Adelphi soundbox

[epigramophone]

This was in a job lot of soundboxes which I purchased recently, and I can find nothing about it on line.
The letters "S.R.C." and the letter "L" below them must stand for something, but what?
There is a very rare Adelphi record label, but a connection is unlikely.

[poodling around]

This was in a job lot of soundboxes which I purchased recently, and I can find nothing about it on line.
The letters "S.R.C." and the letter "L" below them must stand for something, but what?
There is a very rare Adelphi record label, but a connection is unlikely.

According to 'AI' (take it or leave it):

"The Sound Reproduction Company (S.R.C.) was a British component manufacturer active during the height of the gramophone era in the 1920s and early 1930s". .............

and the letter 'L' stands for "large diaphragm size". ...................................

[jamiegramo]

It’s very interesting as this is a believable sounding answer from AI.

If I play around with the words and initials I get completely different answers from AI and not the one you got.

[poodling around]

It’s very interesting as this is a believable sounding answer from AI.

If I play around with the words and initials I get completely different answers from AI and not the one you got.

So, here is the definative 'AI' answer:

In the niche world of acoustic gramophone collecting, a soundbox marked
SRC is often identified by experts as a product made or modified by EMG (E.M. Ginn) or their closely associated workshop partner, Horace Hill.
Here is how the "SRC" marking connects to the EMG legacy:
The SRC and EMG Connection

Manufacturer: The marking SRC typically stands for "Scientific Reproducer Co.". While this was a distinct branding, it is historically linked to the craftsmen who built EMG and Expert machines.
The Horace Hill Link: Horace Hill was the engineer who machined all the metal parts for EMG gramophones in their Grape Street basement. After E.M. Ginn lost control of EMG and founded "Expert Handmade Gramophones," Hill continued making parts for both firms. It is widely believed in the collector community that Hill used the SRC brand for soundboxes he produced independently or under license.

[epigramophone]

Thank you both.

Given that the Adelphi is a cheap generic soundbox, I will go with "Sound Reproduction Company".
Horace Hill's "Scientific Reproducer Company" with it's EMG associations was a far superior outfit. Hill was a personal friend of E.M.Ginn, and rented the basement of 11 Grape Street as an independent engineering business. He made all the metal parts for EMG on site, but I doubt that he made his own soundboxes.
After the great schism of 1930 Hill moved out and set up business elsewhere, but continued to do all the metal work for EMG.

At least AI pointed me in the right direction, straight to "The EMG Story" by my much missed friend Frank James.
Frank's research was always thorough and accurate. What would he have thought of AI ?

[CarlosV]

Frank's research was always thorough and accurate. What would he have thought of AI ?

Most likely FJ would conclude that AI is no more than a plagiarism scam, that expertly compiles information gathered by humans and mixes them to disguise the sources. There are useful and legitimate uses for AI, but information source is not one of them.

[Orchorsol]

Frank's research was always thorough and accurate. What would he have thought of AI ?

Most likely FJ would conclude that AI is no more than a plagiarism scam, that expertly compiles information gathered by humans and mixes them to disguise the sources. There are useful and legitimate uses for AI, but information source is not one of them.

Hahaha, 100% agreed! And the perils of AI 'research' are well illustrated here - the soundbox in question being of a common generic design and nothing whatsoever to do with EMG or Expert.

[OrthoFan]

I normally use perplexity.ai which culls from internet-based material, and does a pretty accurate job, based on my fact-checking of the information provided. Here's the answer I got just now, which cites references to THIS post --

_______________________________________________________________________________________


QUESTION --- I have a gramophone "soundbox" or "reproducer" labeled "Adelphi". It has the initials "S.R.C." and the letter "L" near the bottom of the label. Do you have any information concerning what the initials "S.R.C" stand for?

ANSWER -- I cannot find any documented expansion of the initials “S.R.C.” on Adelphi‑branded gramophone equipment in the standard reference sources I can access, and it appears that collectors on specialist forums have also not yet identified it with confidence.​

Given what is known about early British and European record and gramophone trade marks, there are two main types of possibilities (but these remain educated guesses, not confirmed facts):

A company name: “S.R.C.” could stand for a trade name such as “Sound Recording Company” or a similarly worded firm, since there was a “Sound Recording Co.” active in Britain in the acoustic era that made and supplied records and components for various labels. However, I have not seen direct evidence linking that company to an Adelphi‑marked soundbox, so this cannot be asserted as fact.​

A distributor or contractor’s mark: many small labels and machines carried initials indicating the importer, distributor, or jobbing manufacturer, sometimes together with a letter such as “L” indicating a particular line, model, or London‑based distributor. Again, there is no specific documentation tying “S.R.C.” + “L” on an Adelphi soundbox to any known firm.​

Because existing discographies, trade‑mark lists, and collector discussions do not yet give a firm decoding of “S.R.C.” in this exact context, the most accurate current answer is that its meaning is still unknown in the literature. Your query on the Talking Machine Forum itself is likely at the same frontier of knowledge that the reference works have reached.​

If you want to push this further, the best chances would be:

Checking for any patent or registration numbers on the soundbox and searching those against British trade‑mark and patent records from roughly 1905–1930.

Comparing construction details (back plate shape, diaphragm mounting, needle bar design) with clearly attributed soundboxes from known makers; sometimes the hardware match reveals the true manufacturer even when the front label uses a different brand.

Until someone finds a period advertisement, trade directory listing, or marked patent tying “S.R.C.” to a specific firm, any expansion (such as “Sound Recording Company”) has to be treated as tentative rather than definitive.

__________________________________________________________________________

[poodling around]

It’s very interesting as this is a believable sounding answer from AI.

If I play around with the words and initials I get completely different answers from AI and not the one you got.

That is, of course the problem with AI. Ask different AIs a question and you get VERY different answers ....... all, as you say, giving a believable sounding response.

I don't trust them at all .............. which is why, when it comes to 'take it or leave it' I normally leave it !