HMV 105

[Steve]

It's really quite cheap for a rare portable from HMV in very good condition but the current market and other collectors' views on these things never ceases to surprise me. This on the day I was able to buy a mahogany No. 2 (Intermediate Monarch) complete with its original mahogany horn for £750 on Ebay, not even the The Saleroom! Add to this it's in a very clean honest unrestored state and has the rarely found double-spring motor fitted to it as it was made during 1916 when supplies of single spring motors ran short.

There is even a surviving period newspaper inside it to soak up the oil spills and grease. If I didn't already own the exact same machine, it'd be an absolute keeper, that's for certain, but where have all the serious collectors gone?

People may now be collecting machines that they can actually use and sound good. Not that I've heard the sound from a machine like this, but I'd rather use the storage space for a 102 to play records. Even on my Monarch Snr I use a Meltrope I in place of the exhibition as it just sounds a lot better (to my ear). Similar to early Berliner machines - they have "the look", they're rare and people want them because they are early, but do they even sound that great when compared to something later?

Well, that's an interesting theory and you might be right but certainly the "lay people" I meet who say they wouldn't mind getting an old gramophone almost never want a portable, a table model, or a cabinet machine, irrespective of the sound reproduction; they all want "one with a horn", which has usually always been the case. Of course we both know what that can start in motion once you have your horn machine sat in the corner, but that's another story!

As for more serious collectors, they might be prioritising for space as you are but personally speaking I haven't met many collectors yet who buy for sound quality alone apart from those perhaps investing in the large HMV re-entrant models or especially EMG's and Expert gramophones.

[leels1]

It's really quite cheap for a rare portable from HMV in very good condition but the current market and other collectors' views on these things never ceases to surprise me. This on the day I was able to buy a mahogany No. 2 (Intermediate Monarch) complete with its original mahogany horn for £750 on Ebay, not even the The Saleroom! Add to this it's in a very clean honest unrestored state and has the rarely found double-spring motor fitted to it as it was made during 1916 when supplies of single spring motors ran short.

There is even a surviving period newspaper inside it to soak up the oil spills and grease. If I didn't already own the exact same machine, it'd be an absolute keeper, that's for certain, but where have all the serious collectors gone?

People may now be collecting machines that they can actually use and sound good. Not that I've heard the sound from a machine like this, but I'd rather use the storage space for a 102 to play records. Even on my Monarch Snr I use a Meltrope I in place of the exhibition as it just sounds a lot better (to my ear). Similar to early Berliner machines - they have "the look", they're rare and people want them because they are early, but do they even sound that great when compared to something later?

Well, that's an interesting theory and you might be right but certainly the "lay people" I meet who say they wouldn't mind getting an old gramophone almost never want a portable, a table model, or a cabinet machine, irrespective of the sound reproduction; they all want "one with a horn", which has usually always been the case. Of course we both know what that can start in motion once you have your horn machine sat in the corner, but that's another story!

As for more serious collectors, they might be prioritising for space as you are but personally speaking I haven't met many collectors yet who buy for sound quality alone apart from those perhaps investing in the large HMV re-entrant models or especially EMG's and Expert gramophones.

I suppose those that want the look of an external horn machine aren’t too bothered about authenticity.
I’d have gone for something like this but then I think to myself, would I ever use it, or would it be a “nice to have” sat on a shelf and not used. I’d be much happier listening to a 102 or a Columbia 113a!

[Orchorsol]

If anyone here does want one of these, I have one I'd sell.