Steve, won't your ears tell you whether phono-EQ was used or not? It can
sometimes be hard to tell which EQ setting was used, when some EQ setting
was used, but usually not so hard to tell if no EQ was used. That's not a
small difference. As in many cases of determining EQ, the ears are the
most reliable equipment.

Best, John




On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 10:23 AM, Dennis Rooney <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> When Western Electric brought electrical recording to Victor and Columbia,
> several turnover/rolloff combinations were suggested, viz. 300/0, 500/-10,
> 800/-10 and 500/-13.5. The choice was up to the cutting engineer and
> examples of all the above were used from 1925. At this point, it is useful
> to reiterate that there was no such thing as a "standard" equalization for
> playback of 78rpm discs, although there was some stabilization by c1930.
>
> DDR
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 12:17 AM, Steve Smolian <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Do we know if the early commercial electrics by Victor and HMV used any
> > equalization? Since there was no commercial record player on the home
> > market that used an amplifier until November, 1925, there’s an
> > April-October or later period where there is no means of introducing a
> > circuit that inverts any electronic change from what reached the cutting
> > head.
> >
> > The record companies would not abandon the record market which used the
> > acoustic playback process for half a year or create a product that
> sounded
> > poor on the installed base of home players. Yes the acoustic
> Orthophonics
> > were available by then but few could afford them.
> >
> > If this is so, such 78s should be played back flat.
> >
> > Any hard data on this question?
> >
> > Steve Smolian
> >
>
>
>
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