The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Well, that's an unusual design....

Unusual design, yes, but these outperform just about any other soundbox you'll ever hear when properly rebuilt and adjusted, I have two of them. You can also use them on any standard Victor machine that would take an Exhibition, #2 or #4 reproducer and be blown away by the improvement.

Sean

Rare, highly sought after and consequently expensive. A similar soundbox made almost £1000 on UK eBay recently, almost certainly a record price which may have set a precedent.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on whether you are buying or selling.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181990293328?ru ... 630wt_1220

Wow! Geez, I paid around 350 USD for mine with the original box and the name of who it was "made for" from eBay.uk. I was happy! My other EMG soundbox was the earlier style that came with my Mk IX. Of course, you just never know with eBay. I bought a Meltrope I and later a III just to have them for my EMG and patience paid off, neither of those cost me much, the I was around 75 USD with box and the III was less than 40 USD.

Sean

Were these designed to be use with the huge "Dr. Suess" EMG horns ?

After his split from EMG, Ginn started making gramophones under the name 'Expert'. This 4 Spring soundbox can be seen as a repost to EMGs 4 Spring. It was intended for use with Ginn's large external horn gramophones; very similar to the EMG machines, but with some different design features, notably fewer bends in the horn. There are many references to these wonderful gramophones in the British and European threads in this forum. They are wonderful sound boxes and definitely worth trying on other machines as well.

Went for £1020. Must be a record price?

How much better are these than a good meltrope? that's a lot of cash for a soundbox!

djoutrage wrote:How much better are these than a good meltrope? that's a lot of cash for a soundbox!

Not significantly, and worse than an Orthophonic in good shape. The EMG soundbox is an improvement of the basic Exhibition design, with aluminum diaphragm and a smart back attachment, also used on the Meltrope. The high price is for the brand, either EMG or Ginn, and the respective scarcity.