gunnarthefeisty wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:58 pm
JerryVan wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 3:46 pm
gunnarthefeisty wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 1:23 pm
I guess I should elaborate- I don't collect acoustic 78 machines. Edisons, however, I'm obsessed with.
Ah, I see! Makes sense now. Best of luck in your collecting.
thanks!
My thoughts on these acoustics are that most sound nearly the same- the only ones I really like in terms of mica diaphragm are the unusual ones- small portables, quirky uprights, etc. But those don't show up nearly as often as I wish they would.
Sounds the same?
I would gladly trade you a VV-IV Tuesday for an EMG today.
All jokes aside, acoustic machines offer more flexibility to the experimenter and the way they sound is often up to you. The Victor III you're selling is nice but of course it sounds grim because the reproducer is not rebuilt and the horn has a loose seam. If you can tune it up it'll be amazing and you'll wonder why you ever wanted to sell it. Been there, done that. I told myself I'll get more money but I won't find another Vic III of this caliber. Technical specs are nice, but exotic phonographs are often exotic because they are inferior phonographs.
I've got a BN Graphophone that I thought "sounded the same"(or worse) until I played it with Columbia Records after adjusting the tone arm joints, and, well, it's now a great-sounding player as well as a nice display piece. (My mother has stolen the BN a few years ago and is using it for decoration. What can I say; it's kinda cute.) Both it and the Vic III have different horns & reproducers so listening to them is a completely different experience.
Swapping reproducers, upgrading diaphragms, finishing restorations when they're started--all this helps. If it's a very old machine try different horns--if very old, maybe try listening tubes.
An upright Victrola is not worth tons of money, but they are surprisingly versatile machines, as the old Exhibition reproducer is pretty decent in its own right. It can also be upgraded to a No. 2 reproducer, No. 4, or later metal-diaphragm types of different brands. The cheap reproducer from an E. Toman diecast tonearm such as found on Silvertone or Birch portables is a great "secret weapon" upgrade for a standard Victrola. And if you really dislike the steel-needle sound--try a fiber needle! Fibers and thorns are a whole excellent area for experimentation, and bamboo needles are brilliant.
The humble and ubiquitous Columbia Grafonola is an underrated charmer--the huge No. 6 reproducers, cradling a massive diaphragm in soft neoprene gaskets (you DO rebuild, I hope) can pump out volume and clarity that could entertain a dance-hall full of people. With the nicely recorded Columbia records of the 1910s and '20s the Grafonolas are fantastic players, even the tabletop D-2 or Favorite (which is equipped like an upright with a large horn, 12" turntable, and a powerhouse triple spring motor.)
Placement of the machine in the room makes a huge difference as well. Place an Edison Amberola 30 in an empty basement and stand about 10 yards from the mouth of the horn. Close your eyes. You're in the park, in front of a bandstand and the year is 1912. Life is still rough but now it has ragtime. Put your standard-issue Victrola upright in the corner of a high-ceilinged room--the entire room becomes a horn, and what it lacks in technical perfection it makes up in presence, in the illusion of "being there." Put a windup portable in a bandshell, sit in the bleachers, and you've got an eerie representation of a concert, complete except for the absence of the musicians.
(Though, as they've been dead for years, that would be weird.)
Matching the right record, right horn, right machine and needle and location is part of a delicate dance of physics and the human ear. There is a great deal of pleasure to be had in the Victor batwing record and a conventional hand-cranked machine. Explains why they sold so many of them. Give yourself a chance to get into phonographs kinda slowly. Otherwise you'll have many electric machines that barely run and you won't get to kick back & listen to them.
You started collecting in August. Do not waste your time spending money you don't have, on machines you don't want, to impress people you don't know, who probably don't care. For the eleventy-second time I reiterate, by the tin ear of Tom Edison, take it slow. If you sell off a Victor 3 without restoring it, you will have missed the personal experience of knowing what a good restored one sounds like. If you're looking for the dollar value of your pieces, this is the wrong hobby.
If perchance one wants a hobby that's just expensive for its own sake, I would recommend Lionel trains instead, as, just like a stable full of race-horses, they go round & round in big circles & cost a great deal.
Finish a few projects and put your money into records, good records--ones you enjoy, not just ones that get lots of hits on record blogs and Instagram posts.
Records & phonographs are an unusually relaxing hobby. As Teddy Roosevelt said once, "Comparison is the thief of joy." Make this fun for yourself. Don't worry here about trying to have the best machines, or the rarest, or whatever. Herderz and Jonsheff can wow all of us refinishing a VV-IX. Get into the lifestyle--phonograph culture doesn't require you to buy a lot of crap, just to chill and enjoy what you do have. Besides, don't you have at the minimum a Brunswick Hampton, Victor 3, Fireside, and a mostly functional General Electric H-71 which (I must presume) haunts the byways of Virginia like the furniture Flying Dutchman, condemned to roam abroad on moonless nights squealing and twittering like most superheterodyne receivers tend to do, until some charitable soul brings its lifeless form to Minnneapolis, Minnesota and quells its wandering spirit?
(Between the Hampton & the H-71 you'd have all you need to play 78s. An acoustic Panatrope is built for electrics but plays all lateral records just fine, and the electric machine is just straight-up cool.)
We all bought stuff we didn't need starting out, regretted it, moved on, found out it cost more money in the long run. All fun and games until the car breaks down or you need to go to the doctor or you have college tuition costs. Settle down & have fun--there's plenty of fun to be had with the search unction and you can do fine building your own collection, your way.
I mean, you ask good questions & all, but I have a hunch that you'll really enjoy phonographs a lot more if you take a break & really savor it.
