The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Here's my oak 'H' Actuelle. It is the straight-sided case shown open in the upper right catalog illustration. I also have an 'H' in mahogany but I don't have photos of that one. Both have electric motors.







John M

John,

That is really a nice machine. Thanks for posting the pictures. What's your opinion on the sound? Although technically I can't understand how it could work well, mine sounded pretty good as I recall.

Thanks! Mine sound OK, but a little thin and with the same amount of needle scratch as a conventional reproducer. I don't believe the cone was any significant sonic improvement over a conventional reproducer but the sound is much less directional than a horn, hence the myriad doors, panels, and lids that may be opened or closed to suit your mood. Did you notice that my oak one has a slot cut into the right wall to accept records larger than 12"?(!); also, these have the strangest auto stop mechanisms that trip with great violence for such a delicate mechanism. Are you aware that the tube inside the arm that runs between the cone and the needle chuck is hollow and made of extremely thin walled metal? It is actually stronger under compression and easily damaged if the cone is deteriorated to the point that tension is lost. I love Actuelles! So wonderfully bizarre and perfect to their time period!

John M

How do these actually (no pun intended there ) work?

I have a Pathé Diffusor which works on a similar principle but the sapphire is physically attached to the diaphragm. What purpose does the long arm serve on the Actuelle? It looks like an electrical lightweight pickup but it isn't so what's it for?

Well, it acts as a tone arm to efficiently accomodate the diffusor into the cabinet, but also the needle chuck is on a ball swivel. One holds the chuck between thumb and forefinger and rotates the diffusor frame with the left hand. There are two stop positions for it 90-degrees apart -- when the frame is in one position with the word 'Lateral' at the top, the needle chuck pivot points are aligned vertically so the chuck can move side to side. With the diffusor rotated so that 'Pathé' is at the top, the chuck pivots are now horizontal so the chuck can move up and down. It is really a brilliant design. The cap on the discarded needle cup has two small holes to store both ball sapphire and conical diamond styli for vertical play.

John M

Yup, I have both an H and a J. The J is my favorite and the H I ended up using to complete my J. They are so cool and as John notes, the auto-stop is really something to see work when it's properly set up. I had to really tweak the arm on mine to get it to play center start Pathés without wanting to skid, but with patience, I managed.

Sean

Sean,

If you don’t already have a video of this machine, would you be willing to film the auto-stop? I’d be interested in seeing it, and I’m sure it might be of interest to others who might not have had an opportunity to see one of these machines in action, as well.

— MordEth

JohnM wrote:it acts as a tone arm to efficiently accomodate the diffusor into the cabinet,

How does it act as a tone-arm? It appears to be very tiny diameter and quite long, but there is no soundbox at the end as you'd expect with a conventional machine so how does the movement of the sapphire / needle translate into soundwave forms without a diaphragm or stylus bar? Also, how does the arm terminate at the Diffusor diaphragm end? It's not a reflex system, is it? The normal Diffusor model has the sapphire connected directly to the diaphragm and if that arm is hollow (to qualify as a "tone-arm") then presumably the sapphire movement does not directly control the diaphragm in the same method as the Diffusor models?

I suppose a couple of close-up pictures would help explain it better than words!

Can anyone help here please?

I'll see what I can do for a small video of the auto-stop...it's kind of difficult to video the whole idea of it, much less explain the action it goes thru to come to the grinding halt it does at the end.

As for the tone arm / cone setup itself, there is a very thin wire (metal rod?) that goes from the tone arm into the very tip of the cone, I guess almost like a coil wire goes into a speaker cone. Maybe somebody who knows more about these, JohnM? , can explain with a little more detail!

Sean

Thanks Sean,

It appears as though the setup is similar to the HMV Lumiere models. On the latter there is a wooden tapered "stylus bar" which connects with a ball joint at either end to a socket which pivots with the needle movement at the record end and a threaded steel wire at the other end which goes through the centre of the diaphragm. Thus the needle movement is translated indirectly into the centre of the diaphragm, much like the stylus bar of a conventional soundbox.

I wonder if the purpose of the "tone-arm" on the Actuelle is simply to keep that "wire" rigid and in place? If so, it's doing a similar job to the wooden bar on the Lumieres. And technically it wouldn't be a "tone-arm" then?

Steve