The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I purchased a nice copy of the owners manual for my Victrola VV-XVI L-Door from Shawn here on the forum. It is truly a very nice high quality reprint.

In reading the manual, I noticed that it talks about the speed should be at 76 r.p.m., Was the middle speed considered to be "76" back in the early years, and then "78" in later years. The old round dials say "76", and the later models that have the glass dial say "78".
I am aware that there was a great variation in speeds from record to record, but thought this was interesting.

Columbia records sleeves recommended the correct speed to be 80rpm into the beginning of the twenties.

Andreas

Speeds were all over the place in the early years. I have a few Victor Red Seals whose labels indicate 74 rpm; they were recorded in 1903.

Speeds weren't really standardized consistently at 78 rpm until about 1932. Edison was pretty good at maintaining 80 rpm but some of the earlist Diamond Discs are very slow.. like 75 rpm.

JRT.

You're not likely to notice the difference between 76 and 78

I have a booklet about how to use the victrola that instructs user to set to 78.
I'd have to check to see when it was printed but tungs tones are covered so probably circa 1920. I think if you set a machine to 78 it slows down a bit when the needle is lowered. May be that by this time Victor recorded at 76 knowing that playback would be slower than 78?

SPEED? PROPER SPEED? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

bigshot wrote:You're not likely to notice the difference between 76 and 78

Those of us who are musicians can tell

Sean

Musicians must hate acoustic phonographs because getting them to consistently play at exactly the same speed day in day out requires constant adjustment.

How is that? I have a Cortez (like you), that is easily adjusted to either 78, 80 or 76 (that's what the little notches in the speed control are for). My EMG also has the same. When a machine is properly adjusted, all you do is turn the knob to the correct spot and you're all set. I've never heard anyone say what you just did and I know a number of musicians with acoustic machines.

Seam