Beautiful Japanese gramophones

there must be a way to hook up an iPod Nano to the thing

Very charming - a perfect counterpoint to this machine is Dave Cooper's classic book about the history of gramophones called "His Master's Voice" (New Cavendish Books - UK)

I don't know about "warm, nostalgic sound of analog", a friend recently cranked up his vintage gramophone for me and the sound was incredible. Very loud with no means to adjust, the urgent hiss of a shellac 78, the faithful reproduction of the footstomping 20's Jazz untempered by engineers.

The sound was alive and immediate and I loved it. The notion of using the needles just once and the disc degrading each play only made it more precious.

I only wish it was usable with modern LPs. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

wait why won't it work with modern LPs?

Um... it says right there at it plays several sizes of LP albums. From 33/45/78rpm records.

I dont own any vinyl albums whatsoever, but if i did i think i would really love to play them through a gramophone over anything else. I'm a huge sucker for this type of stuff.

It can't play "modern lps"? Please elaborate. I wasn't able to find any info with regard to that.

Yes, Grey Devil, but there's a big difference between vintage 78s and modern micro-groove vinyl LPs. Folks who've bought this report that using modern LPs with its bamboo needle will destroy the record pretty quickly.

Gakken is super cool! every time i go to Japan i try to pick up a couple of these. my favorite from a few years ago:

Mini Theremin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ONJfp95yoE

(not my video, btw)

the Planetarium is awesome too:

http://threestepsoverjapan.blogspot.com/2009/03/gakken-kits-9-and-2.html

i love that they call these kits "mooks" (magazine-books)

I agree that playing 'modern' LPs on such a player would eventually destroy the disk, but the use of bamboo needles (instead of the traditional soft steel) might help preserve the soft vinyl disks.

I would really like to hear the bamboo needles through a true vintage reproducer for an even comparison - does anyone know if the tone is warmer than with steel needles?

Also, can anyone comment on the construction of the reproducer on these new models? I think the old ones used a sheet of micah held in place by a rubber gasket - with so many new materials available, I am curious what they chose for these.

Sweet stuff, but I still love vintage shellac on vintage phonographs.

Mr. Spooky

@Spookyland: so do you think that vinyl LPs are, indeed, playable with this gramophone and a bamboo needle? I'm seeing conflicting reports about whether it's only usable with shellac or if micro-groove LPs are playable at all.

In the past, you could get sapphire or diamond-tipped needles for some gramophones, e.g the Edison Diamond-Disc vertical-cut players. In most systems, the groove oscillates side-to-side. Diamond Discs oscillate up & down in a constant-width groove. The records are thicker to accommodate the greater depth of the groove. Stereo (microgroove) records are cut with the oscillations on a 45-degree angle, with the left and right signals on opposite sides of the groove.

As for chewing up the record, well, these old machines (I have a Brunswick floor-model) weigh on the record very heavily. Even with the counterweight set all the way out, it's about a pound. Yes, a pound. Magnetic cartridges of the 1950s only need about 3 grams weight to track properly, and modern stereo cartridges only need give or take 1 gram. This thing, regardless of the needle material, is going to weigh on the groove with 500x the normal pressure. Of course it will chew up the record.

Or is there a better counterweight and tracking-weight system (as on modern tonearms) that allows lighter pressure on the record?

In the past, I have accidentally played vinyl albums from the 1950's or 1960's on a crank phonograph - these albums were designed for electric players, but produced music (it didn't sound great).

Although I assume that 'modern LPs' employ differnt groove technology (I will read up on micro-groove), these systems are ultimately acoustic in nature, so I would expect to hear ... something....

Mr. Spooky