Orthophonic alternatives

[Edisone]

I realized that my 'new' Credenza has a pre-1928-Recall tone-arm crook, so I've swiped the one from the other Credenza. That one has a later Ortho from a portable, which is semi-permanently affixed to the crook (with bath tub caulk, or something - I forget what I used! ) ... Anyway, inside the 'other' Cred there was an Audak Revelation Ultra soundbox attached to a nickel crook with an adapter.

I just played the same record with identical needles using each of the 3 assemblies, and was surprised to hear a big difference with the Audak - much louder bass notes, a "fatter" sound, but maybe at the expense of sparkling highs. The original (early, brass) Orthophonic on its original crook was very very good, but its highs seem to come at the expense of bass, which is adequate but thin. The later spiderless Ortho (from a portable 2-65) on its 'corrected' 1928 crook has the best, least distorted highs, but not the bass response of the Audak.

Has anyone else tried & compared the various electrical-era soundboxes (Victor, Brunswick, Columbia, Audak, etc) ? What were your conclusions?

ps - Moving the motor/turntable off-center, to the right, served to partially correct a tracking error on the earlier Orthophonics; changing the shape of the crook further corrected it. One thing I do NOT like about this Credenza X is the way the tone-arm cannot be moved completely away from the turntable - you must carefully slide records under the darned thing; if you forget & lift the record straight UP, good-bye record !

[De Soto Frank]

Edisone,

What was the Orthophonic recall about, that you referenced ?

I have a VE-8-12 from '27, so your recall comment leaves me curious if there is something about my machine that might be worth upgrading.


Thanks !

De Soto Frank

[estott]

Victor sent out replacement crooks to correct a tracking error. From what I've heard the dealers were very thorough and it is fairly rare to find an unaltered machine. Mine is one of those, but it has the early self supporting arm and the later crook won't fit it properly.

[De Soto Frank]

What years were the incorrect crooks supplied ?

Any pics / obvious hallmarks of one ?


Thanks !

De Soto Frank

[larryh]

At one point I owned a Columbia Viva Tonal 810 I think the number was. It had a very fine sound an a very simple reproducer which still used regular tube gasket which was a snap to restore. I would rate it as good or better than the victor of the period and some early comparisons seemed to give Columbia an edge in sound.

Larry

[Edisone]

Here's a new-old-stock replacement, as it appeared on eebae a few years ago:

OrthoReplacementCrook.jpg (65.27 KiB) Viewed 925 times

Basically, the "U" shape is opened up a bit, to hold the soundbox more at a right angle to the groove as it tracks across the record. On my early Credenza X (serial 5247, turntable in center) the error is so large that it's obvious at a casual glance. I think the increase in volume I'm hearing is because at the uncorrected angle, the groove is trying to vibrate the needle in a direction it can't move. (Hold a soundbox in your hand & turn it in various directions while playing a junk disc - you'll hear what I mean)