Electrola history

[streetmechanic14]

Victor 15-1- After the introduction of the RE-45 in 1929 what you say about public preference was overwhelmingly true; defensible too judging by its performance. Problem is RE-45's and 1926 Electrolas are sonically very different animals. If this was already the public preference in 1926 (and there's some evidence it was, even if they couldn't act on it given the prices) something other than purely musical considerations must have been at work. I'm picturing something like an audio counterpart to the automotive horsepower race of the 1950's.
In answer to your earlier questions I would guess late-1927 for Columbia's first electronic machines. I've owned several of the 1928-29 models; they were disappointing in construction and sound quality. I'd love to know more about the 1928 Sonoras; never owned one but they seem to feature beautiful cabinets and imaginative engineering. The pictures I've seen show a bent tone arm for tracking error correction, the only horseshoe magnet pickup machine I know of to offer that refinement.
Apropos of nothing in particular, it occurs to me that many forum members might not be familiar with the Victor models I've mentioned so I'll attach this photo of my 8-60. The controls at the upper left are (1) volume control, (2) amp on-off, and (3) a sort of plumbing valve switching the horn throat from the acoustic tone arm to an electrical horn driver. As zany as this arrangement seems it was actually popular and sold well, at least for something in the $700 to $1000 price range.

[OrthoFan]

If this was already the public preference in 1926 (and there's some evidence it was, even if they couldn't act on it given the prices) something other than purely musical considerations must have been at work. ...

According to one source -- "by 1932 only about 10% of rural America was electrified, and about half of those people had to buy their own country-home power plants." -- https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/rur ... rification

Interestingly, electrification was still spreading to US rural locations well into the late 1940s/1950s. I have a 1949 Wards catalog which features a gasoline motor powered washing machine (convertible to electric power) "for areas where electricity is not yet available."

OrthoFan

[Inigo]

@streetmech, yes. And that may have happened by 1925. The first machines sold under electrola brand by HMV were the line I told.

[victor 15-1]

The straight electrolas that did not have to rely on the anemic transformer in the radiola 28 catacomb and used the 104 dynamic speaker (Tuscany) from 1926 properly restored would give any orthophonic fierce sonic competition.
By properly restored I mean compliant pickup damping and supple surround on the speaker.
Very few exist in collections to verify this but since I have the Cromwell-Hyperion-Tuscany line up I am biased in my opinion.

The situation flips in 1928 when the Radiola 64 powered 9-18,9-54 came out.
The combinations sounded better than their straight counterparts as the AP777-ran the '50 at a higher plate voltage than the AP726

Having these sets together in one location ,making sonic comparisons is a lot of fun but you sure do get overwhelmed by the floor space they take up!

[gunnarthefeisty]

Back in the early 1980's I met a guy that sold Brunswick's in the 20's and he told me how wonderful the electric Panatropes sounded, but in those days I had no idea what he was talking about as I'd never even seen one in those days. He said that they hauled those heavy things to movie theaters and played them for the audience in between reels. And that the Victor dealers really didn't do much of that. He thought the Victor dealers felt pretty secure with the way things had been going so at first they didn't push the electric stuff very much. He was a nice guy and also said that they did sell a lot of machines doing things that way and that people were completely taken aback at how good those things sounded, and how loud they were. Women generally liked the machines where the whole lid didn't need to be opened as they could keep flowers on the other half! Brunswick was probably better situated to sell something completely new since they really hadn't been around all that long in the mid 20's and young people would have been much more interested in the new technology than the Victor or Edison dealers, many of which would have already been around for 25 years or more by then. I'll bet a lot of those older dealers just dreaded the new problems they were presented with and missed the days of rumbling springs... I've wondered at times if the guys at Western Electric surprised at how good those things sounded? Those things don't sound like something we would expect to hear now, but when you consider when those things were introduced, they really are pretty amazing. And a surprising amount of volume coming from that 6" speaker cone.

That 6" speaker was, so I've heard, the same speaker used in later years for talking pictures.

