The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Anyone come across one of these before? I personally never have. Any details or thoughts about this phonograph?

"No"... to both questions...

A typical German Grammophon of the lower price class sold by departement stores around 1925/30. Usually only the case had been made by the company, hardware like motor, tone arm and so on bought from wholesalers. Tone arm, brake and speed control looks very much like made by the big Lindström trust (Beka, Odeon, Parlophon). Those cheap "No Name" Gramophones (like we call them here) sold in the thousands.

The Edephon Sprechmaschinen Fabrik (in the town Dresden) went bankrupt in November 1928.

Thanks so much for the information; the main thing that stood out to me about this one is the size of the horn, as you can see the opening is a fraction of the size of a victrola's.

Those small, round horns (mostly made out of wood) are very common with gramophones from Germany from the late 1910s up to the late 1920s. You´ll find them very often with table tops, equal if they had been made by a small company as a "budget machine" or higher priced by the "big names".

How do those small horns sound? Just curious.

If it is edephone, the logo should be behind the right door next to the horn?

It definitely is an edepho, it has the logo.

Not really good... Ok with acoustic recordings, but usually bad with electric recordings (Most recording companys in Germany switched to electric recording not before c. Summer 1926).

You also have to remind, a lot of German Citys and flats had been jam-packed at this time. Up to 6 or more humans in a small flat were common - 40 or more humans in a three floor apartment building also. You haven´t the space (and money) for better (and louder) sounding Gramophones. Those "No Name" tabletops sold for around 50.- to 80.- Mark. Cheap in comparison to the better Gramophones sold by Electrola, Lindström, Homokord, Vox and so on, but still approximately the monthly income of a "ordinary" laborer. Thats why you could buy these Gramophones often by a monthly rate of about 5.- Mark.

Thanks for all the info; it's great to have Europeans on this forum to help us North Americans!