The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I am happy to say that the past few days I have been testing a new Edison Diamond Disc stylus made by the Bruce Diamond Company for Steven Medved. We have all known for some time that another source for the disc stylus was the talk of many collectors, myself included. The True Tone Diaphragm work I have done caused me to go though quite a number of used an new stylus. All of which failed me in some way or the other. Steven and Ron H began a search for a company who had the ability to produce the quality of stylus we all wanted. Its taken a few years to have it finally all fall in place an I am pleased to be first to test the new stylus.

The sound is remarkable for its clarity, and best of all no obvious issues with the stylus in the run off area. I have played around 30 selections now with no sign of record wear when feeling the stylus with your finger. All the years I have tested I have had a number of selections that no matter what I did with the diaphragm I couldn't get rid of some blurry sounds over loud vocals and horn sections. It turns out that the issue was the stylus rather than the diaphragm. I now have played though that bombastic Inca Rhapsody for piano and tonight is the first time I heard it play without distortion. Same for operatic selections I thought wouldn't play correctly either. I had blamed my diaphragm and tired all kinds of things to no avail which proves that your not going to get the maximum results unless you have a really quality stylus. The popular selections played crisply both acoustic as well as electrical, (which I have only a few ). Anyone who really wants to hear the maximum from their Edison will be very pleased with the sound I am sure.

Steven Medved thinks it will be around two months before he is able to start providing stylus to those who are interested. It will probably depend on how quickly Bruce can produce the stylus as to the ability to provide them. A big hats off to those who are making this possible.

Larry Hollenberg

That's great news Larry! Thank you very much for this information, and thanks to Steve and Ron for making this happen.

Andreas

Hats off to those making this possible. Now a alternative is available in the DD stylus market. Will they also be making diamond stylus for the Amberola reproducers?

That's great to hear. I'd been waiting for Steve to let me know when these would become a reality.

As far as diamonds for cylinder reproducers, the ones Expert is making for those are fine for some reason. I have had two of them in a couple of my Diamond Bs for well over a year now and have probably played a couple thousand cylinders with each one.

Seam

I have the question about the amberola stylus into Steven and will respond to that when I hear back. However as mentioned the Expert problem seems to be exclusively with the Disc stylus for some reason.

Larry

I just played though a number of records that I had pretty much set aside as not sounding good, not knowing if it was the record or perhaps my diaphragm. That has been answered. It was the stylus. I have a Rappold selection here that no matter till now which new stylus I was using or original edison diamond had places where it was distorting badly. Today its perfectly fine and very amazing sounding. I also found that the stack of popular pieces I had set aside as perhaps flawed all worked much better and the vocalist sounded real with no overtones to muddy the sound. I tend to think the shape of the original stylus which has been recreated here is riding the grooves as intended where as the other available diamond is a modification of that shape, and perhaps not to its advantage.

Larry

larryh wrote:I have the question about the amberola stylus into Steven and will respond to that when I hear back. However as mentioned the Expert problem seems to be exclusively with the Disc stylus for some reason.

Larry

Just speculation, but I would imagine the 50% heavier tracking weight of the Diamond Disc would be a factor.

Thanks for keeping us posted, Larry. I suspect they'll have difficulty keeping up with the initial crunch of orders!

I have a note from Steven he says:

"I am currently have and am installing Diamond ABC diamonds, I tested one out on a near mint Blue Amberol and it did not remove any material

The Model H sapphire, the Diamond ABC, and the DD diamond all have contract areas of .0035. The difference in the diamonds is the angle, the Diamond ABC diamonds are 80 degrees, the Diamond Disc diamonds are 60 degrees. Bruce welds their diamonds to the stainless steel assembly"

Steve"


Hope this helps those with amberolas.


Larry

This testing is quite interesting.. I have a stack of records that I set aside due to issues with the sound which I had fairly well decided was the fault of my diaphragm in some way or a worn recording. All were popular selections with vocals. The vocals always had that sound of blurred or even static kind of interference over some places. Not one of them displayed that today! I also have a very loud recording by Marie Rappold which I have tired to play with every new or used stylus always with the same results. A distortion to the loudest passages which rather ruined the music for me.. However I decided it would be a good test and sure enough, absolutely clear.

Larry

Larry, I would like to pass a suggestion up the supply chain through you: if the diamonds are to be supplied already mounted in a "T" bar, I think it would be very helpful to collectors to stamp a distictive mark of some kind on the "T" bar to distinguish them from orginals and shoddy imitations.