The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I've been eyeing this machine that is for sale for a while because it is so pretty. The seller wants $550 for it. What do you guys think?

All I can say is that the soundbox is a later Thorens or Paillard model, not corresponding to the machine (and fitting not very well).
There are original mica Starr soundboxes in eBay from time to time...
The speed control looks very similar to the one used in Aeolian machines.
The brake is a common one seen in many off brand machines.
About the rest, I don't know.
Did Starr make machines made of common market parts?

To me it looks like a frankenphone or at least re-branded. As far as I know, Starr never made an external horn machine. It would be odd having that many European parts on a phonograph made in Richmond indiana. Just my two cents.
Mike Wohl

Odd that the Starr decal is on the side of the box, which has a decorative inlay (or faux inlay, can't tell) front. I'm wondering if this is a mostly legit European machine to which somebody applied a Starr decal or stencil for some reason. By "mostly legit," I mean the box, back bracket, horn, and appointments are correct, but somebody replaced the tonearm and reproducer somewhere along the line. No way of knowing about the motor; the photos conveniently don't show whether there's a new hole for the crank, but I'm suspicious--the crank appears to stick out too far, at least to my eye.

I'd say if that's right it's overpriced. (Even if that's not right, it's probably overpriced.) I suspect finding the "right" tonearm and reproducer would be a challenge, and the box, while indeed pretty, is in bad shape. Worse if it has been badly remotored or if the motor, like the one that came in a European machine I used to own, is a weak little single-spring job that won't play a 12" record on a winding.

As I have read the above entries, you need to pass on it. There are better machines out there, just keep looking.
Don

Thanks for all of the valuable information! I will pass on this one unless i can get it for real cheap somehow.

Just my opinion, which is worth little to nothing, but if someone gave that phonograph to me, I'd be disappointed.