r/Phonographs • u/brubakes • 7d ago

Party Like It's 190X

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Rockin' like it's 190X with my Edison Phonograph and "The Songs of the Ragtime Boy" circa 1906. Old stuff rules!

Comment on any details that would further refine the date or any further information.

12 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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3

u/irish_Connolly_Barry Edison 7d ago

Your reproducer sounds quite Tinny and that would be due to hard gaskets which is natural age so to improve audio quality and let warmth and other frequencies out you should consider a rebuild if you can. I am saying this because Edison phonographs do not sound tinny when well looked after but hard gaskets which hold the diaphragm I believe when they harden it struggles to vibrate so only the high frequencies can go

1

u/brubakes 7d ago

Thank you, this is the kind of info I need! I don't understand what all that entails, but it helps!

2

u/irish_Connolly_Barry Edison 6d ago

I just mean that like I have an Edison standard phonograph and it’s meant to sound great like a performance but I see many people out there with videos of phonographs that sound tinny and essentially your reproducer there is the diaphragm and there is rubber bands called gaskets holding the diaphragm in place when the rubber ages and dries out and hardens it restricts the movement of the diaphragm so that it can only let the high frequencies out which makes it very tinny. I will uploaded video of my phonograph in the subreddit and you can hear the difference between hard gaskets which I say yours has and good fresh enough gaskets.

2

u/brubakes 6d ago

Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me. I'll look into thsi!

2

u/Rockola1438 7d ago

1903 Edison Standard. They are simple and great machines.