Victrola 8-35 (1928) forgotten son of Credenza?

[phonogfp]

Dan, thanks for posting those horn photos. Although I've owned an 8-35 (and enjoyed it very much), I never removed its horn.

To my ear, the 8-35 is a bit more brilliant than the 8-30, but with slightly less power in the low end.

Nice machines, but - as noted by others - the albums are key to its appearance. I was lucky in that all mine were there, but I've seen several 8-35s sadly devoid of them. That would seem like a good project: reproducing the album spines to be attached to generic albums.

George P.

[Garret]

The horn photo reminds me of a certain west coast collector who checked for air leaks in his 8-35 horn by running water through it with his garden hose!

The 8-35 is quite possibly one of the finest-sounding American phonographs ever made. It certainly has a brighter sound than the Credenza. I agree with George that I don't think it has as much bass.

Is the 8-35 the finest sounding phonograph made? Not by a long shot. HMV certainly beat Victor in this regard. The somewhat diminutive HMV 163 has a sound on par with the Victor Credenza and the 8-35. The slightly larger HMV 193/194 and HMV 202/203 sound substantially better. Then of course, there are the EMG and Expert gramophones. You haven't lived until you've heard an EMG or Expert!

[Moooperator]

I have owned three 8-35's, always moving up and swapping to get a good set of albums. Although my 8-30 and 8-35 are not side by side I'll try to get a video of the two playing the same record. I have thought that since so many of the 8-35's have no albums of making wooden boxes and applying a printed canvas image of the albums for fit the shelves. you could still store records in the boxes and at least it could have the appearance of a complete machine with albums.

[howardpgh]

That horn looks like one of those Altec "Voice of the Theater" horns.

[Couch Potato]

Really appreciate the photos of that horn out of the machine. A picture truly is worth a thousand words if you have seen the blueprint diagrams of these which you cannot make heads or tails out of. I have a 4-7 which has a wood horn which looks very puzzling from the outside. Don't think it is designed to be removed (at least not easily) so your photo's remove the puzzlement.

[marcapra]

That's a good idea Mooroperator about the canvass with the album designs printed on it. How would that be done, anyway? I can tell you that collecting the albums in good or excellent condition was very difficult and took many years.

[FloridaClay]

Thanks for the photo of the horn. Very interesting!

These are beautiful machines when complete. The issue is that when the albums are gone or in tatters they are much less desirable. Perhaps someone will get replacements made and make them available some day.

Clay

[HisMastersVoice]

I have an 8-35 as well. I absolutely love it! I too wish someone were reproducing the albums, I'd love to be able to store records in the machine but I don't dare even remove them unless absolutely necessary. The leather is so brittle it flakes off if you even look at them!

[Moooperator]

I have a nice looking set of albums that I could scan the spines and print them on canvas stock. My retired uncle has a great wood shop so I could get him to produce a few set of boxes that could hold records. I'm sure there are several owners out there that would want them because it is the "books" that make this victrola so beautiful. He will be here Christmas and I'll give him the measurements.

[Cody K]

Yamaphone, thanks so much for posting the pics of the horn outside its natural habitat! As Couch Potato says, it's really hard to get a sense of the structure of these horns from the diagrams. There's no way to examine a Credenza horn closely without wrecking it completely, so seeing the metal variant out of the machine really makes it dimensional and makes the concept clearer than any verbal description could. Awesome!

Both the OP's and HMV's machines seem to have a good, age-appropriate warm sheen to the finish. Did you have to do much to restore that?