The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

So for all you guys on the other side of the pond, what can you tell me about this machine:







Thanks for any help.

JP

It's a model 511, which started life as the 510 lumiere pleated diaphragm machine. Because they were so unsuccessful, the record cabinet was fitted with a horn & a normal tonearm added. They're not an easy machine to find from my experience.
The same thing happened to the table model lumiere machine (model 460) which became the 461. I think they're a 1925-26 conversion.

gramophoneshane wrote:It's a model 511, which started life as the 510 lumiere pleated diaphragm machine. Because they were so unsuccessful, the record cabinet was fitted with a horn & a normal tonearm added. They're not an easy machine to find from my experience.
The same thing happened to the table model lumiere machine (model 460) which became the 461. I think they're a 1925-26 conversion.

Sounds like it would be worth picking up? Is it an exponental horn? Any clue on the sound quality.

Well, my bad luck. It's already sold.

And boy, was the price right....$200

That would have been a nice machine to acquire. Somebody got a bargain. The 511 has a long coiled horn and sounds quite good according to a friend who has one, although as has been stated previously, it's no Orthophonic/re-entrant.

I have a couple of the HMV saxophone horn machines which also have the #4 soundbox and long horn. Again, not as good as a re-entrant, but they absolutely blow the socks off a conventional Victrola, and they handle electric recordings tolerably well.

Zeppy wrote:Well, my bad luck. It's already sold.

And boy, was the price right....$200

We could start up another thread for all the deals that slipped past us—that was definitely an interesting topic on our previous home.

— MordEth

And to top it off, it was local....

Might as well share the Craig's list add, since I don't have to worry about competing offers:

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/ ... 41516.html

And it was good enough for Compton Mackenzie ..founder of The Gramophone. I've posted this pic before in a previous life, but here it is again. The chap on the right is Christopher Stone who was Mackenzie's brother-in-law and co-editor. This pic was taken in his home on one of the Channel Islands...Jethou, it was. Stone became kind of a media celebrity due to his record review programme on the early BBC.

Jim

Jim,

Great picture! Thanks for sharing it with us!

I’m busy cutting out more stuff to share in other image threads.

— MordEth