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I am hoping someone here will know what this horn is from ! It is very well made and appears to be thick card and papier mache. It is huge (25 inches across) and very sturdy. If you make a noise down it the amplification is very good (not sure if it is exponential or not ?). It is such a strange shape I can't see how it was ever attached to a machine ? Any ideas ???

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Home Made !

Hi,
Don't think it is home made - the quality is too good (see all three pictures). The opening is an almost perfect circle 25inches in diameter - I am not sure many amateurs could have constructed such a complex shape so accurately.......

Gramtastic wrote:Hi,
Don't think it is home made - the quality is too good (see all three pictures). The opening is an almost perfect circle 25inches in diameter - I am not sure many amateurs could have constructed such a complex shape so accurately.......

In my opinion....it looks far too crude to be a factory made piece. I would also say "homemade". Perhaps a mans attempt to experiment....??.Based on it's shape.....not even sure this was intended for a Gramophone. Unless you wanted the sound to travel downward... .

gramophone78 wrote:

Gramtastic wrote:Hi,
Don't think it is home made - the quality is too good (see all three pictures). The opening is an almost perfect circle 25inches in diameter - I am not sure many amateurs could have constructed such a complex shape so accurately.......

In my opinion....it looks far too crude to be a factory made piece. I would also say "homemade". Perhaps a mans attempt to experiment....??.Based on it's shape.....not even sure this was intended for a Gramophone. Unless you wanted the sound to travel downward... .

Sound would travel upwards from the tone arm through the motor and turntable unless other strange bends were introduced , defintely homemade for some reason

soundgen wrote:Sound would travel upwards from the tone arm through the motor and turntable unless other strange bends were introduced

It appears that way on one of the photos, yet on another it looks perfectly aligned for sitting under a motor board i.e. with the end of the tone arm entering the narrow tube at the top, and the large end of the horn pointing out of the front of the cabinet.

How is it oriented in real life Gramtastic?


Even so, there seems to be string to hang it from, suggesting an external phonograph horn, but two sharp and acoustically detrimental bends. I would naively think it would be easier to manufacture without those bends, so they are probably there for good reason.

Did Expert or Ginn ever include such sharp bends in the acoustic paths of their machines? They did in the tone arms, but elsewhere?


If it is a homemade item, there needs to be no real rhyme or reason to it, other than some individual once fancied making it.

Cheers,
David.

Hi David,

As you can see there is an area for attaching to some sort of crane, like a big phonograph horn.If you suspend it from this, the small end is completely horizontal i.e. parallel to the ground.I still can't work out how it would have attached to a machine ! The hole in the end is only about ½ inch across - more phonograph size than gramophone...... Weird !

Looks like if you hung it from a crane and connected it to an Edison it would send the sound towards the back of the machine. Towards an audience?

Looks like it could connect to a Diamond C reproducer, or even a Diamond B with a tizit adaptor.

Almost certainly home-made…. no professional worth their salt would have introduced those sharp corners.

Bill