The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

The difference (or lack of it) is likely to differ between different gramophones with different acoustic systems, although I haven't had the opportunity to compare on HMV or Victor machines which use the relevant soundboxes. Certainly with EMGs and Experts, the softness and other physical properties of the equivalent rubber couplings can make a really huge difference.

Pathé used a fabric-reinforced rubber tube to connect the sound box to the tonearm. When I got my Pathé table-top machine the original rubber tube was rock hard. Too impatient to order one from ebay.fr., I made one out of automotive heater hose (which is made from fabric reinforced rubber), and it made a HUGE improvement in the sound. Seriously big difference.

Elias Dee wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 10:07 am Ah the old "golden ears" argument used on many audiophile forums. I can hear no difference between a 5a with the new plate vs one with the old so we'll have to agree to disagree.

Well, if by "the old one" you're referring to a hardened rubber isolator of almost 100 years of age, we are talking almost the same thing as a new back sans isolator. Neither are doing the soundbox any justice and thus, you are continuing to shoot yourself in the foot with this argument!

If the "old one" has a perfect condition isolator, I doubt the back-plate was needing replacement to start with?

Elias Dee wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2025 10:07 am Ah the old "golden ears" argument used on many audiophile forums. I can hear no difference between a 5a with the new plate vs one with the old so we'll have to agree to disagree.

There's not much to agree or disagree with. If you can't hear the difference, it doesn't mean that others can't. Are you the judge of all things audible to the human race? Let's maybe not tell people what they can or cannot hear. I can agree, however, that you can't hear the difference.

The only criteria which matters is the evidence of one's own ears, and no two pairs of ears are the same.
I have seen too many HMV 5A/5B soundboxes damaged by hamfisted attempts to remove their isolators.