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Author Topic: Value of antique Edioson record player?  (Read 9871 times)

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Offline lsd2525

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Value of antique Edioson record player?
« on: November 07, 2017, 10:12:17 AM »
OK, saw this on a neighborhood app. Any of the resident gurus care to venture a guess on the value? They are asking $200. I know nothing about this stuff, but would hate to not consider it only to find out that it's a unicorn.

Here's the description:

"original finish in good condition . I was told to leave it that way. Works great , I even bought more records. I paid 250. + records. It's about 5 foot tall 1'9" wide and same deep .I love it but no longer have room for it. P.m. me if you are serious. Have a great day."
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Offline lsd2525

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2017, 10:27:36 AM »
Well, they called it an "Edioson". Google reveals nothing. Guess they meant Edison?
Mics: SKM184's; ADK A51s; AT4041; Superlux S502; CK91 active w/homebrew BB; AT853; Naiant X-X; Nak 300's
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Offline kindms

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2017, 11:26:59 AM »
Well, they called it an "Edioson". Google reveals nothing. Guess they meant Edison?

Moke would probably be a good person to ask.
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Offline IMPigpen

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2017, 01:10:23 PM »
Looks like an Edison Model C19/250 phonograph.  Not too bad shape.  But you couldn't get much more than the $200 he's asking for it.  That might be a little high too depending on where you are located since they are really common on the East Coast.
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mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #4 on: November 07, 2017, 01:59:06 PM »
They don't go for all that much, unless in exquisite condition; then still not as much as you'd think.
Record killers, imo.
I have a *ton of pristine 78's (*literal - probably multiples).  I built a dedicated player for them from "more modern" equipment; meaning early 50's electronics, with a lighter tracking tonearm/cartridge combo.
The windup feature, while fun at first, won't be fun for all that long. Its nice to throw a power switch, and then run a constant speed.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2017, 05:03:32 PM by Moke »

mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #5 on: November 07, 2017, 02:05:50 PM »
Oh yeah,... eBay has steel needles available for the arm. They're sold in small bulk lots. You'll need to change them out very frequently to keep from causing groove damage.
The steel needles come in a variety of hardness factors that can increase or decrease the amplitude, and or, effect "EQ"-like changes in playback.

Offline lsd2525

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #6 on: November 07, 2017, 02:23:27 PM »
Thanks guys!!!
Mics: SKM184's; ADK A51s; AT4041; Superlux S502; CK91 active w/homebrew BB; AT853; Naiant X-X; Nak 300's
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Offline raymonda

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2017, 10:50:03 PM »
That was a fair price and should be fun. However, Edison was a linear tracker and big advocate for cylinder playback systems but Columbia beat him out. It was the first VHS v. Beta Max battle and another example of how convenience won out over sound.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 02:52:27 PM by raymonda »

Offline lsd2525

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #8 on: November 08, 2017, 08:21:07 AM »
That was a fair price and should be fun. However, Edison was a linear tracker and big advocate for cylinder playback systems but RCA Victor beat him out. It was the first VHS v. Beta Max battle and another example of how convenience won out over sound.

I keep looking at it an almost think it would be worth it for the decorative/conversation piece value alone
Mics: SKM184's; ADK A51s; AT4041; Superlux S502; CK91 active w/homebrew BB; AT853; Naiant X-X; Nak 300's
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mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #9 on: November 08, 2017, 09:44:38 AM »
They can make great project boxes.

Now, I'm not suggesting, or advocating the destruction of a complete functional unit here, just giving some ideas,...
I found this radiogram cabinet on CL.  It is an Art-Deco cabinet that I found a built date on of March 1932
I went and bought it, despite it being in a crazed cat hoarders house, with an indoor population of feral cats.
When I got it, it was filled with cat kibble, and had been used as a nesting box. IT smelled like cat piss, and had urine stains on the grill cloth.
The tonearm literally tracked at 8 ounces (typical is 1.5->3grams or under 1/8 ounce), with steel needles.  The TT was hand wound, and needed to be wound between discs. The integrated tube/radio amplifier has shorted out, and smoked the circuit traces.
Mine: perfect candidate for a resto-mod.

