Dear Mr. Bogantz:
Your friend's experimental exponential Amberola horn sounds fascinating -
wish I could hear it.
I tried playing diamond discs through one of my Orthophonic Credenzas using
the Bruswick Ultona arm and soundbox & this was quite an improvement
over the diamond disc machines - am sure it would have been much better if
it had been possible to use an Edison reproducer.
Obviously the great weakness of Edison phonographs (aside from vertical cut
recording), both cylinder & disc, is that they, unlike their lateral-cut
competitors' acoustic machines, did not employ tone arms that by their very
existance elogated the narrower portion of the tone passage, more closely
approximating exponetial shape. One would have thought that mathmatician
Theodore Edison would have exponentially elongated the narrow portion
of the horn in the Edisonic.
Wish your friend would market an "aftermarket" exponetial horn for both
Amberola & Diamond Disc phonographs. Let me know if he does.
I bought one of your diamond disc diaphragms several years ago & thought it
might be improved by having the link attached to the diaphragm by
a round something against the diaphragm rather than the little straight
bar. Have you by any chance incorporated this improvement?
Am always interested in obtaining the best sound quality from my vintage
machines.
All good wishes...
Very truly yours,
Jim Cartwright
Immortal Performances
jimcip at earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.
...
> [Original Message]
> From: Greg Bogantz <gbogantz1 at charter.net>
> To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l at oldcrank.org>
> Date: 28-Oct-2008 5:48:38 PM
> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Greg Bogantz)
>
> Bruce, the only reason that I discount the 1A from being the best
> cylinder player is because of its inferior motor. The straight-cut spur
> gears of the 1A are decidedly noisier than the Opera motor of the 1B and
the
> III. When I first got my 1A, it sounded like and electric drill whenever
I
> ran it. The noise comes mostly from the high speed governor gears, and
the
> only fix for it is to replace these gears with nearly perfect new ones.
Try
> to find those anywhere! I got lucky and swapped a fellow collector some
> items for a set of nearly new gears which quieted my 1A down to the point
> where it is enjoyable, but still not as quiet as my 1B. The other big
> problem with the 1A is that it doesn't have the mechanical flutter filter
> and flywheel that Edison added to some of his later motors such as the
> Opera, Amberola V, and all the late amberolas. The lack of a sufficient
> flywheel coupled with the belt drive of the 1A virtually ensures that
you'll
> get flutter and wow that is just an essential aspect of this design.
> Acoustically, the 1A is the same as the 1B, but the motor spoils the
total
> experience a little.
>
> However, since the 1A motor is no worse than any found on any other 2
> minute cylinder machine, the superior horn of the 1A makes it the best
> overall 2 minute machine in my estimation. AND it has the added benefit
> that you can play 2 minute celluloid records with the Diamond A
reproducer
> which is truly the best 2 minute experience that you can get in a
> commercially made machine. I like my 1A just fine, but I prefer to hear
4
> minute celluloids on my 1B or my III.
>
> I don't include the Opera among the very best sounding machines
because
> I haven't heard ANY commercially made outside horns on cylinder machines
> that are the sonic equal to the horns in the Amberola 1s and III. I
> mentioned on the OTV board that I have a mechanical engineer friend who
> decided to make his own large genuine cygnet shaped exponential outside
> horn. He has fitted it to an Amberola 50 motor which he has put into a
> custom tabletop cabinet. The horn is suspended over the carriage by a
> clever, original design double crane pantographic system that works much
> better than any original design. He calls his machine the "Ediphonic"
and
> has even put an Edison-style logo on it with that name. The reproducer
is a
> modified Diamond B which has a custom diaphragm in it similar to the ones
> that I make. The entire project is very well-done, tidy, and authentic
> looking. I can tell you with "first-ear" assurance that this is the BEST
> sounding acoustic 4 minute cylinder player I have EVER heard. The
> exponential horn works wonderfully well with the Diamond B, and the
results
> from playing the early directly recorded BA records (not the dubs) is
some
> of the best sounding acoustic reproduction you will ever hear.
>
> Greg Bogantz
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <valecnik57-purc at yahoo.com>
> To: <phono-l at oldcrank.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:46 PM
> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Greg Bogantz)
>
>
> > Greg,
> >
> > I'd be interested to know more about why an Amberola 1A would not sound
> > equally as good as the 1B for 4 min wax or blue amberols assuming the
> > correct reproducer is used, (the M for 4 min wax and the diamond A for
> > blue amberols)?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Bruce
> >
> > Bruce Johnson
> > Pod Valem II, 870
> > 252 43 Pruhonice
> > Czech Republic
> >
> >
> > Tel: (CZ) + 420 602 362 473
> > Tel: (US) + 1 612 605 5242
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: "phono-l-request at oldcrank.org" <phono-l-request at oldcrank.org>
> > To: phono-l at oldcrank.org
> > Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 8:00:05 PM
> > Subject: Phono-L Digest, Vol 5, Issue 288
> >
> > Send Phono-L mailing list submissions to
> > phono-l at oldcrank.org
> >
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> >
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> > than "Re: Contents of Phono-L digest..."
> > If you reply, please change your subject line and don't include this
> > entire digest in your message.Today's Topics:
> >
> > 1. Re: Loss To Phono Collector Community (Zonophone2006 at aol.com)
> > 2. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Michael F. Khanchalian)
> > 3. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Steven Medved)
> > 4. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Greg Bogantz)
> > 5. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Rich)
> > 6. Re: Phono-L Digest, Vol 5, Issue 287 (RROCRREC at aol.com)
> > 7. Dave Boruff (Mark Dawson)
> > 8. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Steven Medved)
> > 9. Re: Research: Amberolas 1A and 1B (Greg Bogantz)
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