"The Fabulous Edison Cylinder"

[OrthoFan]

I bought this record around 1974, for about $1 in the sales bin of a Woolworth dime store, and recently spotted a copy on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/05-fabulous-edison-cylinder

It features Edison Amberol recordings of various opera singers--famous and not so famous--played on "one of the few remaining Amberola phonographs," according to the liner notes. Judging from the sound quality, nobody bothered to restore the phonograph, still, it provides a glimpse into Edison's venture into the world of opera.

OrthoFan

[drh]

Not wishing to rain on any parades here, but it's a monument to how much transfers have improved since the LP days. Among other sins, the LP transfers of some selections, alas including the Slezak and Bonci, are flat, needing to run more at 34.2 RPM than 33.3. Moreover, a number of the recordings are from the "dubbed era" of Blue Amberols and would much better have been drawn from the Diamond Disc originals. The album note text is also full of questionable assertions. My advice for those wishing to hear these recordings and unable to play originals would be to find a good, modern digital transfer by somebody like Ward Marston or Mark Obert-Thorn.

[OrthoFan]

I agree completely about the quality of the transfers, which probably explains why my copy of the record--now long gone--was in the dollar bin at a dime store. My ears aren't sensitive enough to detect a difference of less than one RPM for the LP, so I can't speak on that. It's possible that the Amberola they used to record from was running slightly slow, which wouldn't surprise me.

Frankly, the reproducer sounded half-shot, so the phonograph was probably in "as found" condition. I especially disliked the wobble distortion, but that's something I hear on nearly all records played on cylinder phonographs--including those purported to be restored.

OrthoFan

[JerryVan]

The sound quality of this LP was probably something accepted by original listeners as being "old-timey" and was possibly even expected and looked upon fondly, with a sense of nostalgia.