SOLD Edison Fireside A, cygnet, $675

[VanEpsFan1914]

Horn sold and machine currently unavailable, pending a fresh overhaul with my skills now at a higher level.

[dzavracky]

I have heard this machine in person and can vouch for how good it sounds. The new owner will be very happy with it!

David

[ticticdok]

I'm interested. Let me know details, pictures would help. Thanks! John

[VanEpsFan1914]

Cygnet horn sold pending payment for a cash buyer to complete a project. Since the real attraction of the machine is its cygnet (which was a vintage bell and a redone elbow); I don't know if anyone else is too inclined to Jones for a refinished Fireside Phonograph short the horn.

Didn't have a chance to extract it from where I stashed it so I have no current photos of the machine. New owner seems quite happy with the horn though.

[ticticdok]

How much for your fireside machine? I’m interested! John

[gramophoneshane]

. New owner seems quite happy with the horn though.

I bet he was extremely happy he got it.
I hope you got a really good price for it because without the horn I think you'll find the machine will be a harder sell, and you've probably reduced your potential buyers to less than half of what it would be for the complete machine.
Hopefully it went to a collector and not a dealer to flip for profit.

[VanEpsFan1914]

. New owner seems quite happy with the horn though.

I bet he was extremely happy he got it.
I hope you got a really good price for it because without the horn I think you'll find the machine will be a harder sell, and you've probably reduced your potential buyers to less than half of what it would be for the complete machine.
Hopefully it went to a collector and not a dealer to flip for profit.

I had known I was going to visit a friend so I brought the 10-panel cygnet horn along to compare with his 11-panel. They both have a nice sound; with that particular room having a high ceiling the 11-panel presented very well on a lot of cylinders. Took the horn apart, put it in the car, & figured I'd bring it along.

It was brought along to get compared with an 11-panel using different types of reproducers. Cygnet horns sound good in pretty much whatever situation, so I figured that hey, why not put the two styles of cygnet horn in the same room and hear the difference for ourselves with some 2m Gold Moulded wax records & some Blue Amberols.

The Fireside didn't get pulled from storage because 1) it is hidden inside a rather large radio cabinet, with 200 pounds of 78s in front of it, 2) I play the parlor-organ so there was one of those sitting in front of it too, and 3) trading off the horn alone gives me a good excuse to hang onto the Fireside, give it a perfect restoration eventually, and put it on display again for me.

So the horn goes to get a phonograph back into service that really needs a cygnet horn, and I keep the Fireside as something I can strip down again, grain-fill (last time I grain-filled it using sawdust & shellac, but I have taken to using dark color fillers and really highlighting the grain) and then re-finish with shellac. The horn I had is going on a really nice green oak Edison and then I am going to probably source a very good replica cygnet if I can, eventually, once I have the rest of it completely up to my increasingly picky standards--eventually!

[dzavracky]

I am buying the horn to complete my edison home project. I am very happy with it! IMHO I thought the 11 panel cygnet sounded much better than the 10 panel. It was louder, fuller, and the voices were easier to hear. But I suspect that with some nice 2 min cylinders it will sound mighty fine on this home.

My favorite part of the deal was typing up the invoice on the typewriter with carbon paper. Good times

Cheers,

David

[VanEpsFan1914]

I think the room you're in (high ceilings and open floor space) is exactly what that 11-panel needs because you're right, that Triumph is a mighty good-sounding machine. Easily the best I've heard, in a room that size.

When I had the 10-panel at the family place in SC, though, I used it to out-run your Triumph, but not in a very orthodox fashion. What I did was hang it from the ridgepole of the house, under a high sloping ceiling, on a cord, and put a fully dialed in Columbia BK Graphophone underneath it, playing 2m Indestructible cylinders. If you get the Lyric overhauled right on that BKT you just bought I think with the morning glory horn you will give the Triumph a real solid challenge. Would have loved to hear the 10-panel + BK combination against the 11-panel + Model R + Triumph; it'd have been a close one. Or putting the BK under the 11-panel would've been nice too.

You're right about voices; the 11-panel did fine with those. It filled out the deep bass and the upper treble; I should have liked to do a little more of a test listening for sibilants--the 11 panel seemed to do OK. (Having a restored B-250 and clean discs is enough of a distraction that I kind of forgot to check some more performance aspects on the Triumph--both those machines were pretty fantastic to see up close again, especially since the B-250's had work done to it since last time. I think you've got that one dialed in.)

What would happen if someone was to put an Amberola diaphragm in one of the old Model R or Model N type reproducers? Question for another thread, perhaps.