The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

emgcr wrote: Fri Dec 05, 2025 1:08 pm ...Polishing, gloss painting or a bright surface finish on the inside of any gramophone horn is disastrous acoustically....

I can confirm that. About 35 years ago, a fellow hobbyist told me that in order to get the most out of my Victor Consolette, the horn had to be rock-hard and totally resistant to vibrations. He recommended painting the inside of the horn with Envirotech epoxy polymer which is a plastic laminate. I did this and the results were HORRIBLE--shrill treble, noticeable surface noise, hardly any mid-range, and no hit of bass. Fortunately, I was able to remove the laminate using Jasco paint remover. The coating literally cracked and popped off the surface. I then applied a coat of matching stain to the wood's surface, and the sound quality returned to normal.

OrthoFan

The sound-box seems to have a heavy brass thing on it which I do not recognise ?

If you squint a bit it might be visible ? It goes from sort of sound-box mid - top left to bottom right ... an attachement maybe ?

Oh, it may have belonged to Sir Thomas Beecham too !

poodling around wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 11:35 am The sound-box seems to have a heavy brass thing on it which I do not recognise ?

If you squint a bit it might be visible ? It goes from sort of sound-box mid - top left to bottom right ... an attachement maybe ?

Oh, it may have belonged to Sir Thomas Beecham too !

Like the face plate, guard(?), shown here?

JerryVan wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 11:52 am

poodling around wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 11:35 am The sound-box seems to have a heavy brass thing on it which I do not recognise ?

If you squint a bit it might be visible ? It goes from sort of sound-box mid - top left to bottom right ... an attachement maybe ?

Oh, it may have belonged to Sir Thomas Beecham too !

Like the face plate, guard(?), shown here?

expert.png

Yes, you could be right Jerry.

I had forgotten about the 'face-plate'.

I hope someone from this forum buys this! It's today........

Passed on £1950 hammer!

The UK market is clearly a dead duck now. I can see me selling everything I want to dispose of to Japan at this rate.

Steve wrote: Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:38 am Passed on £1950 hammer!

The UK market is clearly a dead duck now. I can see me selling everything I want to dispose of to Japan at this rate.

I was playing my MP22 and it was so loud (and clear) that I think I was going deaf, but I think that I heard the auctioneer say something like 'if anyone wants to contact me after the auction about this ...' ?

So, if he said something along these lines, maybe it will sell yet ?

The high bid was probably near, but not near enough, to the reserve, so there may be a deal to be done.

Steve wrote: Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:38 am Passed on £1950 hammer!

The UK market is clearly a dead duck now. I can see me selling everything I want to dispose of to Japan at this rate.

Is Japan still buying?

Garret wrote: Tue Dec 23, 2025 2:17 pm

Steve wrote: Tue Dec 16, 2025 9:38 am Passed on £1950 hammer!

The UK market is clearly a dead duck now. I can see me selling everything I want to dispose of to Japan at this rate.

Is Japan still buying?

Well, as a whole, who knows, but I've just sold an Intermediate Monarch with small size wooden horn for £1800 to a "new wave" collector from Japan who has bought quite a few British machines already. Admittedly it was a very nice machine but there was little obvious sign of British interest.

The Japanese in general are far more interested in the audiophile market than the British and there is an obvious link between modern records and vintage 78s and the machines that play then. The market for buying new CDs is rapidly diminishing here and practically non existent in the States. In Japan it is still the most popular way to acquire music. Japan has a long history with the record and has been renowned for producing the best vinyl records and most lavishly packaged CDs for over half a century now. Japan will be the last place to give up on playing physical media for music so there is hope there.

Japan has been home to some of the most fanatical collectors worldwide over the past 35 years. Sadly some of those older guys have now passed on but it appears there is interest from a younger generation, albeit at this stage it's impossible to quantify how large a group it is or over how long it might be sustained.