I have always held to the theory that one should probably not listen to early recordings with 21st century ears with the expectatations of 20 khz to 30 hertz frequency responce. It is an acquired skill which is easily learned by anyone with an open mind who truly wishes to listen to early recordings, isn't it?. This wasn't so much a factor in the teens or twenties when the only reference was a live performance which many people never had the experience of hearing as compared to all of the different high fidelity sound formats which have been thrown at our ears since then. I realise that performance style is another facet of vintage sound recording listening that also enter to the equation. But that is also part of learning to listen to vintage recordings. Different strokes for different folks... Bob H. >>> [log in to unmask] 5/24/2006 10:32 AM >>> On Tue, 23 May 2006, steven c wrote: > The house I live in was built around 1870, and speaks of some > interesting aspects of local history...and it currently contains > my shellac archive of some 40,000 78rpm discs. However, should > I drop over stone cold dead on the morrow, the most likely > response would probably be, "Okeh...let's bulldoze that old shack, > haul all those old records down to the dump, and put up a nice, > new suburban-style home on the empty lot! Guy musta been nuts > to live there and save them old albums..." Yes, many will think you are nuts, but I don't think any on this list find your collecting those old records to be crazy. Perhaps David Seubert could give us some information on the use of their Cylinder project? Perhaps in time, through projects like this, people will realize that there is a point to these old recordings. While you might not like them when you hear them, you first have to be able to hear them to decide if they might have meaning for you. Karl