Inigo wrote:I also have come lately to think that these recoords must be listened to as they were intended to be, i.e., played in machines of the era. The use of exponential horns improves reproduction of sound, and this technique was available in 1900, as the Rayleigh and others' studies about horns were from earlier dates. We don't know why this technique had not been yet used by then. It simply may be a question of development step by step.
The fact is that the gramophones of the era were made as they were, and the records were played on these machines. Recording engineers had their own tuned recorders, details kept carefully secret. But we may suppose they did their tests, and played the resulting records using these gramophones, then make corrections, etc. So it's logical to think that all the process was finallly intended to sound the best on the gramophones of that era. They were satisfied with which they obtained...! Is it better to tamper with modern reproduction systems trying to enhance the freq range we hear?
On the other hand, it is a well known fact among us collectors that our ears get used to the sound of a particular machine very fast. One day you start to play records on a machine and at the beginning it may sound awful, but after some more records played the sound seems better. We (brain and ears) learn to listen to a particular sound with incredible ability. Who of us has not experimented the sensation of an afternoon listening of acoustics in an old machine, and discover after one hour listening that the sound of the records so played is marvelous? Isn't this true?
People of 1900 listened to records on gramophones of 1900, and casual listeners might say anything, but true devoted listeners were happy with the results.
Hi mate, thanks for your giving extra more nice words what I am thinking and agree with. I want to say, in fact, if play these records on high quality acoustic machine in our day, I trust most of people still enjoy them, because they are really really really nice sounds, much better than imagined, fully acceptable, even for untrained ears.
I have watched some clips that some modern singers stood in front of a horn, who tried to record their voice by the cylinder machine in museum like as old time singers did, some of them felt interesting and honored, but some of them tried to prove the CARUSO's sounds of records are NOT TRUE. Sometimes, sadly to say, they are really not enough know about the history of gramophone. As we know here, except Caruso had recorded his early records before 1904 on the Cylinder machine, afterwards he made a lot of records in Victor Company in Camden, at that time, the recording technique has been improved much better than early time. So, most of Caruso's record actually were not recorded by simple cylinder machine, the testing they did just fun.
Anyway, I hope I can share all of my collections and let you guys enjoy!haha:)
Rico
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