The value of Edisonic reproducers

[rocky]

I bid $230 on this gold-plated Edisonic last night. The winning bid was $405. There was a silver-plated one that went for about the same amount not too long ago.

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=012&sspagename=STRK%3AMEDW%3AIT&viewitem=&item=220110429679

What is a reasonable price to pay for an Edisonic in great condition? All Edisonics in perfect working condition are not the same, just as all standard reproducers in great condition are different.

I guess I should consider myself fortunate that I have a standard reproducer that's almost as good and as loud as an Edisonic.

Rocky

[gramophoneshane]

I'm glad you've asked Rocky. I was wondering that myself.
I was bidding on a L35,which had an edisonic. I put in a bid to $400, but had to go out the night of the auction, and it sold for $400.57 Because it was at the other end of oz to me, I was going to tell them to keep the machine, and just send me the reproducer to save on postage.
Oh well- next time. Plenty more were that came from. ;D

[larryh]

My first machine is a standard reproducer, the second I purchased had the Edisonic.. I didn't get a whole lot of time to compare the two as I supected a bad needle and sent it for inspection. But while I had it, although it did play very well to my ear, when I got the original fitted with a good original diaphragm I was rather surprised at the volume and overall tone quality.. No doubt the Edisonic may be better at some things, but till I get it back and can compare straight on I have to feel that a standard is able to produce very fine results. I will let you know more when the two are side by side again.

[maroongem]

Rocky,

I've seen them go as little as $150.00, and as high as the one he sold to that deep pocketed chick for $2550.00.
The gold ones turn up less frequently that the nickel & oxidized ones.
As far as the sound, they do little improvement to the earlier incised discs, but are more for the later 51000 series and of course the electricals that they were designed for.
I'll keep my eyes open for one through some of the people I know. They usually go in the 150-200 range.

Bill

[larryh]

Just a follow up note here. Steve says that the edisonic I sent him sounds weaker than a regular reproducer.. so maybe indeed they are a lot louder. Although for my home I find that a louder unit isn't a feature I exactly need. I find some later records need a bit of a damping with the horn ball as it is..

[orthophonic]

The Edisonic reproducer is louder than the earlier ones but you need to be sure that they as well as the older ones are in good shape. Most often I have found that the rubber gaskets have petrified and partly fallen out - not good for a full range of sound!!!

[maroongem]

Unless they were replaced at some point, Edisonics should have cork gaskets that replaced the rubber ones at about 1923.
Steve Medved may be able to clarify this.

Bill

[orthophonic]

I'm just happy that I traded for my Edisonic and the reproducer came with it. It is really a nice machine with a good sound although I wonder how an electrically recorded Diamond Disc would sound coupled to a 8 or 10 foot horn. I might try it some day if I get a horn to do it with :-)

[steve]

From Ron,

Edison switched to cork gaskets around 1924 as he found that cork retains
resiliency longer than rubber. Gaskets are critical to the piston movement
of vertical reproducers. Hard gaskets inhibit movement of the diaphragm and
stylus, causing record wear as well as poor reproduction.

A problem with gaskets now available from restorers is that the gaskets are
often oversized and dampen the diaphragm too much. The gaskets must be no
wider than the steel damping ring that fits next to them in the reproducer
cup.

Steve the parrot

[holyone]

seeing as I'm new to this, What would the going price be for an original A60 edison diamond
disk machine, with most of the original paint, on the steel case

holyone.

[steve]

There are two types of Edisonic, the early square weight one and the later round weight one. The square weight is harder to find. Then there are converted Edisionics and original ones. NS after the serial number is an Edisonic 7960 NS is an original, or one that started life as an Edisonic.

NS after the serial number beginning with letter is a Converted Edisonic F88690 NS is an example of this. You could trade in a regular reproducer and $6.75 and save $12.75 on an Edisonic; Edison then modified the head with a larger limit loop and installed the heavy weight and thicker diaphragm on it.

The finish offered was nickel, gold and antique. Nickel seems to be the hardest to find based on the ones I have seen, I see that Bill has seen the fewest gold ones. Antique seems to be the most common as machines were produced with this finish. Until I saw what Bill had written I assumed the gold ones were more common than nickel as fewer people with the less expensive nickel ones had them updated, but now I am not sure. The condition of the finish used to be what price was based on, now restored ones sell high and the prices seem to have to have gone way up.

In my opinion $150 for one with a good finish, needle and small spring is a reasonable price to pay. I would pay $250 for a NOS one.

Steve

[orthophonic]

My Edisonic actually had rubber gaskets, or at least they were in little black lengths of petrification :-)

[steve]

orthophonic,

Did your Edisonic have paper gaskets? I would think if your Edisonic had black rubber it would have come from a later rebuild. I have rebuilt reproducers with second generation gaskets that were totally petrified. The way I tell if they were done by Edison or a repairman of that era is the paper gaskets. The paper is cheap notebook paper that has the lines on it. This paper has been around for a while, I saw a letter from 1864 written on it.

It could have come from Edison or an Edison repairman that way. I have an H reproducer with cork gaskets, Edison did service work on these into the 1920's and sold parts even later.

Steve