Orthophonic Questions

[igic]

I've been collecting for a while, but have questions about orthphonic hardware:

1) Will playing electric 78s on earlier phonographs damage either the non-orthophonic reproducer or the record?

2) Is updating an older phonograph to orthophonic as easy as updating the reproducer to an orthophonic version, or must other hardware be modified as well?

3) Does anyone have a Victor 1-90 for sale?

Thanks,
"igic"

[Inigo]

The orthophonic reproducer is not going to suffer with modern 78s, except that if they're recorded very loud, it will sound a bit distorted, but the reproducer has a protection against excessive needle movement, and will not break. A different matter is the record... later 78s pressed in vinyl-like material can be severely damaged if played with any heavy reproducer. Steel needles will carve on the grooves, and wooden needles as bamboo or cactus will burn the grooves and leave them greyed... Only shellac based 78s must be played with these acoustic heavy reproducers. Shellac record material is abrasive and steel or bamboo needles are prepared for this. Vinyl 78s must be played with electrical record players of the 1940s and later.

Old acoustic non orthophonivc Victrolas (pre-1925) sound better if you replace the original mica reproducer with a metal diaphragm one, orthophonivc type. But this is not anyway the true thing; horns, smaller or larger, had a different design after 1925 which developed an exponential cross section increase law along the horn axis. Older horns were different, the oldest ones following a linear increase law (i.e. conical). The difference in sound lays in better reproduction of the bass and more clarity in the middle range, the larger the exponential horn the better the sound. The apex of acoustic technology were the English EMG and Expert gramophones, provided with large and long exponential horns. Only second to those were the large orthophonic Victrolas, The Credenza or 8-30 being the flagship, although other models as the 8-35 or the larger 10-50 had similar exponential folded horns. The European equivalents being the large HMV models 202/203. All these have and incredible sound when they're properly restored and cared for. Smaller machines as the consolette etc and the small tabletops 1-90 even the portables 2-65, 2-55 or the HMV equivalents 101 and 102, all them have exponential horns of varied sizes. The difference in sound with the older gramophones is noticeable, as the sound is warmer, clearer and more open, noticeably with electrical recordings, but also old acoustic recordings sound better. The old pseudo-conical tonearms and horns tend to produce a tubby sound, somewhat obscured, with no bass nor high treble, and sometimes the sound exhibits an annoying ringing resonance between 1000-1500 hertzs... This is a combined effect of the old mica diaphragms and the conical sound system, and I've noticed a good improvement of you replace an orthophonic reproducer, which has more bass and higher treble, and the resulting sound is better, especially if the horn is long and large.
Of course, since 1925-1926 all major brands and many secondary gramophone makers made orthophonic-like machines, of all sizes, from portables to the largest consoles and uprights, and you'll have excellent sound in Columbia Viva-Tonal range of machines, the Brunswick Panatrope line and the like. But for many of us, the Victor and HMV machines were the ones with the better sound, among the big commercial brands, and of course the EMGs mentioned before, which were done and tuned in small production runs, one by one... called the handmade gramophones.

[igic]

Thank you so much for your kind answer. Much appreciated.