The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hello Friends..

After quite some time I got my reproducer back to the Columbia 800 I found last fall. I have posted a few recordings of it as it is in my moms basement.. Not a great setting for it but enough to let some friends who wanted to hear it do so.. One day I will get the finish restored and hopefully at some point either upstairs in her home or mine. I have caulked the horn which had much of the old wax seal on the seams falling off. Its messy and doesn't look real great, but it did improve the overall response. I still need to look under the tone arm mount to see how that is sealed. The sound now is pretty decent, it might use a bit of twerking but I am told that some metallic sound on loud portions is pretty much normal for these era machines. I don't recall my 810 doing that but it was a long time ago I owned it and perhaps I didn't notice it as much as I would now..

I will put up one of the four selections. If you wish to hear more you can access them on my site which should be reachable from this link.

12" Old Black Joe by Nat Shilkret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbBEDkizj8U

Larry

Larry, I owned an 800 several years ago, so I am familiar with the way they sound and I think yours is excellent. I listened to the The Horace Heidt record because I have owned it for years and played it on machines such as this. Very good recording job, too. What equipment did you use?
BTW: I owned an 800 several years ago, It too had a rebuilt reproducer and resealed horn.

Jim

I used a Canon EOS Rebel T6i 750D with a Rode Stereo pro microphone. Its pretty close to being there, but not quite.

Larry

Tonight I played some more sides on the Columbia.. Several thoughts here.. One is that its not overly loud compared to my Credenza I had. That machine like many Victors seemed to want to overwhelm you with sound much of the time.. Some of the same records played tonight on the Columbia were much more listenable and though it played the soft parts well it also did pretty decent on the loud end. From what I recall on the Credenza they were much stronger in places, often too much..

One place I had yet to check was the tonearm insertion and how its sealed. I took it apart and found it has a rubber flat ring that is glued to the inside of the metal horn piece that in turn goes to the wood horn. I thought it was tight when I removed it but after cleaning some and putting it back in place I didn't feel any resistance when I inserted it so I took it out again and put some grease on the metal ring that inserts and well as the little ridge that protrudes over that ring.. When I put it back together I believe it gained a bit of life and even bass. It might be a placebo effect but the same records I had just played just seemed to be coming at me more forward than before.. Overall I like the wide range of volumes it has and only tends to develop a bit of metallic sound if you play an overly loud record with too loud a needle. I am using a medium tone which is quite thin and short for most of my listening so far. It also seems to develop the total sound picture a bit farther back than I have the camera located in these videos.. I don't have a lot of good choices with basement surrounding it so I may just have to leave it where its at if I make more.. I have a request in for some piano selections but I have looked high and low and can't put my finger on where the albums of Piano electrical early issues is? I do have the 10" Rachmaninoff Prelude in C Sharp Minor I could record available.

I still think that in a more room like setting some of the sounds would change to some degree, but I am pretty pleased with most of the sound at this point..

larryh wrote: One place I had yet to check was the tonearm insertion and how its sealed. I took it apart and found it has a rubber flat ring that is glued to the inside of the metal horn piece that in turn goes to the wood horn. I thought it was tight when I removed it but after cleaning some and putting it back in place I didn't feel any resistance when I inserted it so I took it out again and put some grease on the metal ring that inserts and well as the little ridge that protrudes over that ring..

Seems a good thing to do, but may I offer a caution - is the grease in contact with the rubber? If so, depending on the type of rubber it may be swollen by the oily components of the grease over time, and end up giving resistance. If this is the case, a silicone grease would be better.

Orchorsol wrote:

larryh wrote: One place I had yet to check was the tonearm insertion and how its sealed. I took it apart and found it has a rubber flat ring that is glued to the inside of the metal horn piece that in turn goes to the wood horn. I thought it was tight when I removed it but after cleaning some and putting it back in place I didn't feel any resistance when I inserted it so I took it out again and put some grease on the metal ring that inserts and well as the little ridge that protrudes over that ring..

Seems a good thing to do, but may I offer a caution - is the grease in contact with the rubber? If so, depending on the type of rubber it may be swollen by the oily components of the grease over time, and end up giving resistance. If this is the case, a silicone grease would be better.

Yes I wondered about that.. Its a white grease I use for phonographs where they need greased. I hope its not going to cause a problem.