I had an opportunity some time ago to hear a cylinder thru contemporary 
ear tubes and was quite amazed at the sound captured in the thing. I 
don't know the vintage of the thing but IIRC it was blue amberol.

So now I am wondering if there was ever an ear tube gizmo for acoustic 
78s and what that might have sounded like.

joe salerno


On 1/23/2012 12:48 PM, Michael Biel wrote:

> Cylinder sound is over-rated.  Except for the large Concert size, the
> surface speed was below that of 78s.  Although it was the same from
> start to finish, it was equal to the inner-grooves of a 78. Anyway, from
> 1914 on they were all dubs of discs, showing that Edison realized that
> the Edison Diamond Disc was superior to the cylinder. The celluloid
> Blue Amberols were often out-of-round with dreadful flutter and wow.  I
> think George B-N (who has studied this) will agree with me that most of
> the shortcomings of lateral discs was due to the processing of the metal
> masters (polishing, knurling,etc), and that pressings from un-processed
> masters can have audio that shines.
>
> Mike Biel  [log in to unmask]
>
>

-- 
Joe Salerno