I stripped it of its components, gutted it out, used a biological urine cleaner (that totally worked), and I started looking towards a refitting with more "modern" components.
I cannot tell you how many people turned against this project,.... "Oh, no,... you're going to destroy a piece of audio history",... blah blah blah. Ultimately, these same people came to celebrate the end result when it was presented.

I knew I was going to do a project like this; So, for two years prior, I had been purchasing components, but not really sure how it was all going to work out, come together. I kept searching for a candidate cabinet.
My components were of mostly professional radio broadcast gear of the early 50's, and an early HarmanKardon mono integrated tube amp (mid-50's model).
The TT is by Presto Recording Corp of Paramus NJ. Presto was the worlds leading radio broadcast gear manufacturer.  THe tonearm is early General Electric radio arm, and the arm has its desgined for cartridge, the GE RPX Triple-Play (33/45/78 on turn-around cantilever), and the GE VRII, as well as a vintage Stanton cartridge and various era proper styl (1mil and 3mil)i.

I now call her Audrey, my dedicated mono console.
She has a modern coaxial onboard speaker in the cabinet. But, I also run her on an early 50's General Electric A1-400 coaxial corner speaker (corner speaker in last image below. Under the Ink Spots LP cover)

These can make wonderful project boxes.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 11:05:04 AM by Moke »

mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2017, 09:58:20 AM »
This is the Vactrola
It is a record cleaning machine that I built from a gutted Victrola cabinet that was destined for the dump.
It had a fractured leg that was not totally broken, but, was just at the verge of breaking off.  It had also been covered in fine roller spatter from blue oil-based enamel, from when it wasn't covered during a paint job.
The right lid was the TT bay. The left lid was nailed and glued closed at the factory; i had to carefully cut around the lid perimeter with a handheld hacksaw blade in order to free the left lid up. Once I freed that lid up, I had to cut the cabinet to fit a piano hinge for the lid, and create lid support hardware to hold the lid up.

I installed two platters. The left platter is free spinning, manually turned, wet cleaning platter. The right platter is motor driven at 6rpm. There is a VPI vacuum wand stanchion added, to vacuum off the wet cleaning residue.

These things make great project boxes!
This is the Vactrola build thread: http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/the-vactrola-a-diy-rcm.319179/
« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 11:35:29 AM by Moke »

mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #11 on: November 08, 2017, 10:19:42 AM »
I just picked this beauty up at the thrift store a week ago.  It found me, while helping to unload the thrift store pick-up/delivery box truck. I got it for the unloading effort, essentially as a gift from the thrift store, for my labor.
Sarge has fallen in love with the cabinet.
It is a complete Bendix 847b Superheterodyne Phonograph Frequency Modulation Radio from 1947

My plan,...
When the California wildfire season finally backs off, and the green grasses cover the hills, I might take it outside into the gravel, and try to plug it in, and see if it actually powers up.
Even if it does, I'm very likely going to retrofit it with a late 50's Bogen-Presto B60 TT that I have (four speed idler drive, by Lenco, rebadged as B-P). And, in all likeliness, I'll discretely fit a modern class-D digital chip amp, like this, as an integrated amp w/ bluetooth, and SD card slot. In essence, make this into a modern era juke box, with a newer high quality record player, for Sarge. I can load the SD card up with transfers of my 78 collection, and play them back that way.
She doesn't know this is the plan, so,....shhh.

The top two pics: mine
The bottom two pics are one that I found on Craiglist that had been gutted of tubes and speaker; and had been refinished. Asking $175 as is.
So, I'm thinking about refinishing the exterior, and discretely retrofitting a modern TPA chip amp in it to make it a functional quality stereo console.

