The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I have a copy of Zonophone XO-122 and would like to know whether anyone here knows the significance of the "XO" prefix in the catalog number. The Zonophone listings on the 78discography.com site lists another one, XO-125.

Both these selections are melodies that are derived from operas. My guess is that perhaps the assignment of this prefix was to designate such a performance.

I've got another inquiry about this record. XO-122 is a 10" disc. I believe these 10" etched Zonophones came about late in the etched period, sometime in late 1902 or 1903. A relatively low catalog number as this one bears would typically indicate a 1901 recording date, but perhaps this (1903?) recording simply retained the catalog number of the original 7" disc bearing the same selection. Is this the case?

X= 10, so if the 7" record does not have the X0 prefix maybe that's the answer. Just a SWAG

Well, although X is the Roman numeral for 10, it doesn't explain the letter O. It's not a zero. I have a copy of etched Zonophone 108, which is also 10" but does not have the XO prefix.

What I was getting at was that maybe the XO is to designate that it's the ten inch version of 122.

Yes, I understand. But if that would be so, then why do so few 10" seem to have the XO prefix, if in fact the 10" records weren't produced until a later period than their 7" versions?

In other words, many other 10" versions with low catalog numbers (numbers originally assigned to their 7"counterparts) would also have to have the prefix, but they don't.

Have you turned the record over? Is there anything stamped on it? If so, this could explain your question.

Does Steven C Barr say something about that series? I'm not at home and I can't check the Almost Complete guide just now.
The Discographical sure takes the info from him, among others, although the book has interesting stories about the companies and notes about the records series that are not in the database...

Thanks for the responses. The Almost Complete book is a very valuable resource that I have been using for about thirty years. But it contains almost no dating information about the etched Zonophones except that they were produced from 1899 until early 1903, and that they were numbered in blocks.

The reverse of the record is blank, with sort of a slightly roughed surface.

And they were true Zonophones, before the Gramophone Co. overtake, isn't it? So Gramophone-Zonophone catalogues neither will shed any light...

[quote=vintagetenor post_id=351121 time=1729867788 user_id=23441]
The reverse of the record is blank, with sort of a slightly roughed surface.
[/quote]

It could have been that it says “Reproduced in Germany”.

The recording is listed in the US Zonophone catalog under number 122. The numbering of this series with 10" band recordings starts with 100. The highest known number is 127.

You have an US pressing of the same recording but for the European Zonophone market. "X" is the prefix for 10" size, as always in Europe, but the additional "O" indicates an American recording.

Otherwise there would have been confusion. X-122 was assigned to a Russian Zonophone by Joakim Tartakov, a highly sought after recording, by the way.