In a message dated 2/2/2006 6:22:47 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
Once upon a time there was a phonograph parts dealer named Karl Frick in Santa Barbara who was less than accurate in his "reproduction" parts His "NOS" parts weren't that good either. Many years ago, I paid $145, I think, for what was supposed to be an NOS Edisonic reproducer. I had never seen an Edisonic anything, but From Tinfoil to Stereo mentioned them, and commented on their greatly increased volume over the Standard DD reproducer. At that time, $145 was a little more than a weeks pay for me, but my wife allowed me to send my money off to California. When I received the reproducer, I opened it eagerly. When I removed the reproducer from its box, I was rather dubious about it. My stereo cartridge tracked at 1.25 grams. The weight on the reproducer looked incredibly large, and heavy. Oh well. FTTS couldn't be wrong...right? I put on one of my favorite fox trots, and lowered the reproducer onto the record. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Rookie mistake # 2). I watched the grooves of my beloved record turn grey, as this monster plowed through them. The sound was horrible. I lifted the thing off of the record, but not before the first 30 seconds or so of my record was turned into a hissy mess. I sent Mr. Frick a letter, in which I torched him pretty thoroughly. If he had tested the reproducer, which he sold to me at what I know now was an exorbitant price for the time, he must have known that the stylus, or some other part of the unit was defective. He wanted me to send the reproducer back, and "let him look at it." I decided against doing so, because I figured he would keep my money, and my boat anchor of a reproducer. At least the box was nice. It was many years before I tried an Edisonic reproducer again, and I used a junk record to test it. The sound was quite good, but I still didn't use the reproducer regularly, because of the weight. Randy
