Definitely! Very good points. If I make a video of playing 78s on my vintage Grafonola, I will definitely highlight those details. Thank you for watching and commenting. Appreciate it. Skol! Jeff

Change the needle after each side? Good gracious. You would need a stash of hundreds.

Agreed I have 4 myself.

@@jeremynv89523 and we do. They are sold that way. :-)

Fortunately you can still buy new steel needles for your gramophones since some people still make them but I definitely prefer electronic turntables myself which afford you more control, less overall wear, and of course direct recording for archival purposes. Sure, you could mic up a gramophone horn with a decent mic but still.

Dano! Hello! Been on the move - see latest video for an update on that - and hope to be back in action soon. Lots of unpacking and setting up to do. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Totally respect that. I have a Columbia Grafonola, and play records on it from time to time. Just not something I've really gotten into. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves Sonically, the best sound one can get out of Edison (vertical-cut) records is playing them on an Edison disc phonograph. Perhaps playing them on a specially equipped cartridge is best for minimal wear, but lack the brilliance and presence of an Edison phono. I cannot say about the wear factor of the Edison sound-box, but Edison sure knew what he was doing.

​@@dannichols2929 Yes both of you have great points

Hello, Kyle! Always great to make the acquaintance of another 78 enthusiast. I am not familiar with Vessel cartridges. Would love to know more...what do you like most about it? Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Thank you! Will do. And thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Thanks for watching and commenting. Yes - the difference in speed is a very interesting aspect of 78s. Which makes the Audio-Technica a great turntable for 78s playback because it a s slider control that allows you to adjust the speed up or down. Thanks again. Skol! Jeff

My pleasure! Thank YOU for watching and commenting. Much appreciated. Skol! Jeff

Thank you! And thanks for watching and commenting. Always great to connect with other 78 collectors. Skol! Jeff

Thank YOU! And thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Hello, Chester! I agree with you 100%. What's "best" when it comes to playing 78s (or any other audio format, for that matter) is completely subjective. What works "best" for me is what I showed in the video - and hopefully that was helpful for others. Especially newbies to the hobby. The description of your system sounds amazing. For me as I look at how to upgrade my system - I would love to get a Rek-O-Kut Re-Equilizer and have the capability of re-equalizing 78s and adjusting for the RIAA curve live on the fly as I play them. I've re-equilized digital files, so I know the benefit. Would love to be able to do that as I'm playing discs. Anyway...Always so many little things we can do to improve sound and our listening experience. Thanks so much for watching and commenting on the video. Skol! Jeff

Thanks, Randall. Would be happy to do a "behind the scenes" video of a Listening Session. And a video of my Grafonola is easily done. Not my forte, as I'm definitely NOT a vintage phonograph expert, by any mean. Thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Thank you, William. Yeah - I can relate...my wife often reminds me of how much space my record collection takes up. :( Thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Very cool! Thanks for watching and commenting, Michael. Skol! Jeff

Michael, Thanks for watching and commenting. Interesting backgrounding. I like the Grado, even with a bit of hum. Sounds great to my ears. Skol! Jeff

For sure! Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Thanks, Chuck! And thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Thank you, Shaun! And thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

I have that cart. Don’t accidentally break the needle on it or you gotta pay $89USD in my case…

@@oldradios09 I'm quite aware of that, lol. Mine's fine, albeit a bit turned to the right.

Hello, Ron! I don't know what causes that hum. My guess is that is has more to do with he turntable and less with the cartridge itself. On my TT, the hum is very low and inaudible while the music is playing. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Hello! No, you don't need to keep the binders. Best practice is to sleeve the records and then box or shelve them. I buy my sleeves (and boxes) from Bags Unlimited: www.bagsunlimited.com/category/188/78-rpm-10-record-supplies Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Fantastic! I would love to have a vintage console system. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

I switch out the head shells. I have one mounted with a stereo, another mounted with a mono, and then a third with the 78s cart. The stereo and mono are both Ortofon and weigh the same, with the same tracking force rating. So, it's a quick swap. For the 78 cart I have to rebalance the tone arm to account for the difference in weight and the heavier tracking force. But I have a digital weight, so that makes the recalibration fairly quick and relatively painless. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

It's a good entry turntable. Not very expensive and decent quality. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Hello, Sonia! Oh my! So sorry for you and for the damage to your records. That’s tragic! Hurricane in NJ!? Crazy! I grew up in Florida, so I know what it’s like to go through hurricanes. I did a video on how to clean 78s a while back. Here’s the link: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hd2VbMJ-uNWqdYU.html I’d try that method first on a few and see how it works. Let me know how it goes. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves Hi Jeff, yeah, Hurricane Ida came up the east coast a couple of weeks ago. I’ll check out the video. Thank you.

@@ToneInGrooves Jeff, Dawn discontinued Simply Clean. Can’t find it. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

As I said in the video - it's all opinion. Personally I think using a stylus and turntable is the way to go. Sounds great, you can use tone controls and/or EQ to improve sound, and yes - easier on the records themselves as playing records on vintage wind-up phonographs will damage the records quickly if played often. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves and if you use a steel needle more than once that’s a guaranteed way to damage em

Hello, Martin! Thank for the tip on recording & inverting for Edison discs. I have a couple of Edisons and have been trying to figure out how to listen to them without spending tons of money on a Rek-o-Kut Re-Equilizer with a vertical/lateral switch. A cool piece of equipment which I would love to have, but not really in the budget. I haven't tried recording slow and speeding up digitally either. Might help. Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves I have since tried recording slow and it did help with noise reduction. One side on the Edison disc I have is so worn out all previous attempts at getting the music louder than the noise were unsuccessful. I recorded at 28 rpm, did a lot of low pass filtering and click removal, did the inversion and combine to mono, then sped it up by 2.86X and did some more high and low pass filtering. After all that I could amplify and hear the music above the noise. For real time listening you can swap the wires on a stereo cartridge to do the same inversion, but dealing with those tiny wires is not fun.

