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CarlosV wrote:

OrthoFan wrote:

CarlosV wrote: I do remember that he specifically stated, "the Orthophonic Victrola was not designed to have a metal horn."

OrthoFan

OrthoFan, the Victor VV-8-35, the one that looks like a small bookshelf, has a metal horn AND the soundbox is the orthophonic.

Hi Carlos:

Yes, I'm very familiar with that model. The same horn was also used in the automatic VV-10-35 -- http://www.victor-victrola.com/10-35.htm

I've pondered the statement that the Orthophonic Victrola "was not designed to have a metal horn" from time to time, over the years. Frankly, I don't know if this was based on actual documentation the collector had uncovered, or speculation on the collector's part!

I think the collector was talking about the system's original design, as developed circa 1923-1924 and described by Maxfield and Harrison in "The Theory of Matched Impedance." Whether any dampening or potential sympathetic vibrations caused by a large, wooden horn were factored into the sound box's development, I don't know. The metal horn, as used in the 8-35, certainly changed the overall sound quality compared to the earlier 8-30; many would say improved or enhanced it. Personally, I prefer the more mellow tone of a carefully restored Credenza.

As for David Cooper's reference to the buzzing No 5 sound box, that would have been very early in the development of the HMV 102--several years before its introduction--when the Gramophone Co. executives were still looking at design options, and were deciding whether to use the VV-2-55 or perhaps the VV-2-65, both of which used the Orthophonic (5) sound box as a model for the produced versions. (They didn't like them, apparently.) It's interesting, though, that they settled for the HMV 16 sound box, which was virtually identical to the modified Orthophonic sound box installed on the VV-2-35 portable -- http://www.victor-victrola.com/2-35.htm -- several years earlier.

OrthoFan

All,

This seems to be as good a thread to ask this question:

Were there variants in the construction of the original Orthophonic (all brass) reproducers, either in design or fabrication. I ask because I have seen images of brass units that appear to have, for the lack of a better term, a "threaded retaining ring" holding the back in place (with the two pin holes for a removal tool) that doesn't look like brass. Some appear grey in color and some seem to have the edges of the holes deformed or chipped.

Thanks,
Robert