The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

good entertainment!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gGF5oXnMkE

How to destroy a marvelous Opera and make it look as a replica!
Despite that, they weren't capable of fixing the horrendous wobbly sound. This has to sound much better than that ..

The best joke is that the perpetrator of such mess calls himself the Gramophone Guru.

But they all smile tenderly enchanted by that horrible weak and wobbly sound... Anyone is curious enough to look into YouTube or Google to search for another opera to compare? In YouTube you find lots of phonographs with a wonderful sound...

Tim Fabrizio or Wyatt Marcus would've made that Opera sound a million times better than those clowns,IMHO.edisonplayer.

The Opera has that complex springed inertia flywheel the adjustment of which is fundamental to get a good sound. This is one of the improvements of these motors over the old phonographs which tended to sound wobbly.
Those guys don't know anything about that, and this is the star core thing of the opera motor and one of the reasons to make it sound so well... when it is properly adjusted to function at its full capacity. As it is, it seems to be not functioning, maybe because of misadjustment, broken springs, old thick grease or dirt...
I'm not a phonograph man, but it offended my ears, as I've listened to other properly restored phonographs, Opera, Idelia, or Amberolas, sounding so well...

Inigo wrote: Tue Jul 29, 2025 9:28 am The Opera has that complex springed inertia flywheel the adjustment of which is fundamental to get a good sound. This is one of the improvements of these motors over the old phonographs which tended to sound wobbly.

That's right, Iñigo, the flywheel has a linear spring - a steel rod - that is fitted radially across it. It is the key component to provide the stability. When I bought my Opera years ago that spring was broken, and I had to spend some time to fit a new one, but once I did it the speed has been very stable since. What cannot be compensated is the wobble created by an out of round cylinder, unfortunately a common issue with blue amberols that have been improperly rimmed.

I was just wondering that, looks and sounds to me like they have an out-of-round cylinder. Though one would think they would have made sure to have a decent one for the filming of this episode?