The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Loudbass wrote:After his split from EMG, Ginn started making gramophones under the name 'Expert'. This 4 Spring soundbox can be seen as a repost to EMGs 4 Spring. It was intended for use with Ginn's large external horn gramophones; very similar to the EMG machines, but with some different design features, notably fewer bends in the horn. There are many references to these wonderful gramophones in the British and European threads in this forum. They are wonderful sound boxes and definitely worth trying on other machines as well.

The departure of E.M. Ginn caused some trouble for EMG - employees were told to inform customers EMG stood for "Exclusively Made Gramophones"

CarlosV wrote:

djoutrage wrote:How much better are these than a good meltrope? that's a lot of cash for a soundbox!

Not significantly, and worse than an Orthophonic in good shape. The EMG soundbox is an improvement of the basic Exhibition design, with aluminum diaphragm and a smart back attachment, also used on the Meltrope. The high price is for the brand, either EMG or Ginn, and the respective scarcity.

I respectfully beg to differ. I have a number of Meltropes, all in a fine state of tune, and excellent as they are, my EMG and Expert soundboxes are spectacularly better on those machines. Perhaps when used on other gramophones there's far less discernible difference. I know some people scoff at all this, but comparison isn't valid unless the acoustic impedance of the horn system is well matched to the soundbox.

Orchorsol wrote:

CarlosV wrote:

djoutrage wrote:How much better are these than a good meltrope? that's a lot of cash for a soundbox!

Not significantly, and worse than an Orthophonic in good shape. The EMG soundbox is an improvement of the basic Exhibition design, with aluminum diaphragm and a smart back attachment, also used on the Meltrope. The high price is for the brand, either EMG or Ginn, and the respective scarcity.

I respectfully beg to differ. I have a number of Meltropes, all in a fine state of tune, and excellent as they are, my EMG and Expert soundboxes are spectacularly better on those machines. Perhaps when used on other gramophones there's far less discernible difference. I know some people scoff at all this, but comparison isn't valid unless the acoustic impedance of the horn system is well matched to the soundbox.

I agree, my two EMG soundboxes are both far better than my two Meltropes in terms of sound quality, but I'd never turn down a decent Meltrope, especially the I, which to me seems to sound better than my III, both of which have been serviced. The I, however, does outperform my EMG boxes on certain records, especially loud dance band discs, for some reason. Maybe it's because I have my EMGs both "tuned" as it were for classical discs, which I play most often.

Of course, others will have differing opinions, I'm sure.

Sean