Can anyone identify this make of sound box?

[Viva-Tonal]

Viva-Tonal, how does it sound on your friend's XI compared to the stock Exhibition or no.2, if you had a chance to hear it?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear it. What few records were with it dated from the late 1940s, not the sort of things one should play on something this old.

[gramophoneshane]

All this talk got me wondering what mine sounds like- I've never actually tried it in all the years I've had the thing. When I got mine, I immediately took the rubber grommet from the back to use on another soundbox, so I've never been able to fit it to a tonearm.
It doesn't sound too bad considering I had to hold the box to the arm on my 202, and there is no grommet to seal it. I'm starting to think I probably should make a new grommet, replace the gaskets & put it use.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ajQ66jVBiU[/youtube]

And just for fun, I did the same thing with my restored Exhibition. I had to use 2 hands for this one, so I couldn't get the camera down in front of the horn, but the Goldring is still clearly a better sounding box compared to the Exhibition.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YevYttvEgIg[/youtube]

[OrthoFan]

Hi Walt:

Many thanks for the information about how the aluminum diaphragms were made. I also remember reading that some type of "spatter" process was used to make diaphragms, but can't find a link to it right now. Don't know if this also applied to aluminum diaphragms.

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Shane, that Goldring sounds very good. I think it would be worth restoring.

The Exhibition doesn't sound too bad, either.

A number of years ago, I tried my Exhibition sound box out on my 4-40, which has a wooden re-entrant style exponential horn of about half the size of the one used in your 202. I used a home-made adapter to fit the sound box onto the tonearm. It was basically a short metal tube with a small slot cut into it--on one end--that fit the throat of the Exhibition sound box. The other end of the tube was cemented to a short rubber hose gasket (culled from an old garden hose!) that slipped tightly over the end of the Orthophonic tonearm.) This provided an air-tight coupling. While it did not measure up to the performance of the Orthophonic sound box, it did a pretty nice job on acoustic records.

If memory serves me, there was a guy on eBay selling similar adapters a few years ago, which enabled people to use an Exhibition/ #2/#4/etc. sound box on an Orthophonic type gramophone.

[gramophoneshane]

I was very surprized at the sound quality of this one. It's almost as good as the 5a/b's I use! I'd love to hear an aluminium diaphragm version now for comparison. I'll definately be doing it up some time in the future.

[estott]

I've got a Goldring reproducer I should have looked at. It has a cast metal back, chrome faceplate, never had a rubber isolator of any sort in the neck but it fits very snugly on a standard tone arm. Currently it buzzes because the pivots are out of whack and there's a dent in the diaphragm but it puts out plenty of sound. I think it would be useful to replace the #4 reproducers on my HMV 109. or my VV 1-70.

[Deccaman]

I am the "lucky so-and-so" who won the Goldring "Juwel-Electro" soundbox for "next to nothing" on eBay! As you can imagine, I was exceedingly surprised to do so, especially as it proved to be in virtually new condition. I have replaced its (expected) hardened gaskets and fitted it, with an adaptor, to my 1928 Salon Decca oak cabinet model (with twin saxophone horns), on which it provides a superbly rich and detailed tone - but not quite as forward as the original Paillard "Salon Decca" soundbox.

[James]

It's obviously an after-market product, fitted onto the arm of a friend's Victrola XI:



The aluminium diaphragm suggests it dates from the 1920s and was perhaps intended to make life easier for electrically recorded discs. I didn't get a pic of the other side of it, but there is one small set screw that holds the box onto the arm.

My father gave me a portable with this reproducer in 1949 while living in Hawaii, and even bought a few in separate boxes for his future use. I still have one somewhere in the house.

James