The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm sorry, but this is partly wrong. Acoustic records made by the rough etching process ended around 1903,when the wax cutting Johnson process was introduced. So MOST acoustic records were done by the softer wax process.
Another wrong idea is that of the absence of abrasive material in the shellac record compound after the coming of the VE record in 1925. Records continued being made with abrasive compound until they started the vinyl compound near the end of the WWII.
A different thing is that they started to use a better mixture with brighter and softer surface for use with the VE records and orthophonic machines, which had a much better treble response. This enhanced treble sound plus the finger record compound helped in reducing the noise.
Expensive acoustic recordings also had much better compound and shiner and softer surfaces than their popular and cheaper counterparts. And they can sound incredibly good. But they DID contain abrasive material for wearing the steel needles to the shape of the groove.
I believe the absence of hiss is mainly due to the more treble content in the recording than their predecessors. Acoustic recordings had almost no treble response over 2500 Hz, which makes the hiss (over 6500 Hz) much more audible.

The process of cutting the wax masters on a lathe over the transition from acoustic to electric recording by Victor and others did not change. Only the cutting head which changed from a diaphragm to a coil and armature did. The new electric recordings were tailored to sound best on an Orthophonic Victrola however a pre 1925 machine can play the earliest electric recordings with a little forethought and understanding of the processes involved.

In the early days of electric records, accelerated wear forced the Gramophone Company to assemble a "Record Wear Committee" which resulted in recordings withheld from publication if they didn't standup to a wear test. They knew the electrically recorded groove posed challenges to acoustic playback machines both new and old.

The cause of the accelerated wear was increased modulated grooves played with reproducers with poor needle compliance especially evident with earlier reproducers. The wear was particularly bad on recordings with high bass content. I have a 1925 recording of the San Francisco Symphony conducted by Alfred Hertz of the Overture to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde where upon close examination of the grooves laterally modulated by the heavy bass in the recording swing almost into the adjacent groove. Copies I find have all suffered from bad wear. As a result Victor later often took measures in an attempt to alleviate wear such as the groove pitch was often increased on early electric discs to accommodate the wide swing to and fro. Or a engineer standing by during the recording to cut the bass when necessary.

The overall playback amplitude was higher on electric discs but only to a certain point. The high bass amplitude on early electric disc was necessitated by the early electric recording characteristic to accommodate acoustic playback. A "constant velocity" recording characteristic is required in order to achieve a relatively flat playback frequency response from an acoustic playback machine. The playback stylus, as it swings to and fro must follow the same velocity at both low and high frequencies for a flat frequency response. Because the slope of a low frequency wave is more gradual, the amplitude of the low frequency compared to a high frequency wave must be much larger to achieve on playback the constant velocity for a flat response. The problem was that the earlier acoustic soundbox reproducers often could not handle the wide bass excursions.

The Orthophonic soundbox reproducer was designed for somewhat greater compliance to handle the bass. Note that the stylus bar ratio (ratio of the length from needle tip to pivot against the length from pivot to diaphragm center) was altered. The length from needle tip to pivot was increased relative to the pivot to diaphragm center length in order to provide better compliance and reduce the amplitude of the diaphragm swing.

Therefore to achieve better compliance on early (VE) records when played on an exhibition or Victor 2 soundbox, you must not push the needle all the way into the chuck. Instead, extend the needle about ⅛" to ¼". The extended lever will provide better compliance, less wear and a less strident sound when playing louder VE recordings.