Perfect Portable Picnic Music

[alang]

[quote="syncopeter"]For these gatherings one needs 1935+ records. Only they are loud enough. Even with loud needles the earlier one are too soft. Find a spot where you can put down your portable horizontal in all dimensions and within seconds you'll have loads of people looking and listening. They will be amazed how good those 'old' machines actually sound. I'm not talking about a VTLA, a wonderful machine, but sounding cr*p with anything made after 1920. I'm talking of post 1925 A-brand portables. I did a lot of parties with my 1930 HMV table model and people just didn't believe that the music came from that little horn on the front.
I well remember hearing my first acoustic gramophone, an HMV 102 portable, when I was 12, playing Miller's In The Mood. I knew it, because I had it on LP, but that stupid severely old-fashioned machine did it so much better.
quote]

I don't know about the low volume. My daughter had an outdoors wedding and we played the wedding marches from Mendelssohn and Wagner and they were plenty loud to be heard over 50 yards. They were post 1930 records and on a 1923 Victrola VV-50 with a well adjusted No.2 reproducer they sounded loud and far. Not like a rock concert of course, but that's not the intention.

Andreas

[coyote]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Volume is not an issue for my as-yet-to-happen picnic. I was more interested in setting a mood for the people at said picnic (most of whom have an interest in pre-WWII things, but not necessarily music) rather than attracting passers by.