Most analog sounding system with the shortest signal path

warnerwh · « **on:** 18 Jan 2006, 06:53 am »

Just got this the other day. If anybody wants to know what pure analog sound is like you're more than welcome to come to my home and hear it. There's no EMI/RFI, ground loop or other electrical problems. No capacitors, resistors or even wire to worry about either. Room acoustics don't matter, trust me

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #1 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 06:56 am »

So are you saying you dumped CDWG in favor of horns?

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #2 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 07:00 am »

It's in great shape !!!

How much "cranking" is involved ?[/list:u]

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #3 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 07:20 am »

Nice!
How many cylinders do you have and what is the music? Any hip hop?

Did you know that what killed the cylinder was the near impossibilty to duplicate by the molding process? Berliner came up with the disc, which was easy to mold. To create enough cylinder recordings to sell, they had to line up multiple recording machines, so each cylinder sounded a little different, coming from a different point in space. Then the band had to repeat the tune until enough copies had been made!
In the early days of digital, someone (can't remember who) put out some stereo recordings made from cylinders, once he figured out how to identify recordings made from machines from two sides of the stage and the same take. He just made one left and the other right and carefully synchronized them in the digital domain, et voilà, stereo!

warnerwh · « **Reply #4 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 07:30 am »

Quote from: lonewolfny42

It's in great shape !!!
How much "cranking" is involved ?[/list:u]

You crank it up and then let the brake off. It will play a whole 4 minute cylinder. This model also has gears to play 2 min cylinders. Manual transmission I'm afraid. It is 103 years old.

After listening to this thing you'll never want to put horns in your system! I just bought it to display in my listening room. It's in excellent condition and works perfect. The guy I bought it from got it in 69 or 70. He gave me 13 cylinders to play but I really don't care to hear them all!

Russell: They did come up with a way to duplicate cylinders without the band being right there. I think I must own some as they don't sound like virgin masters to me

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 07:38 am »

Now that's what I call a vintage system!

gary · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 01:14 pm »

Man, that thing is sweet. I've been looking for one in antique shops and at auctions for a long time, and I've never come across one in near that kind of condition. Nice find.

Gary

JoshK · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 02:30 pm »

That is art if I've even seen art.

warnerwh · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 09:13 pm »

Frank: There are various models. This one is fairly common and others are very common and easy to find on Ebay. Many obviously aren't in that good of condition but some are pretty decent. This one still had wet oil and grease on all the gears etc. I paid 350 but found out it's worth 6-700.

Friends of ours are downsizing as they're moving from their 3500 sf house to a 1700 sf house as they are retired and getting old. They were holding this for me as they know my love of audio. Al bought it he thinks in 69 or 70.

Keep an eye on Ebay and learn pricing from there. Low end ones seem to go for 350-400 and nice ones more depending on various features. Nice horns bring the price up fast. You can get many cylinder records for 5 bucks a piece. There are some worth alot, I saw on tv the host of the show drop one worth several grand. It broke into a million pieces right in front of everybody.

nai02fungoid · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Jan 2006, 09:41 pm »

There used to be a guy in Georgetown, Mass at the antique group shop who specialized in the old horn record players. He had at least 25-30 of them in restored shape at all times and the disks and cylinders to play on them. I have no idea whether he is still there or not as I haven't been there in several years but for at least 10 years that I know of he was there every weekend. He also, by the way, had a lot of the old radios as well that he sold. I was not into audio at all at that time and so missed out on all the goodies he had.

If you go to Georgetown, Mass, this is the group shop in an old yellow barn-like building and not the one of the main intersection. If you come from Rt 1/95 and head to Georgetown you would go to the intersection and turn left - the shops are on the right hand side about half a block down.

djbnh · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 Jan 2006, 10:45 pm »

So are there any plans to re-release any of these vintage recordings? lol