Leaves me emotional as well!

[Sidewinder]

Not a dry eye in the house: A favorite video back with a new title "Incredible Opera Phonograph Restoration Leaves Entire Shop emotional"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGF5oXnMkE

[Steve]

Having done all that work to it it's such a pity it still sounds so terrible. I know they should sound a lot better than that but the wow and flutter renders it unlistenable to me.

[JeffR1]

Isn't that flutter caused by a defective off-centre recording ?

[52089]

Isn't that flutter caused by a defective off-centre recording ?

No, it's most likely caused by a worn out or missing stabilization wire in the flywheel assembly, or perhaps a governor that's a bit out of whack.

[Steve]

Isn't that flutter caused by a defective off-centre recording ?

No, it's most likely caused by a worn out or missing stabilization wire in the flywheel assembly, or perhaps a governor that's a bit out of whack.

Either way, it's nothing that can't be restored. I saw this as a bit of a missed opportunity. Non gramophone / phonograph collectors often asked me about the sound quality of the instruments I own as their perception is often misguidedly informed by what's shown on TV and films, where invariably the machines have poor condition soundboxes, rusty overused needles, poor adjustment and worn out records. People expect scratchy sounds, dismal amounts of wow and flutter, poor pitch stability and a ragged "tinny" quality. When I've told them (or indeed demonstrated to them) the exact opposite, they are usually surprised.

I'm still waiting to be impressed by a really well restored and adjusted phonograph after 30 years. This is one reason I only collect disc machines.

[epigramophone]

So here it is again, the one they got wrong.
The rape of the Opera certainly left me emotional. All the horn needed was a clean. Will Kirk should never have been asked to refinish it, but he did as he was told by the "expert". Then there was the way in which the two halves were glued together! If only they had been asked, the metal workers in the team could easily have made a new brass collar to the correct pattern.
The end result playing an out of round cylinder too fast gave a false impression to non-collectors of what an Opera should sound like. The tenor Ernest Pike sounded like one of the Chipmunks.

Fortunately my wife and I only have happy memories of our visit to the Repair Shop with our Georgian Desk in Series 2.
It was at the time the oldest item ever featured on the program, beautifully restored by the youngest member of the team.

[Inigo]

It's true... Despite the over-restoration and the machine having lost its originality, etc, etc, undoubtedly it has been overhauled to a magnificent aspect for this family, which are very happy with it. And in this state of things, it's a real pity that it has been left with that bad sound. Operas can sound incredibly well, but this poor family will be left with the painfully common sensation to all people that our grandpas used to listen to music so defectively reproduced, and that the acoustic machines sounded so bad. My friends are overwhelmed when they listen to one of my well restored machines.. they simply didn't know they can sound so well. People is used to listen to gramophones in poor state in the flea markets, antique shops or occasional exhibitions (these usually buy means of those horrendous crapophones) and they get enormous surprise when they listen, rarely, to one in good shape. What a pity!

[edisonplayer]

It made me emotional, all right.It made me disgusted!That Opera sounded HORRIBLE!! edisonplayer.

[JeffR1]

I cringed when the guy was using a disc sander on the compounded curved horn _ and there goes all the original lathe marks, if that's what they were, certainly factory sanding marks.
My mouth dropped open when the guy said "that is the way it should look" NOT !

Maybe they had a budget to work with and they were simply told to get it to work, but not to work well.

That show never really talks about the cost of things and what people can afford financially.

[Steve]

Another crap BBC program, that's why. Don't expect any substance or depth from BBC 1 these days as they're too concerned with competing with ITV for the lowest denominator materials.