These can make great project boxes.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 10:49:40 AM by Moke »

Offline lsd2525

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #12 on: November 08, 2017, 11:42:21 AM »
Wow. Very cool!!
Mics: SKM184's; ADK A51s; AT4041; Superlux S502; CK91 active w/homebrew BB; AT853; Naiant X-X; Nak 300's
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Offline raymonda

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #13 on: November 08, 2017, 02:05:19 PM »
Those are all very cool!!!!!!!

mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #14 on: November 08, 2017, 02:23:38 PM »
Thanks guys.

Raymonda,
As a TT tweaker, you can appreciate the build of Audrey, the mono console.
I built a multi-leaf birch plywood massive theory plinth for the TT, likely 6 layers of 18mm/.70" ply, and fit it within the confines of the cabinet. It is a suspended design to isolate the TT from the cabinet, suspended on four points of "Supernal"-type rubber balls.  I gave the cabinet extensive seismic testing with its onboard speaker, with both suspended and non-suspended plinth TT's on the closed cabinet lid.  The cabinet revealed feedback, and, revealed that I needed to build a suspended plinth.
The birch ply plinth extends from just below the 1/16" copper top plate, to just above the amplifier opening. It is suspended by an inner shelf that is the base of the rubber ball suspension that the plinth sits on.
In post-building testing,... I can run the new amplifier and TT at 11, and not get any feedback.

First pic is the birch ply plinth inside the cabinet.
The second pic shows the plinth (black), and the isolation shelf inside the cabinet. You can see the superball suspension in between the base shelf and the plinth.
The lower black shelf is the amplifier shelf base.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2017, 02:28:32 PM by Moke »

Offline 2manyrocks

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #15 on: November 08, 2017, 06:25:56 PM »
Very cool.  I like your modded cabinets better than the original Edison, too. 

mfrench

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #16 on: November 09, 2017, 09:52:15 PM »
Thanks. They were a labor of love, to be sure.
After I posted the last time, I listened to my Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday 78 collection (probably twelve 10" singles, 24 sides, between them) through a period correct system (Audrey).  Gotta say, pretty nice. Billie singing Gotta Right to Sing the Blues and Stormy Weather mmm, mmm.... I might need to heat the house up tomorrow morning with some tube glow.

/my highjacking
« Last Edit: November 09, 2017, 09:55:05 PM by Moke »

Offline zowie

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #17 on: February 13, 2018, 03:03:49 PM »
They don't go for all that much, unless in exquisite condition; then still not as much as you'd think.
Record killers, imo.
I have a *ton of pristine 78's (*literal - probably multiples).  I built a dedicated player for them from "more modern" equipment; meaning early 50's electronics, with a lighter tracking tonearm/cartridge combo.
The windup feature, while fun at first, won't be fun for all that long. Its nice to throw a power switch, and then run a constant speed.

It's for vertical grooves.  Notice how the reproducer element is rotated 90 degrees compared to the more familiar victorola and Columbia machines?  "Regular" 78s don't play on it and will get ruined because the reproducer is meant to move in the wrong plane.  And Edison discs (which were 80 rpm) will get destroyed on a standard lateral phonograph.  They also won't play on a modern turntable unless you use a stereo cartridge and cross-wire it.

This is not quite beta/vhs as someone mentioned.  Rather, there were many slightly different acoustic record formats -- different speeds, different groove widths, of course different record diameters, different sized center holes, vertical vs. lateral, all to attempt to get around other people's patents with essentially the same basic technology.  And this was true among both flat discs and cylinder formats.

The Edison cylinder finally failed as a pre-recorded music format during the depression.  (It continued to be used for office dictation until after WWII when tape came along.  But Victor also failed during the depression.  RCA then bought Victor and some years later switched branding to RCA-Victor.  Radio in the 20s was the internet of the 90s.


