The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I'm sure some of you have tried this, or seen it on YouTube. Yes it is possible to play your Diamond Discs on a modern turntable. Of course it helps, to have a 78 speed setting.

audio-technica, Numark and Ion are the ones I know of, that can play a Diamond Disc.

Paul

There have been several threads about this... unfortunately all on boards that no longer exist.

...aren't you supposed to reverse the polarity to do this correctly?

phonophan79 wrote:Yes it is possible to play your Diamond Disc's on a modern turntable. Of course it helps, to have a 78 speed setting.

Yes, indeed. I discovered that in the early 70s. Saved me temporarily from having to track down a DD machine which I couldn't afford (I was just fourteen).

phonophan79 wrote:There have been several threads about this... unfortunately all on boards that no longer exist.
...aren't you supposed to reverse the polarity to do this correctly?

Yes, since the vertical information is out of phase if you don't reverse the polarity of one channel.

I used to temporarily hook up one speaker out of phase on the stereo, to correct the out of phase playback of the disc, and that did the same thing as far as my ears were concerned. Now, using a more modern setup, I sample it into the computer and invert one channel digitally. Kind of like what WDC describes on the thread in the link below:

http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewto ... f=7&t=2702

Actually, I did not have to reverse anything on mine. I just set the speed to 78, and dropped the needle, and it played fine.

Paul

Edisonfan wrote:Actually, I did not have to reverse anything on mine. I just set the speed to 78, and droped the needle, and it played fine.

So did my first stereo, actually: an early 70s Magnavox where the speakers could be put in distant corners of the room. That was no problem at all with a DD. They played great, and I enjoyed them that way for years.

I did find, later on, that there was one spot between the speakers where I didn't hear much bass response. It was fine if I was closer to one speaker than the other, just not when I sat directly between. That's the "out of phase" part I was writing about earlier.

Ah! Well I guess they have improved turntables since the 70's. I am using an audio-technica AT-PL120 professional Direct Drive DJ turntable, and a Pair of Teac Powered Speakers, that I can plug the turntable directly into, with no phase problems. Of course I was also playing a latter DD, with a paper label. Would that make a difference? Also, I used the same stylus that plays modern 33's.


Paul

Paul-
Just FYI, If you listen to DDs on your turntable with the unit in the standard stereo mode, it will work well enough for you to hear what is on the disc. However, you will hear extra noise, due to the cartridge picking up what is laterally recorded on the disc (e.g. noise, hiss and other junk) as well as what is recorded vertically on the disc (e.g. the music).

But if you reverse one channel and then put that signal into mono, you will cancel out the cartridge's ability to read lateral vibration, and thus a lot of the noise will be canceled out.

Edisonfan wrote:I just set the speed to 78, and it played fine.

Paul

DD's play pretty consistently (and properly) at 80 rpm.

If your 78 turntable doesn't have a pitch adjuster, consider getting one in the future, if you can afford it. Your records will sound more tuneful and enjoyable playing at the right speed.

Thanks Shane, The noise is more noticeable on early DD's then on latter ones. However, since I have a nice DD machine, to begin with. I'll just stick to playing them on my DD Machine.


Actually Wolfe, mine has a pitch control. It's a DJ style turntable, by audio-technica.


I just posted this thread, because someone posted a similar thread on the Online Edison board.

Shane wrote:Paul-
Just FYI, If you listen to DDs on your turntable with the unit in the standard stereo mode, it will work well enough for you to hear what is on the disc. However, you will hear extra noise, due to the cartridge picking up what is laterally recorded on the disc (e.g. noise, hiss and other junk) as well as what is recorded vertically on the disc (e.g. the music).

But if you reverse one channel and then put that signal into mono, you will cancel out the cartridge's ability to read lateral vibration, and thus a lot of the noise will be canceled out.

Paul,

Shane is right. I'm also "on the road" for business so not much time to explain in detail but to have really sublime sound from a modern turntable, you need to do the polarity switch. Rec o cut sells turntables with a toggle switch to switch back and forth between lateral cut/vertical cut discs for ~$300 I think, or you can get someone more clever than I am to install the switch in your current turntable but I dont know who would do that. Then you need a cartridge like sure M44 that will take multiple styli. FOr DDs a .35 mil is about the best, for lateral cut it varies but .37 is a good compromise. Also your TT needs a strobe, like the rec-o cut has, to adjust to 80 rpm for best results. With this setup you will be amazed.

For real nirvanna, you need a re-equalizer and run it through a tube amp. YOur diamond discs can sound like they would have on the Edison C-2 radio phono but better and louder.

There are variants on this approach that work also pretty well but this is one suggestion with the side benefit of virtually no record wear, (i.e. 1.5 grams weighted stylus on your disc versus 60 or 100 grams or whatever weight is of a DD reproducer on the record.

Cheers, Bruce