The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Every so often--not often, mertcifully--I get this crazy urge to get a gear-driven Amberola (say a 50) and then figure out how to outfit it with my 11-panel signet horn. That way I could have the smoothness of gear-driven with the big, full sound of a large external horn. But that of course would he un-original, a bastardization, ugly, shameful; to be kept out in the garage and listened to when no one else would be around to share in one's shame.

You gotta imagine though that "back in the day" some phonograph owners did stuff like that.

pughphonos wrote:Every so often--not often, mertcifully--I get this crazy urge to get a gear-driven Amberola (say a 50) and then figure out how to outfit it with my 11-panel signet horn. That way I could have the smoothness of gear-driven with the big, full sound of a large external horn. But that of course would he un-original, a bastardization, ugly, shameful; to be kept out in the garage and listened to when no one else would be around to share in one's shame.

You gotta imagine though that "back in the day" some phonograph owners did stuff like that.

That should be easy: an elbow, some rubber tubing, a floor crane, and removal of the Amberola's lid; you wouldn't even hafta modify anything ....

I've been thinking of how to set a cylinder player inside a Credenza so as to use its internal horn ...

You wouldn't be the first to make up your ideal cylinder phono out of original parts and some new ones. Some people obsess over everything having to be original, but I think there is a place for a good re-invention of some of the traditional ideas and machines. Call them "frankenphones" or whatever, but if they are well done they can be very enjoyable, especially if you are looking for the very best performance that you can get from an acoustic cylinder player. We had this discussion some months ago here, but you may not have been a member then.

Here is an example of a friend of mine's (Tom Kimble) approach to this subject. He's a mechanical engineer, and he used his expertise to fashion a machine with an Amberola 50 motor which is quiet and smooth, made his own case, and more significantly, designed and built his own large EXPONENTIAL horn for this machine. He calls it the "Ediphonic" and it is the best sounding acoustic cylinder player you'll ever hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhLjcfswHb0

This is the only machine to give the Edison Amberola I and III any competition. And it's probably better by virtue of the exponential horn which is also longer and larger than any of the amberolas.

I no longer feeling quite so strange.

Edisone, as soon as you have your orthophonically-charged cylinder player up and running, do post videos. Greg, I actually remember seeing that "Ediphonic" phonograph on You Tube before I joined this forum. These are all legitimate experiments in seeing how the acoustical cylinder phonograph might have developed in the 1920s had Edison or anyone else been truly interested in its survival and advancement.

Ralph