The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

My wife and I were giving the task of entertaining the grand kids for a few hours while we were out of town with my son and his family this week, so we hit a few antique shops, Found this Oak Sonora Grand .Its been a long time since I have found anything good or at a fair price at an antique shop .

Wow, a bombé cabinet in finely figured oak, and apparently in great shape! That's a terrific find.

Nice find! I love the look of the Sonora Grand Bombe’ cabinets. Does it have the wooden tone arm?

Awesome find! Sonora machines are so beautiful...if only I had the money and unlimited space... definitely on my “most wanted” list next to the Credenza and Actuelle.

I love the Sonoras with bombe sides and to find one in oak is icing on the cake. Jerry Blais

Finding a Sonora Grand in oak is exceptionally lucky. Yours looks like it's finish is original. Congratulations. My Sonora Invincible is in my living room where I can admire it every day. Does yours come with the optional winding meter and wood tone arm?

audiophile102 wrote:Finding a Sonora Grand in oak is exceptionally lucky. Yours looks like it's finish is original. Congratulations. My Sonora Invincible is in my living room where I can admire it every day. Does yours come with the optional winding meter and wood tone arm?

This Grand appears to be the later model , it is 52" tall the same height as a Supreme, it does not have the winding meter or wood tone arm, it does have the huge gold plated motor as the other premium models. The finish is original and in amazingly good condition. The Sonora machines IMO are designed superior to most other brands.

tictalk wrote:

audiophile102 wrote:Finding a Sonora Grand in oak is exceptionally lucky. Yours looks like it's finish is original. Congratulations. My Sonora Invincible is in my living room where I can admire it every day. Does yours come with the optional winding meter and wood tone arm?

This Grand appears to be the later model , it is 52" tall the same height as a Supreme, it does not have the winding meter or wood tone arm, it does have the huge gold plated motor as the other premium models. The finish is original and in amazingly good condition. The Sonora machines IMO are designed superior to most other brands.

Very nice find. I haven’t bought a machine from an antique shop in years. Nothing worthwhile seems to show up in the shops any more. The last one that I bought from a shop was my Sonora.

I agree with you about the superiority of the Sonora, at least in regard to the motor and cabinet. In my opinion anyway, the high end Sonora and Brunswick machines seem to be as good or better than any others and the motors are silent. I love Victrolas, but I think that a good portion of their success was due to patent ownership, marketing and that endearing logo.

A little advice for rebuilding the reproducer. You may already be aware, but in case you are not, the back of the reproducer has a pair of gaskets that should be replaced along with the diaphragm gaskets. The back of the Sonora reproducer is nicely rubber mounted and will rattle if these gaskets have become hard. The material used to rebuild a Victor Exhibition works fine for both the back and the diaphragm. The first gasket that you see when the cover is removed has an internal wire to hold the shape during assembly. I chipped my wire out of the petrified gasket and reused it. Replacing the two gaskets on the back side made a huge difference on mine.