There’s been some debate on facebook forums I follow about what the best playback methods are for 78s. Some people love acoustic machines. Some swear by vintage tube amps and electric turntables. Some want the most modern hi-fi equipment and computer processing. I think all of these ways have some benefits, but I suppose it’s subjective. It depends on what you think sounds good. But in the interest in science, I have recorded the same record with several methods for you to compare. This is not fully comprehensive. I am sure if you are really into this you may have some other players with better tone.. (Victor Credenzas are probably top of the line for acoustic playback for instance. I don’t have one of those) But in any case this may give you a general idea of the difference in sound of different playback methods.<\/p>\n
First is a good old acoustic phonograph. This was made probably in the 30s. It’s my RCA Victor suitcase phonograph. I have recorded it with a decent stage microphone (you can see it on the left in the video) pointed directly into the “speaker” (technically there is a sort of horn under there)<\/p>\n