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Old Victrola

Anyone out there have an old Victoria along with your serious gear?

Going back to home music reproduction in it's simplest form?

I find them to be beautiful pieces of audio history.

I think it's really cool to occasionally forget the fancy kit, take out an old fox trot or waltz 78, wind that crank and plunk that big needle down. Then take your sweetheart by the hand, pull her close and do slow turns around the living to that scratchy, yet somehow romantic old timey sound.

 

thecarpathian
thecarpathian OP
4,170 posts
 

Great replies guys!

@pehare ,

Thanks for that information. I wasn’t aware you had to change needles that often.

Also, your 1905 Edison is a beauty!

mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,210 posts
 

People forget the opposite end of the performance.  "Electric recording" was not invented until 1926. I have a 1925 picture of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five playing into a huge horn terminating to a diaphragm holding a needle to a spinning lacquer. Louis had to stand behind the band because he was so loud. 

My Grandmother had a beautiful Victrola with a sensational flowered horn. I thought I had dibs on it, but my cousin sold it out from under me. I did get her 1928 Mason & Hamblin Parlor Grand so I suppose I can't complain.......not.

mahler123
3,048 posts
 

I live close to an area that has several antique stores intermingled with restaurants that we frequent.  I am not really into antique stores but if we have to wait for a table will frequently kill time in the shops and I agree, the Victrolas look beautiful .  My wife laid down the law here.  Our home is 120 years old, she gets to make the design choices, and she is always trying to make the home more contemporary.  And I wouldn’t collect 78s and listen to the thing anyway.  I do however subscribe to a streaming service (Pristine Classical) specializing in digital restorations of recordings of that vintage 

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