The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Haven't ever seen one of these before, though I have several of the demo records. Pretty neat!

Cliff

I have a personal observation about the way Columbia records sound.
It seems like the older single sided ones sound better than the A series ones.
In the A series, the earlier Notes label sound better than the blue and gold label ones. The blue/gold ones just sound weak and distant to me, almost like the recording engineer was afraid to put too much sound level on the record. The Flag label one sound much better. I'm assuming that the same method was used to record the earlier Harmony and Velvetone records.(until electrical recordings were sneaked in)
I play my records on a modern turntable with a 3 mil stylus. (one size fits all, too cheap to buy the various mil styli available)

thank you for posting this sleeve, Cliff! I had always wondered if the demonstration disks came with a special sleeve, but I've never turned up one.

Best wishes, Mark

Is that the sleeve that number 1-S would have come in?

howardpgh wrote:I have a personal observation about the way Columbia records sound.
It seems like the older single sided ones sound better than the A series ones.
In the A series, the earlier Notes label sound better than the blue and gold label ones. The blue/gold ones just sound weak and distant to me, almost like the recording engineer was afraid to put too much sound level on the record. The Flag label one sound much better. I'm assuming that the same method was used to record the earlier Harmony and Velvetone records.(until electrical recordings were sneaked in)
I play my records on a modern turntable with a 3 mil stylus. (one size fits all, too cheap to buy the various mil styli available)

The Harmony discs can be found in acoustic form until about 1929-30, and many of them are excellent sounding for acoustics, better than most acoustic Columbias. To me, too many U.S. recorded acoustic Columbias are too thin sounding, and sometimes distant. Those banner label classical discs can be especially frustrating that way, especially with the mediocre surfaces.

I guess I've observed the same about the Notes label discs. They seem mostly clear and forward sounding.

Wolfe wrote:
The Harmony discs can be found in acoustic form until about 1929-30, and many of them are excellent sounding for acoustics, better than most acoustic Columbias. To me, too many U.S. recorded acoustic Columbias are too thin sounding, and sometimes distant. Those banner label classical discs can be especially frustrating that way, especially with the mediocre surfaces.

I guess I've observed the same about the Notes label discs. They seem mostly clear and forward sounding.

I agree the banner label "Symphony Series" can be thin at times, but they are also inconsistent- some will be brilliant, some dim. Even the dim ones can have a "realism" to them that a contemporary Victor may lack, despite better sound.