What kind of phonograph is this?

[larryh]

Looking for some Galli-Curi selections played on mechanical record players I came across this. Something that appears to be part electric and part acoustic but not sure of that. It sort of looks like a start an stop push button on the motor board part but then its a guess. Its also a guess that it is an overhead external horn by the way the metal tube runs up the rear. Too bad they didn't show more or explain what it is. Does it ring a bell with anyone? I am most impressed with the reproducers ability to handle loud high notes without any distortion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56bsHk8uLqs


Larry

[gramophone-georg]

Not sure of the model- maybe a Mark X variant- but that's an EMG. Yes, those soundboxes are quite legendary!

[epigramophone]

Yes this is one of the EMG Mark X models, and the brown turntable rim usually indicates an electric motor. The plastic on/off switch looks like a later replacement. The original is likely to have been metal with a toggle action, not a push button.

It is a pity that the poster of the YouTube clip did not show the entire machine, but there is a wealth of information and pictures on the British and European Machines section of this forum. Most British collectors consider the EMG and Expert gramophones to be the best sounding acoustic gramophones ever made, and their market values reflect this.

[larryh]

Thanks for the information. It surely is one of the best sounding reproducers I have ever heard or a mechanical machine. Of course the horn also is most likely a large part as well. But then its only as good as the reproducer allows. Would love to be able to have one, doubt that will ever happen. I wonder what about the design of the reproducer makes it play so well, or is there a secret so to speak?

[emgcr]

Sato Yuichis is a great Japanese EMG/Expert enthusiast who has contributed many excellent videos to YouTube. He has also experimented with many types of soundboxes and different playing combinations---all extremely interesting and instructive if you have time to browse through his uploads.

Here is one of his videos showing the Mk X EMG with a Xb horn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGsoo4U8bn0

......and another comparing the Expert Junior with the EMG X/Xb.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzSNLlnSb70

There are many advantages of the scientifically designed EMG/Expert/Astra soundboxes including the possibility of angulation on the tonearm enabling the possibility of fine-tuning the tracking and different spring pressures/positions to maximise desired sound output for a particular genre of instruments/voices etc. This variability of tuning capability results in a "black art" which, to a certain extent, is subjective and an important aspect to enthusiasts of maintaining the absorbing interest in the whole subject of sound excellence. Conversations and opinions have been continuing for well over 80 years !

[emgcr]

Larry---you were looking for shellac recordings of the great Amelita Galli-Curci on an acoustic gramophone so I have uploaded the Russian nightingale song (electric recording) again on my EMG Xb Oversize with full horn in view so that comparisons are possible. I have used a two-spring soundbox and the horn is quite a bit larger but for this record that will make little difference to the treble register.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtPgi16nEyE

Here is the other side---Clavelitos and Estrellita (acoustic recording) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77kbPKV1LKI

You might also like to hear what I consider to be one of the greatest quartets in all opera---"Bella figlia dell'amore" from Rigoletto ? Amelita can be heard gloriously arching over Homer, Gigli and De Luca (electric---recorded 16th December 1927).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Adcl4tyTM

These recordings were made up to the late nineteen-twenties when microphone technique was still in early development so comparisons are perhaps a little difficult in the case of the latter standing against Sutherland, Jones, Pavarotti and Nucci at the Met nearly 60 years later in 1987---probably the definitive recording for all time.
.

[welshfield]

I have NEVER heard reproduction of this quality level of an acoustic recording played on an acoustic machine. I NEED one of those machines. My entire collection of talking machines and phonographs is now obsolete !!

Thank you (I suppose) for those downloads. I have an enormous collection of operatic Red Seals that would sound so well with that machine.

To quote a well-worn expression from Antique Roadshow, "wow."

John

[wjw]

I have NEVER heard reproduction of this quality level of an acoustic recording played on an acoustic machine. I NEED one of those machines. My entire collection of talking machines and phonographs is now obsolete !!

Thank you (I suppose) for those downloads. I have an enormous collection of operatic Red Seals that would sound so well with that machine.

To quote a well-worn expression from Antique Roadshow, "wow."

John

I think all these are electrical recordings
-bill

[Orchorsol]

I have NEVER heard reproduction of this quality level of an acoustic recording played on an acoustic machine. I NEED one of those machines. My entire collection of talking machines and phonographs is now obsolete !!

Thank you (I suppose) for those downloads. I have an enormous collection of operatic Red Seals that would sound so well with that machine.

To quote a well-worn expression from Antique Roadshow, "wow."

John

And the Youtube rendition is very much lacking compared with hearing them in the flesh - and not just in terms of frequency response. It's often said of EMGs and Experts that the sound is "holographic", in other words seemingly embodied and 3-dimensional, as if the mouth or instruments are somehow right there in the horn. Microphones and speakers can't capture that magic!

[OrthoSean]

And the Youtube rendition is very much lacking compared with hearing them in the flesh - and not just in terms of frequency response. It's often said of EMGs and Experts that the sound is "holographic", in other words seemingly embodied and 3-dimensional, as if the mouth or instruments are somehow right there in the horn. Microphones and speakers can't capture that magic!

Plus one on that! I get a kick out of watching fellow collector reactions when they visit me and hear my EMG play a Louis Armstrong 1930s Okeh or something similar for the first time. It was like a whole new world when I finally was able to get one, several years later now and I still play that machine daily and marvel at it myself.

Sean