The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

So as not to deviate further off topic on another thread, I moved the below quotes here.

What are some of your loudest, clearest acoustically recorded records & what do you play them on?

Brandon wrote:

Valecnik wrote:I have another very early one on DD by Collins and Harlan, "Bake that Chicken Pie". It may not be a musical masterpiece but is a great record to demonstrate how loudly, clearly, with no surface noise the newly introduced Edison Disc Phonograph could reproduce sound compared to it's rivals. Of course there were many other such recordings.

I have that on Edison Gold Mould, Victor, and Standard, and I have to say, the Gold Mould is the loudest and clearest. I think it may have been NOS or at least only played a handful of times, as it shows no sign of wear. It's a great record!

Valecnik wrote:So as not to deviate further off topic on another thread, I moved the below quotes here.

What are some of your loudest, clearest acoustically recorded records & what do you play them on?

My loudest record would be "Christmas Fantasy" played by Mark Andrews, as posted in this thread. That baby will rattle the windows with a loud tone!

Loudest and clearest acoustic: Eddie Morton's "The Oceana Roll" on Patents Victor, you can clearly hear him taking breaths and he's incredibly present, sibilants and all. Actually, a number of his records are very "clear" come to think of it.

And if you want perhaps the loudest and clearest acoustic opera record, look for a copy of Maria Galvany and Titta Ruffo singing "Si Vendetta", it's available on Victor and HMV and it will blow you out of the water. A sidenote on that one, it plays at 73.5 RPM or they sound like chipmunks!

Sean

i am unsure about my disc records however my clearest 2 minute cylinder is "coleen bawn" by harlan and stanley, it is a very nice song, and i am saying it is the clearest when playing it through a model C in desperate need of rebuilding so after the reproducer is rebuilt it should sound magnificent!

Just as I opened this thread a little on topic event was serendipitously occurring. I recently bought about 100 early 20th century disks from an antique store. I have cleaned them all and play they one-by-one before putting them away to make sure they are not defective. I also have an ordinary little VV-VI I have been playing regularly to limber it up a bit following some restoration work (motor and reproducer rebuild).

I put on one of the records, a Columbia blue label Symphony Series with the awards ribbon across the label, last patent date in 1909—“La donna e mobile,” from Rigoletto, sung by Hipolito Lazaro—in very nice condition. In the container of new needles I was using I found one sample spear point needle and decided to try it (never having used one before).

The result just knocked my socks off; loud and crystal clear with far more range I would have thought the little VV-VI was capable of! I was amazed!

Clay

Some of the live-recorded Edison Blue Amberol cylinders are very loud, but the loudest one I can think of is from the French foreign series, recorded by the French Republican Guard band. Played on an Opera, It took my perception of what cylinders could be to a new level.

Another impressive acoustic recording was made of church chimes by Pathé on a vertical-cut record. It is my only Pathé recording so loud that I can't stand in front of the horn!

OrthoSean wrote:Loudest and clearest acoustic: Eddie Morton's "The Oceana Roll" on Patents Victor, you can clearly hear him taking breaths and he's incredibly present, sibilants and all. Actually, a number of his records are very "clear" come to think of it.

And if you want perhaps the loudest and clearest acoustic opera record, look for a copy of Maria Galvany and Titta Ruffo singing "Si Vendetta", it's available on Victor and HMV and it will blow you out of the water. A sidenote on that one, it plays at 73.5 RPM or they sound like chipmunks!

Sean

I don't know, at 80rpm the final chorus sounds as if Sabanjo is whipping the orchestra to a finish!

As for loud, the various dance records cut in Prague, Lubin, Warsaw, and Bratisalva by the Beka company are incredibly loud, with great presence and suprisingly heavy bass. The OkeH and Odeon orange label pressings of these sides are really fine, quiet, but neither they nor are the original Beka pressings very long lived, for thesd heavily recorded discs do wear badly.

I would vote for "Copenhagen" by The Benson Orchestra on Victor 19470, recorded in Chicago on 9/8/24. As played on my Victor VI with #24B brass horn.

"The Oceana Roll" is pretty damned good, too!

How about BA Alexander's Ragtime Band, by Billy Murray, That is one loud and clear record, it blasts me out of the room, even on my Amberola 30.. The record I made for the Bolden movie you could hear the air from the cymbols on it, and the groove looks like ocean waves, I got the record up to about 107 degrees, and it cut like butter. I am not able to post it because of copyright, and because the movie is a work in progress yet. The record has only been played twice, once for playback after recording and the other time, when it was mixed for the sound track. I still wonder when it is going to come out, it has been about 2007 when I did that movie. I have several diamond discs, that the instruments, just make you want to reach out and touch them, shimmer in the cymbal so fresh that you can hear the drum stick hit it, the breath sounds of the sax, and rich mellow tone of the violin.

By far the loudest record I have ever hear was "Doin' The Raccoon" on Diamond Disc played on a C-250. I used a dosimeter to measure the average and peak decibel output at one foot from the horn opening and the average was over 100 decibels with a peak decibel level at one point in the selection reaching 132 decibels! Unbelievable!