new for me to be happy.

This just points to the great fun we have available to us, though...

You can be the one who has every single possible variant of the Columbia Q, each meticulously restored or in mint original status, on display in chronological order and none of which you ever ever play.

You can be the one who has at least one example of everything Edison ever produced for sale to the general public, which is stored out of view at undisclosed locations.

You can be the one with a house chock full of machines of every imaginable type, with paths worn in the carpeting between them because there is barely room to walk.

You can be the one who purchases as much as possible, often as a form of competition to keep others from obtaining them instead.

You can be the one with a huge metal building in a tobacco field, full of great stuff that is slowly decomposing because you just have...too much.

You can be the kid who got a phono for free, and broke it while trying to figure it out, and becoming forever captivated in the process.

I know all these people, and I bet many of you do, too.

[Hit of the Week]

Excellant dissertation, PeterF!!

Dale

[pughphonos]

How about the category of "dealer/flipper" ?

Hmm--have to ponder that. Many of course have extensive phonographic expertise.

[pughphonos]

My own situation inhabits all three of the categories presented. I love playing them, fixing them, and finding and displaying/demonstrating them.

The only thing in this thread I find so far to disagree with, might be the restoration bit - not being fond of shiny new plating and refinishes. I clean and polish and lubricate/repair my stuff, but prefer them to show their age. I'm not one of those guys who dresses in old timey clothes and drives a Model A around while wearing a hat; the stuff is a century old, and it just makes more sense to me for it to show that. Contradictory perhaps, because even though it can look old it must sound and run as good as new for me to be happy.

This just points to the great fun we have available to us, though...

You can be the one who has every single possible variant of the Columbia Q, each meticulously restored or in mint original status, on display in chronological order and none of which you ever ever play.

You can be the one who has at least one example of everything Edison ever produced for sale to the general public, which is stored out of view at undisclosed locations.

You can be the one with a house chock full of machines of every imaginable type, with paths worn in the carpeting between them because there is barely room to walk.

You can be the one who purchases as much as possible, often as a form of competition to keep others from obtaining them instead.

You can be the one with a huge metal building in a tobacco field, full of great stuff that is slowly decomposing because you just have...too much.

You can be the kid who got a phono for free, and broke it while trying to figure it out, and becoming forever captivated in the process.

I know all these people, and I bet many of you do, too.

I take it you generally agree with my categories as all those folks above fit one way or another.

Sounds like you're a mechanical but not cosmetic restorer.

Sooooo--who's the dude/dudette who keeps buying stuff to keep you from getting it??? Don't answer that.

[pughphonos]

Crap recordings - like many 78's - can certainly benefit from being played on high quality kit. Especially Billy Murray records.

I've given up trying to jam my Billy Murray Diamond Discs into my CD player.

[pughphonos]

There is also the "pure dealer", who buys mostly as a means to sell for a profit, and also the "dealer/collector" who definitely collects, but who also buys and sells, at least partially as a way of building a collection.

I fit into several of these categories. I'm not an early machine person, nor am I a "one of each type of model of (whatever)" person. Due to space constraints, my collection is merely representative of various types of machine without specializing in anything. For example, in my display I have 1 acoustic Victor, 1 Orthophonic Victor, 1 Diamond Disc, 1 portable, 1 Pathé, 1 Brunswick, and 2 Edison cylinder machines. The only reason I have 2 cylinder machines is that 1 is an Amberola 1A, and the other has an uncommon faux wood grain cygnet horn.

I am also an "opportunistic" buyer, meaning I will buy something I already have - or don't particularly want - if the price is low enough that I think I can make a small profit on it. Having said that, I have always felt that there was kind of an implicit rule that anything sold on this board was intended for personal use, not for resale, and I live by that.

I do take the care of these machines and records seriously, hoping that whoever gets them after me will enjoy them as much as I have. I believe in careful restoration, but not "over restoration", meaning that I don't think that something that's 100 years old should look like it's brand new. YMMV.

Good points. Given sufficient resources, motivation, and interests, some people can inhabit two or even three of the categories. I appreciate your emphasizing the difference between collectors and dealers--but that these behaviors can also overlap in some people.

Final comment. It's an interesting philosophic question about when it becomes no longer advisable to restore something. Aren't there plenty of 1920s model Ts that have been restored to look brand new?