[gunnarthefeisty]

Victor 15-1- After the introduction of the RE-45 in 1929 what you say about public preference was overwhelmingly true; defensible too judging by its performance. Problem is RE-45's and 1926 Electrolas are sonically very different animals. If this was already the public preference in 1926 (and there's some evidence it was, even if they couldn't act on it given the prices) something other than purely musical considerations must have been at work. I'm picturing something like an audio counterpart to the automotive horsepower race of the 1950's.
In answer to your earlier questions I would guess late-1927 for Columbia's first electronic machines. I've owned several of the 1928-29 models; they were disappointing in construction and sound quality. I'd love to know more about the 1928 Sonoras; never owned one but they seem to feature beautiful cabinets and imaginative engineering. The pictures I've seen show a bent tone arm for tracking error correction, the only horseshoe magnet pickup machine I know of to offer that refinement.
Apropos of nothing in particular, it occurs to me that many forum members might not be familiar with the Victor models I've mentioned so I'll attach this photo of my 8-60. The controls at the upper left are (1) volume control, (2) amp on-off, and (3) a sort of plumbing valve switching the horn throat from the acoustic tone arm to an electrical horn driver. As zany as this arrangement seems it was actually popular and sold well, at least for something in the $700 to $1000 price range.

Those 8-60s are pretty awesome machines- I'm jealous!

[streetmechanic14]

Orthofan- Rural America doesn't seem to have figured much in the electronics industry before the 1940's; what's now called the Digital Divide was even more stark a hundred years ago. None of that kept Victor's RE-45 from being a spectacular sales success, persuading many radio manufacturers to include radio-phonographs in their 1930 model lineups (unwisely as it turned out but few foresaw the depression).
15-1- Floor space was a problem for me too until I bit the bullet and made a "can't live without" list and sold the rest. Your comments about the Cromwell-Tuscany-Hyperion were interesting since I also lived with those models. The replacement of pickup rubber parts is of course absolutely necessary but I've usually left the speaker surrounds alone- about that I have a story which may have no more than anecdotal value but here goes: After restoring my RCA D-22 (1935) it sounded great but I knew the speaker surrounds and spiders were stiff as boards- no compliance at all. I happened to have two spare speakers for this machine so I sent them out for re-coning and a beautiful job was done. What a hoot when I installed them and found no difference at all in the sound- incredible maybe but this is a machine I listen to critically and often. Just sayin'
Gunnar (and 15-1)-When I was a kid I had a Radiola 28/104 speaker combo (amazing performer) and just for fun I once ran a modern high fidelity signal direct to the 104 voice coil, ignoring the tomcat. Even with substantial bass boost it would not reproduce the bass. The speaker in my picture (apparently a very early RCA Photophone movie theater unit) is one I intended to use in a homebrew 1930 hi-fi but now I wonder if the results might be disappointing since the thing looks like a 104 on steroids.
-Dave

[electrolaman 64]

The straight electrolas that did not have to rely on the anemic transformer in the radiola 28 catacomb and used the 104 dynamic speaker (Tuscany) from 1926 properly restored would give any orthophonic fierce sonic competition.
By properly restored I mean compliant pickup damping and supple surround on the speaker.
Very few exist in collections to verify this but since I have the Cromwell-Hyperion-Tuscany line up I am biased in my opinion.

The situation flips in 1928 when the Radiola 64 powered 9-18,9-54 came out.
The combinations sounded better than their straight counterparts as the AP777-ran the '50 at a higher plate voltage than the AP726

Having these sets together in one location ,making sonic comparisons is a lot of fun but you sure do get overwhelmed by the floor space they take up!

It is interesting that you have the opinion of the 1928 line up non Radiola 64 models. I have owned 2= 10-69s and 3= 9-54s as well as a 9-18, 9-16 and 12-15. Both of the 10-69 models blow the 9-54s and 9-18s away with regard to clear bass note punch. This has been a discussion between fellow Electrola owners for many years. I do thoroughly agree on the 1927 models. I have owned 2= 10-70s and 2= 9-55s and the 10-70s blew the 9-55 away on clear bass reproduction. In fact I find the 9-55s to have disappointing sound reproduction in general.

Carlton Smith
Indianapolis, IN

[victor 15-1]

That could just be a factor of cabinet placement .
Even the catalogues state the 9-18 and 9-54 are in their words "the most powerful of the electoral models"

[victor 15-1]

should read electoral ,not electoral (really need to use the eyeglasses!)