Victor M on eBay

[doublemike]

Hello!

What about this?
http://www.ebay.it/itm/VICTOR-M-PHONOGR ... 663wt_1171

[gramophone78]

What about it???. The Ebay ad seems very clear. If you are in Italy and it appears they are willing to ship there.....you should look at it seriously "IF" you like it. Most US sellers will not sell or ship to Italy or Spain anymore. Therefore, that's a rare bird on it's own.

[doublemike]

That seller can ship his item in Italy.
My unique doubt is on the sound quality, as estimated by the (too short?) video-clip.

[gramophone78]

Any "front mount" machine with a wood tone arm is not a machine one would use to play their priced records. These type of machines are more for a collector that does just that.....collects machines and displays them. However, for whatever reason, most (not all) US sellers will not sell or ship to your country. So, it really depends what your wanting and if you can get it easily or not.

[Zeppy]

As said, the sound quality on a front mount machine will leave you wanting, and it will probably be less than gentle on your records. However, that said, you'll note that it was late enough in production that it also has the mounting for a back mount, and the two screws that hold that back bracket are already there (and the plate that says "remove for backmount" either has been removed or was never there). For another $300-400, you could get a back bracket and tone arm, and perhaps pick up another horn for another couple hundred. I don't think you would really be messing with the originality of the machine, as due to the lack of the plate covering the back mount, and the fact that the mounting screws are already there, it is impossible to tell what the original configuration of the machine was (perhaps converted back to a front mount?). The back mount would improve the sound quality somewhat, and also be less cruel to your records.

[WDC]

From what I can see in the video the machine appears to work pretty good and steady. Of course, if you do not point the microphone towards the horn, just sideways you'll not be able to pickup the full sound.

In my opinion it's not really as bad to play records with a front mount. Any acoustic playback will cause significant wear anyway. The inertia of most acoustic arms is often underestimated.

[Valecnik]

The video sound quality is poor but that machine will sound as it did when it was new, except for some extra motor noise, if you play acoustic discs. It won't sound great.

If you are looking for a horn phonograph to occasionally play acoustical discs, I'd opt for a rear mount Vic III, IV, V (all double or triple spring) or a roughly equivalent HMV Gramophone model you could more easily find in Europe.

[doublemike]

I've bought it. Final price US$ 1.675,00 + shipment.

[doublemike]

I've got it yesterday.
It sounds louder and clearer than into video-clip instead of ad.

ahem ...it now should be affirmed that I'm a little collector?

[Uncle Vanya]

Congratulations!

Closer to home, you might look for one of the larger Palliard "Maestrophone" or "Maestrophono" machines, rear mount machines with large horns. These turn up in your neck of the woods for a few hundred euros. More common in the Comtoise and in the Tyrol than south of Rome, but they do turn up.




These machines play records very well indeed. The large "Concert Automaitque" machines sold in France are also very fine players, loud and clear.



The "Concert Automatique" machines do turn up for under 1000 euros, I'm told. They play vertical-cut discs exceptionally well, and with a simple adaptor will also reproduce ordinary lateral records in fine fashion.

A late machine, designed to play the electrically recorded discs produced after 1925 might also be something to look out for. The large British HMV "Re-entrant" gramophones are really exceptional, but the larger examples tend to be expenisve, as they are in demand in the former "Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere", but the large Columbia "Viva-Tonal" machines receive realtively little attention from collectors, despite having exceptional build and sound quality.