Comment by thereallyniceman on October 26, 2024 at 14:01

Well!  73 years old and I have never seen one of these gadgets before...with Fred Van Eps too.

What joy :-)

Comment by Trapdoor2 on October 26, 2024 at 19:26

Heck, I used to collect those things and I've never even heard of one.

Pathé was an early adopter of the flat disc record. However, they used Edison's vertical system (hill and valley) to cut the records as opposed to Victor's "lateral" (side to side) system. Edison didn't move to flat discs until ~1913.

My early 1920s Brunswick console player has a switchable head. You just rotate it to access the vertical needle or rotate it back for the lateral needle. Many old records are labeled "lateral" so that consumers bought the right recording tech.

That diffusor is just a speaker cone with the needle underneath. Getting it to track must be a chore.

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