The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

OrthoFan wrote:

Victrolacollector wrote:Is the HMV 102 basically a Orthophonic Portable?

To add to what Peter said, I'd say it's a perfected Orthophonic portable.

According to "The Perfect Portable" by David Cooper, the executives at the Gramophone Company, when they were designing a follow-on to the HMV 101 portable, studied Victor's Orthophonic portable and found it lacking. Nonetheless, the HMV 102 incorporates all of the major acoustic design features--notably, an air-tight exponentially tapered tone chamber (tonearm & horn) coupled with a modified Orthophonic sound box. Initially, it was equipped with the HMV 16 sound box which was nearly identical to the one fitted to the Orthophonic 2-35 portable. This was soon replaced with the HMV 5a sound box which was fitted with the same diaphragm used in the Orthophonic sound box, but the needle bar pivot was based on the one used for the #4 sound box. Later in production, the 5a was replaced by the 5b sound box which had the same Orthophonic style diaphragm incorporating a modified pivoting ring.

As for the improvements, compared to the VV-2-55 portable, the HMV 102 is lighter weight, has a vastly improved auto-brake, and is more compact, while delivering the same quality sonic performance.

OrthoFan

shoshani wrote:

estott wrote:They are orthophonic in that they are refined developments of the design- what RCA Victor might have built if they hadn't decided to scrap portable production in the early 30's.

They didn't actually scrap portable production, they just kept it low-key. LIFE has ads for Victrola acoustic portables as far forward as 1939.