New Columbia Portable

[Ho_Hum]

After a bit of a drought in good machines something finally came up near me and I picked up this gorgeous portable Columbia 175 portable. It sounds pretty awful right now but after the reproducer is rebuilt I bet that it'll get a lot better. The one pot metal piece doesn't seem in danger of breaking at the moment so that is a relief!

-Casey

[OrthoFan]

It's well worth it to have the reproducer (sound box) carefully overhauled with fresh gaskets, etc., and adjusted properly. These were among the top tier portables in terms of sound quality, easily holding their own with the Victor Orthophonic/Brunswick Panatrope/Edison P2/HMV models of the late 1920s/early 1930s.

Here's a video that gives a glimpse of the potential sound quality -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCatUOPP-O8

OrthoFan