The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

bigshot wrote:What about Brunswick with the thin wood molded horns?

I have always thought the Brunswick has a slight edge in tone over the harder sounding Victors. This really depends on the listener. I had a friend over this weekend that I hadn't seen in 50 years. In those days a few friends used to get together and play old records once a week. He and one other friend still preferred the loudness and projection of the victor over the Edison and the Brunswick. My taste has always been more to a less strident or overpowering sound . Like I told him I really never cared for my ears buzzing on loud vocals, but he was unconvinced.

Larry

Unfortunately, the Brunswick arm and sound box are a mirror image to the Victor, so it isn't possible to do a proper A/B to see if it's the sound box or the horn. I tend to think it might be the composition and perhaps the shape of the horn though.

Have you tried putting a medium tone needle on the Victor and a loud tone on the Brunswick? That might even things out a bit volume wise. Were you comparing an electrical recording or an acoustic? I did a comparison of a Caruso record on my VV-X and the Cortez, and I expected the VV-X to do better. But the Cortez maintained the dynamics while sounding more natural. The VV-X got louder and made my ears ring, but it didn't really sound more like Caruso.

Acoustic records don't sound very good on Credenzas. The Brunswick seems to be more versatile.

Acoustic records sound just fine on my 8-9

On the Credenza they tend to sound kind of distant and the dynamics get compressed. Try comparing your 8-9 with a Caruso record to a cabinet acoustic era machine. You'll hear the difference. A loud tone needle might help.

One of the things I've noticed about acoustic era Victrolas is that the horn projects the sound straight out a couple of feet in front of the machine, which gives a sense of realism to vocal recordings. It's as if the singer was standing in the room with you. You have to sit at an angle off center to the left or right to get that effect. It's kind of eerie. You don't get that with the exponential horn either.

Many years ago we hauled an nice oak upright Victrola down to what is now Powell Hall in St. Louis. We were able to play it on the stage where the St. Louis Symphony now plays. In that hall the Victor was wonderful. It projected the sound with out any of the strident effects of it in the home.. The loud portions actually soared though the hall. It had to be heard to be believed. What it did to though was to give the record more variation in presence or volume levels.. It projected the range of volumes quite nicely and made listening pretty amazing..

Latter when I got my first Brunswick I found that it pretty closely matched the experience of the hall. The soft parts were soft but the loud parts expanded like in the hall but without the buzzing ears. Ever since I have had respect for the Brunswick somewhat figuring its the closer to the actual experience of the singer in the hall. I never have heard a live opera where the ear drums buzz like the Victor in person.

Larry

Like most sound reproduction, even modern technology, the acoustics of the room is everything. When I got my Brunswick, I moved my VV-X to a side wall. I find myself never playing it, because it doesn't sound good there. It really needs to shoot the sound a distance. Even through it isn't factory stock, I am really glad my Cortez came with wheels. I can roll it out to the absolute sweet spot for the room.