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That's just a vv-ix. I mean, right?

Also... Kinda brazen on the decal...

That poor record! I hope they didn't try to play the record that way...with a bent/loose needle and on the wrong side of the record!

That is a really interesting and cool machine. I wonder if it is a Victrola IX imported to Japan, or made in Japan using a Victrola case and parts. The arm and reproducer are unusual.
Harvey Kravitz

The soundbox is very similar, but not identical, to a UK Columbia No.9 of c1929.

Columbia opened a factory in Japan in 1927, so this could be their version of the No.9, and if a Japanese origin is suspected for this machine it's use might make sense, even though the machine is clearly based on a Victor/HMV design.

Here is an image from the 1929 UK Catalogue :

Now i wanna buy it just to see if it has orthophonic like ball bearings there in the needle holder bar stabilizer

They certainly look like ball bearings, but I have never had to dismantle a Columbia No.9 as there has never been the necessity. Unlike the crumbling pot metal Victor/HMV soundboxes of the Orthophonic era, the Columbia No.9 and it's successor the No.15 are made of brass and steel.

I have always thought it odd that whilst Columbia progressed from pot metal to brass for their soundboxes, Victor/HMV regressed in the opposite direction, probably at the behest of their cost accountants.

Oceangoer1 wrote:That poor record! I hope they didn't try to play the record that way...with a bent/loose needle and on the wrong side of the record!

It's the new way of digging deeper grooves!

daverob wrote:Now i wanna buy it just to see if it has orthophonic like ball bearings there in the needle holder bar stabilizer

epigramophone wrote:They certainly look like ball bearings, but I have never had to dismantle a Columbia No.9 as there has never been the necessity. Unlike the crumbling pot metal Victor/HMV soundboxes of the Orthophonic era, the Columbia No.9 and it's successor the No.15 are made of brass and steel.

I have always thought it odd that whilst Columbia progressed from pot metal to brass for their soundboxes, Victor/HMV regressed in the opposite direction, probably at the behest of their cost accountants.

I just disassembled a Columbia No. 15 Reproducer and there are, in fact, ball bearings. They look like they work just like the Orthophonic ones do, except there are screws with pivot points and locking nuts on them to hold them in place from side to side. The one on the machine pictured above looks slightly different. Not sure if there is a place for ball bearings, but who knows!

epigramophone wrote:They certainly look like ball bearings, but I have never had to dismantle a Columbia No.9 as there has never been the necessity. Unlike the crumbling pot metal Victor/HMV soundboxes of the Orthophonic era, the Columbia No.9 and it's successor the No.15 are made of brass and steel.

I have always thought it odd that whilst Columbia progressed from pot metal to brass for their soundboxes, Victor/HMV regressed in the opposite direction, probably at the behest of their cost accountants.

I don't believe that either HMV or Victor could have known in advance about the instability of pot metal over time. It offered huge advantages in being able to use a casting with only a cleaning up and painting, rather than machining it. The late pot metal Orthophonic soundboxes fixed the formula & they are excellent.