Offline kindms

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #18 on: February 14, 2018, 07:21:48 PM »
They don't go for all that much, unless in exquisite condition; then still not as much as you'd think.
Record killers, imo.
I have a *ton of pristine 78's (*literal - probably multiples).  I built a dedicated player for them from "more modern" equipment; meaning early 50's electronics, with a lighter tracking tonearm/cartridge combo.
The windup feature, while fun at first, won't be fun for all that long. Its nice to throw a power switch, and then run a constant speed.

It's for vertical grooves.  Notice how the reproducer element is rotated 90 degrees compared to the more familiar victorola and Columbia machines?  "Regular" 78s don't play on it and will get ruined because the reproducer is meant to move in the wrong plane.  And Edison discs (which were 80 rpm) will get destroyed on a standard lateral phonograph.  They also won't play on a modern turntable unless you use a stereo cartridge and cross-wire it.

This is not quite beta/vhs as someone mentioned.  Rather, there were many slightly different acoustic record formats -- different speeds, different groove widths, of course different record diameters, different sized center holes, vertical vs. lateral, all to attempt to get around other people's patents with essentially the same basic technology.  And this was true among both flat discs and cylinder formats.

The Edison cylinder finally failed as a pre-recorded music format during the depression.  (It continued to be used for office dictation until after WWII when tape came along.  But Victor also failed during the depression.  RCA then bought Victor and some years later switched branding to RCA-Victor.  Radio in the 20s was the internet of the 90s.

hell of a first post! welcome aboard the crazy train  ;D :guitarist:
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Offline zowie

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #19 on: February 15, 2018, 02:03:10 AM »
Thanks.  I was here years ago, back when NJB3 and MD were state of the art, but got out of taping for a while.
« Last Edit: February 15, 2018, 02:05:29 AM by zowie »

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #20 on: February 20, 2018, 09:22:29 AM »
+T
Pockets full of nickels and nothing left to eat, and I'm stuck behind a semi on Soniat Street.

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Re: Value of antique Edioson record player?
« Reply #21 on: May 15, 2018, 07:26:28 PM »
I'm coming to this thread a little late, but I do collect these things.  From the look of the grill and the record storage below, this would be a C19, the earlier 250 usually had different record drawers below.  It was introduced in 1919.  But there is overlap, as cabinets (made by furniture companies) got used up or not (and collectors sometimes put the wrong grill on a repaired machine), so you will have to look at the medallion inside, which should also identify it as a "Laboratory Model" which was meant to make it appealing to the techies of the day, I suppose.  It had a bigger spring motor and bigger acoustic horn than cheaper consoles.

The Edison cylinder finally failed as a pre-recorded music format during the depression.  (It continued to be used for office dictation until after WWII when tape came along.  But Victor also failed during the depression.  RCA then bought Victor and some years later switched branding to RCA-Victor.  Radio in the 20s was the internet of the 90s.

RCA bought Victor just before the market crash in 1929, Ned Johnson sold out at exactly the best time.  Pressure from new radio technology, which was the rage, was hurting record sales.  Edison was for a long time a holdout against electronic recording techniques, by the time they jumped into that (pushed by Edison's son) they had lost the game and the final late-20s electric records and radiolas never took off for them.  Edison abandoned original recording to cylinders before WW I, they continued to produce cylinders mainly for the rural market but these were copies of material recorded for the flat Diamond Discs, which weighed in at about a pound each and were vertically cut. These late cylinders were transferred by playing a Diamond Disc to make a cylinder mold, so they are generally worse sounding than the same title on Diamond Disc.  The selling point for both was that you never had to change the diamond needle, versus the usual 78s played with a steel needle that had to be (or ought to be) replaced after each play.  Edison officially quit making commercial records October 21, 1929, the stock market crashed on October 24 and the Depression followed that, it had nothing directly to do with Edison's surrender or RCA buying Victor.

Jeff

 

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