The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This may have been done before. What’s your best experience? Something positive would be nice right about now.

Probably my vic V for $100. Or fireside with cygnet for $100. Both are jewels of my collection!!

Best buy ever? My very first machine: a Pathéphone 100, purchased with a cabinet full of Pathé records when I was a young teen. Mom and Dad did the financial honors for me, trading an old oak crank wall phone and some $$$ for it, and they probably paid too much--certainly so by current standards; I'd never break even on it in the current market, especially considering that Pathé uprights, other than Actuelles, seem to be just about unsaleable these days. Adding insult to injury, this one has been refinished to the taste of the 1970s in what I guess would be a "Danish oil" type finish, no gloss to it at all, and the grille, I now know, has one bar in the center deftly trimmed away, presumably to remove obvious breakage.

OK, objectively a "paid too much dog," so why is it "my best buy ever"? Because, at a time when I was desperate for a spring-wound phonograph (I blush to say, in those days I didn't know better than to refer to all such as "Victrolas"), it fed my enthusiasm for a hobby I'd just entered, and over the years before I went away to college, I probably played it more than I've played all my other machines since put together. That machine locked me into what has been a lifelong love, and it introduced me early on to vertical cut records, which eventually would become my collecting focus. Although I seldom play it nowadays, I'm eternally grateful to it, and to my generous parents, for starting me down a Pathé (sorry!) that has paid back the money in pleasure a thousand times over.

I would have to say there are two. A late model E Idelia and a Montross Berliner.

I got a brunswick cortez for $300. It certainly sounds as good as it looks

My 163 that I got for $250. Got it working perfectly but still need to redo the cabinet. It sounds really beautiful!

Martin

Mormon S wrote:My 163 that I got for $300. Got it working perfectly but still need to redo the cabinet. It sounds really beautiful!

Martin

Im excited to see how it turns out!!

Getting the Credenza from Victor78! After a few years of whining and complaining about not getting a Credenza where I live. I put my foot down, had a yard sale, and did something about it. Same goes for getting the rest of my Standard Model X!

It certainly isn’t a great machine and I wouldn’t necessarily classify as my best buy, but I was very happy to get a Vitaphone 75 a few years ago. Having moved into an 1895 house in Plainfield, NJ about 30 years ago and being involved in the community and historic districts here over the years, it Is great to have a piece of the city’s history and something that would have been going on here shortly after the house was built. I can’t say that I play it very often and it has been a challenge to try to get it to produce more than a muted whisper. However, it is still a great conversation piece and part of the heritage of Plainfield.

Bill

I think my contribution would have to be the 10-50 in 9-55 cabinet "hot rod" I got from VictrolaMonkey last year. After looking at 10-50s for years and realizing I could never afford one, I picked this up last winter- new gears and parts, basically ready to go. So what if the cabinet isn't correct- it looks factory and works Saddam well that it's my go- to daily driver. In fact, I'm getting ready to load it now while I do some online work.

EDIT- And here we go sideways again- sorry. I don't get it...