EDISON A-85 disc gramophone

[briankeith]

Very nice machine,,, but what's with all that green felt around the lid and base cabinet? Ehhhhh?

[gramophoneshane]

Very nice machine. I wonder why the felt was added to the lid & cabinet??
Perhaps they were trying to cut down on surface noise from diamond discs with the lid closed?

[Andersun]

With all the felt I would expect the lid to not be able to close normally without stressing the hinges.

[chunnybh]

The felt is very thin, thinner than on the turntable, so it puts minimal strain on the hinges ( Though I did have to tighten all the lid screws.) Yes it's there to cut down noise, a very common feature on a lot of British machines. It looks ugly but it works so I thought I'd leave it. It does sound surprisingly good with both types of discs.

[Valecnik]

Was the felt there already and you replaced it or is it newly added? I've never seen that before on an Edison.

[estott]

I wonder when it acquired that green felt around the top- it is definitely not original and in my opinion it detracts from the appearance.

[Andersun]

If you like it for the sound improvement, I would think that you could remove the lower felt around the cabinet but keep the felt on the lid portion. That way it would look a lot better. Double felt seems a little overkill for me.

[Valecnik]

I just noticed the reproducer holder under the lid. Did that come with the machine? It does not seem like you would be able to close the lid if there was a reproducer in one of the slots.

[chunnybh]

The felt was already there when I got the machine. It has been added by someone in the distant past. As I said before it is a common feature on a lot of high end British gramophones. It's not uncommon to see the whole of the inside of the lid felted. When closed it creates an air-tight seal and does significantly reduce noise from the needle. I agree it looks awful.
The reproducer holder is not fixed as there are no original holes for it and I didn't want to make new ones. I found both the holder and the adaptor arm rattling about in the inside of the body of the phonograph. I do not know whether they originally came with the phonograph. I believe the holder if mounted should be reversed.

[Phonofreak]

I checked my machine and it never had any green felt around the edges, nor any glue traces. Since these were export machines, I wonder if the felt was added once they arrived in Britain.
Harvey Kravitz