The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Maybe this has been done here before, but if so I didn't find it. What say we try to get together a list of nominal (i.e., stated) playback speeds for records of the acoustic era, particularly the more obscure/uncommon labels? Even if they're not reliable, at least they give us a starting point. I guess we all know that Victor claimed 78 RPM but more often ran at other speeds, most commonly 75 or 76.5; Columbia claimed 80; Edison is fairly reliable at 80. Here are some others I threw together to start, with figures taken from original record covers. Gotta love those French labels with their 10 RPM ranges!

Disque Aspir etched label, center start 90 RPM
Disque Ideal etched label, center start 90 RPM
Opera 80-90 RPM
Par-o-ket 80 RPM
Pathé center start up to 14" 90-100 RPM
Pathé outside start 80 RPM
Pathé 20” 120-130 RPM

I'd be especially interested in other vertical cut labels, like US Rex, Rishell, Lyric, early Brunswick and Vocalion and Gennett and OKeh (I guess for those labels' lateral incarnations too, for that matter), Disque Phrynis, Disque Diamond, Disque Henri (those two being Pathé products, I'd guess 80 for them, but that's speculation on my part), Disque Aerophone, Perfectaphone, and so on, but of course anything of whatever type is fair game. A suggestion: if this takes off, for convenience of reference, when adding a label cut/paste the entire list as it stands in the latest post and then add new entries in alphabetical order, to keep it together in the last post rather than requiring someone coming along later to hunt through a string of postings.

Silvertone (Sears) - 80 R.P.M.

In my opinion, Berliners play best at 72 RPM

Jmcmahan67 wrote: Tue Jul 29, 2025 8:55 pm In my opinion, Berliners play best at 72 RPM

I find that US Berliners sound correct at speeds closer to 65 rpm, but they vary.

Disque Aspir etched label, center start 90 RPM
Disque Ideal etched label, center start 90 RPM
Odeon French brown label - 85 rpm, specified in some but not all records
Opera 80-90 RPM
Par-o-ket 80 RPM
Pathé center start up to 14" 90-100 RPM
Pathé outside start 80 RPM
Pathé 20” 120-130 RPM

Thank you, CarlosV! That's exactly how I was hoping we could maintain and grow the list.

Disque Aspir etched label, center start 90 RPM
Disque Ideal etched label, center start 90 RPM
Odeon French brown label - 85 rpm, specified in some but not all records
Okeh 80 RPM
Opera 80-90 RPM
Par-o-ket 80 RPM
Pathé center start up to 14" 90-100 RPM
Pathé outside start 80 RPM
Pathé 20” 120-130 RPM
Silvertone 80 RPM
Victor DeLuxe 14" 60 RPM

Should we also include the common labels such as Edison, Columbia, Etc.?

Disque Aerophone needle cut etched label lateral 80-84 RPM
Disque Aspir etched label, center start 90 RPM
Disque Ideal etched label, center start 90 RPM
Odeon French brown label - 85 rpm, specified in some but not all records
Okeh 80 RPM
Opera 80-90 RPM
Par-o-ket 80 RPM
Pathé center start up to 14" 90-100 RPM
Pathé outside start 80 RPM
Pathé 20” 120-130 RPM
Silvertone 80 RPM
Victor DeLuxe 14" 60 RPM

ajhuth1877 wrote: Wed Jul 30, 2025 5:40 pm Should we also include the common labels such as Edison, Columbia, Etc.?

I don't see why not; I omitted them originally because I didn't have covers at hand to confirm, and I'd prefer to make sure I'm not just relying on my (fallible) memory and "everybody knows that." If you have the documentation, by all means!