I don't have a way to play Edison discs. I have one in the collection, but haven't listened to it. I hear you can reverse the wiring on a stereo cartridge to play them, but I haven't monkeyed with that yet. Not sure where the Audio-Techinca turntable is made. Will have to look. Skol! jeff

@@ToneInGrooves Thank You so much for Your reply!

Your 1229 is superior to the AT 120. I exchanged My two lp 120's ( i dj'd a lot with them and they are great for that) for Duals ( at the moment two 1218's a 704 and a 1209 that needs some fixing. Those are made for playing those 78's and will do it much better than the 120....invest in a mono cartridge on your 1229. cheaper and better.

Ah, you all need to go to the Dyslexic Genius Hurt channel. He just did a video on that very topic.

Very cool, Sam! yes - over the years I've considered upgrading to the more expensive Grado 78 cart & stylus. But - just haven't done it. Would definitely be an interesting experiment to compare the two. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

You'd get the most benefit from the elliptical 78 stylus with 1940's and 50's discs because they usually have a better treble response. The Nagaoka's have the advantage of permalloy shielding and different plug-in tip sizes.

@@1mctous Funny you mention that because when I first got my MP-110 and used it on my Orbit, it had a slight hum and a relatively high noise floor and even radio interference. Getting proper phono cables instead of the standard interconnect cables I was using fixed the problem by greatly lowering the noise floor and on my SL-1210GR it isn't an issue at all but my 2M Black LVB 250 which I don't use for 78s of course has absolutely no hum no matter how loud I turn up the volume. Grado is the brand that gets the hum reputation but that has not been my experience with the Prestige Black 1 on my Orbit before I upgraded to those other 2 cartridges for LP use before I even got into 78s.

I like the Grado. Haven't experimented with other brands, so can't speak to how the Grado compares with others. To my ears the Grado sounds fantastic! Skol, Jeff

A true mono cartridge that doesn't "recognize" vertical movement in the groove is the best option, like the Denon DL-102 or the GE-VRX, but they're very expensive...

Welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting. Vintage phonographs definitely have their charms and positives when it comes to listing to 78s. For sure! For me, I enjoy using the modern turntable and even making digital recordings, running them through click/noise repair and re-equalization software, etc. It's fun! I've heard 78s played on the Orthophonic machines and they do sound amazing! Thanks, again. Skol! Jeff

This is true! Haven't played many on the Grafonola, but have heard others testify to that fact. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

Very interesting. Thank you for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves Thank you . Very useful overview of starter equipment list: economical without compromising sound quality or record longevity. This is a great starting point for anyone looking how to play SP records. What with the vinyl resurgence, now we seem to have a shellac resurgence too? That would be great for preserving the legacy of shellac recordings for the future - unless people start posting these to one another en masse which will spell the end of 78 rpm records. Unfortunately, the number one enemy of shellac records is postage (followed by mishaps when handling/storing). There are a few videos on youtube about posting them but I consider some to offer inadequate advice, i.e. still putting the records to risk. There cannot be enough videos on how to properly package these records for postage - as well as properly storing them and caring for them. For large quantities of records, e.g. more than 10 loose records, postage becomes problematic and I would certainly advise picking them up in person for any quantity of more than a dozen. Most sellers just want to dispose of them and simply will not put in the effort required to package such quantities.

Another way to preserve longevity is of course to record to another medium. Recording digitally affords one to record while playing the record at a much slower speed e.g. 33.33 rpm (or, if your equipment permits it, at half of 78 rpm or whatever speed the shellac record should be played) and then speed up the playback. The slower recording speed of course limits record/stylus wear. This reviewer reports good results with this method, that can be heard here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j5x3ms6gps3Zp5c.html Of course you may do the same thing with an analogue recorder but then you must have the capability to: a) precisely set the record playing speed when recording as you will not have the same freedom in adjusting the playback speed that is afforded by a digital medium and b) the capability to record at half speed. This method, generally requires using a reel to reel recorder - highly esoteric solution nowadays - or a cassette recorder with the capability to record at half speed, if you happen to have one of those. Generally, of the latter, there are quite a few low-fi examples circulating in the second hand market but finding one with hi-fi sound will be quite an exercise.

YES! Honestly, that's a big part of why I collect 78s. It is so rewarding opening these portals into the past, listing to music from by-gone days, bringing history to life by simply playing a record. It's amazing! Priceless! And yes, I agree, getting more and more expensive. Used to be easy to walk into any thrift store or antique store and find piles of 78s for a dollar apiece. Now "collector values" are what's asked. One of the downsides to the vinyl/physical media resurgence. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

@@ToneInGrooves we sould hook up i have some music i would love to share

Yes, indeed. You are correct. Hence, one of the advantages of the pitch control on the Audio-Technica. Thanks for watching and commenting. Skol! Jeff

any collector of 78s will tell you that discs played often will have wear and will not sound as good as discs not played often so how can you say that? Also it is a fact that continuous playing of records - whether 78s or LPs - will eventually wear down the needle/stylus, leading to reduced quality. Friction=wear. If you only play a record once a year then you're not going to notice any wear obviously. Listening to modern transfers from 78s to LPs or CDs there are huge differences in the quality. Some companies take great care with the equipment used and the use of equalisers, etc, others do not. So equipment and the use of, makes a difference to your listening enjoyment. It's a fun and fascinating hobby!