On 9/3/2014 7:28 PM, Tom Fine wrote:
> Edison and staff never stopped experimenting with acoustic recording.
> Screaming into a small horn and recording on foil or soft wax will
> produce only the most primative low-fidelity results. Their methods got
> much more elaborate and heavy-duty (ie big horns) to get better
> fidelity. I've never heard any Edison recordings that I would say
> approach "high" fidelity, but some of the Blue Amberols that I've heard
> sound somewhat like what I imagine the source sounds might sound like in
> a room (ie the "tone" is somewhat accurate), and there's much less
> background noise than more primative recordings from earlier days.

There was a recording of the Hellelujah chorus from "Messiah" in the 
UCSD collection that I thought was remarkable quality for an 
acoustically-cut cylinder. The artists are listed as "Oratorio Chorus" 
(not too helpful) and the date was 1916. I don't know if it was an 
Edison, but buried way back in my memory is something that says it 
wasn't. Google "vintage-christmas-wax" (include the hyphens) and 
"paulfucito". You may have to go to the Wayback Machine.

Peace,
Paul