Sound Comparison Between Brunswick Cortez and HMV 163

[Watanabehi]

Hello Brunswick and HMV lovers,
I made two youtube videos comparing the sound of Brunswick Cortez and HMV 163 using my hand-made susudake (smoked bamboo) needle. The record I used is Victor, Duke Ellington's Warm Valley (1930), which is in pretty good shape. I hope you like them.

Hideki

https://youtu.be/atCNTJulZm4
https://youtu.be/4wPz5nzp6II

[Ben the phono man]

Nice to hear a cortez! Interesting comparison, i don't think its been done before!

[Inigo]

Thanks for this and the other interesting videos... This I'll listen to this evening at home, using a better sound system than my mobile phone!

[audiophile102]

I opened two tabs on my browser and played both videos in 1-minute passages. The hmv163 sounds so clear as to almost be from a modern stereo. While I always admired the cabinet of the cortez, the sound is muffled by comparison. If only the two machines could be played together somehow. Great idea to make the videos.

[Watanabehi]

Nice to hear a cortez! Interesting comparison, i don't think its been done before!

Thank you for your comment.

Hideki

[Watanabehi]

Thanks for this and the other interesting videos... This I'll listen to this evening at home, using a better sound system than my mobile phone!

Thank you for your comment.

Hideki

[OrthoFan]

Many thanks for posting this. To my ears, the HMV 163 has a more powerful sound, overall. The thumping bass notes are more apparent, as is the mid-range, and the recording room resonance is clearer. The upper range of the Cortez, however, seems stronger.

This makes sense to me since, according to a Cortez owner in a previous post, the tone chamber of the Cortez measures five feet (horn & tonearm). The HMV 163 has a six foot chamber (the same as used in the Victor Credenza), and the expansion rate of its horn is far more gradual than that of the Cortez.

OrthoFan

[Watanabehi]

I opened two tabs on my browser and played both videos in 1-minute passages. The hmv163 sounds so clear as to almost be from a modern stereo. While I always admired the cabinet of the cortez, the sound is muffled by comparison. If only the two machines could be played together somehow. Great idea to make the videos.

Thank you for your comment. It is true that HMV163 reproduces clear sound due to its metal horn. But it can be too loud when you use a steel needle. My hand-made susudake (smoked bamboo) needle and the HMV 163 are an ideal match to produce right sound. In case of Cortez, the sound is sweet to me instead be muffled. The Cortez unique oval horn opening is made of spruce, which is also used for making the front part of violins. It just looks sweet to me.

[Watanabehi]

Many thanks for posting this. To my ears, the HMV 163 has a more powerful sound, overall. The thumping bass notes are more apparent, as is the mid-range, and the recording room resonance is clearer. The upper range of the Cortez, however, seems stronger.

This makes sense to me since, according to a Cortez owner in a previous post, the tone chamber of the Cortez measures five feet (horn & tonearm). The HMV 163 has a six foot chamber (the same as used in the Victor Credenza), and the expansion rate of its horn is far more gradual than that of the Cortez.

OrthoFan

Thank you for your comment. When I tap the horns of HMV metal re-entrant horn models, (I have HMV202, 163, 130 and 102), they reproduce metal echo sound, which influences the sound reproduction of records. In case of the Cortez, when I do the same thing, it does not reproduce echo sound, but makes hard wooden sound(?), which maybe reproduces the sweet sound (?).

Hideki

[Inigo]

I've always suspected that part of the boom sound on the bass of the 194 is due to horn resonances. I had a project (never landed) of filling the back of the cabinet with sand, covering the entire horn, to kill all resonances and so being able to test its real dead sound.
An easier version would be to simply cover the horn with poly foam, but I suspect then the sound would not be so dead, for the same w would add a considerable mass to damp the vibration, which a later of foam wouldn't do. Yet a simpler version, which I must try, is to place wooden sticks of adequate length fixing the lateral plain sides of the horn to the sides of the cabinet. Sticks just measured to fit squeezed in these spaces. The thumping surfaces of the horn would receive a vibration node on these points, so the vibration frequency of these metal panels would be switched up the least, and maybe killed. It's easy to do, and one of these days I'll try that...