[bigshot]

Wishing a great 2019 to Sound Science and its devotees.\

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Wishing a great 2019 to Sound Science and its devotees.\

Merry Christmas ....hope Santa brings some good music to all of you in Sound Science forums

 

[blackdragon87]

merry Christmas to everyone at head fi

 

[Steve999]

Happy holidays and a happy new year to everyone!

Here's a little guitar music to get everyone in the spirit.

 

[Laura80]

Wishing a great 2019 to Sound Science and its devotees.\

I love the vintage pics!

I’ve drank a little.m

This is my fave Christmas song ever! Merry Christmas everyone!

 

[sonitus mirus]

Tis the season. Some you may have never heard before today.

 

[BobG55]

Wishing a great 2019 to Sound Science and its devotees.\

Love the looks of the sound system on the portable tray in the kitchen. The set up looks impressive, especially the tube amp and the big mono speaker. I grew up as a kid with that kind of turntable although it was part of a cabinet. The first one my parents had was an old cabinet system from the fifties or late forties. The door pulled out and the "all metal" turntable came out. The cabinet door on the left pulled down and contained the radio and sound buttons. Similar to the image below which I found on the Internet. I could be mistaking but I believe it was a Majestic since our television was a B&W Majestic, I remember that.

 

[bigshot]

If you notice, the record changer is playing 10 inch records, which puts it in the first year or two of hifi, before Columbia started putting out exclusively 12 inch records. I'm sure the acoustic feedback on that tea cart would be horrible though.

 

[BobG55]

If you notice, the record changer is playing 10 inch records, which puts it in the first year or two of hifi, before Columbia started putting out exclusively 12 inch records. I'm sure the acoustic feedback on that tea cart would be horrible though.

By 10 inch records you're referring to 78 rpm's which were strictly mono, right ? I take it the 12 inch were hifi as you pointed out, which basically means stereo ? My parents had an exhaustive collection of 78s which covered just about every genre of music from, e.g. Leopold Stokowski/ Philadelphia Orchestra to Debussy, Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Caruso to Spike Jones, etc. Many French records also. The 78 record albums were kept in book format containers inside which were individual paper sleeves for each record. Each one contained about 10 records or more.

A bit later, when I was around 7 years old my father bought an Electrohome cabinet stereo player with an all gold AM/FM radio (including the knobs) & an all white Garrard turntable. An aesthetically beautiful looking system. Eventually we had a vast 33 1/3 record collection.

 

[bigshot]

By 10 inch records you're referring to 78 rpm's which were strictly mono, right?

Columbia was the first label to put out 33 1/3 microgroove records in the very earliest days of the LP. These were mono. They had two sizes... 10 inch "extended play" primarily for popular music, and 12 inch "long play" for classical. I think the idea behind the 10 inch records was to mimic the playing time of the average 10 inch 78rpm book set... four two sided records... about 25 minutes total playing time. 12 inch records ran about 40 minutes. RCA introduced the 45rpm single and that exactly matched the playing time of 78s. They started releasing little books of 45s that ended up pushing the extended play 10 inch sets out of the market.

Here is an early 10 inch Columbia like you see on the hifi in that picture... 10 inch, 8 songs.

Columbia was mastering to 15 inch 33 1/3 discs as early as 1941 or so. The 78s they released were dubs recut to shellac. Consumer LPs started about 1948. That transition period between 78 and LP is pretty interesting. It wasn't as quick a changeover as people think. I think that photo is around 48 to 50 or so. You can tell these early Columbias because they had plain graphic covers, the vinyl was thicker and more rubbery feeling, and the pitch of the grooves was coarser than modern LPs. The first stereo LP was in 1958.

 

[BobG55]

Columbia was the first label to put out 33 1/3 microgroove records in the very earliest days of the LP. These were mono. They had two sizes... 10 inch "extended play" primarily for popular music, and 12 inch "long play" for classical. I think the idea behind the 10 inch records was to mimic the playing time of the average 10 inch 78rpm book set... four two sided records... about 25 minutes total playing time. 12 inch records ran about 40 minutes. RCA introduced the 45rpm single and that exactly matched the playing time of 78s. They started releasing little books of 45s that ended up pushing the extended play 10 inch sets out of the market.

Here is an early 10 inch Columbia like you see on the hifi in that picture... 10 inch, 8 songs.

Columbia was mastering to 15 inch 33 1/3 discs as early as 1941 or so. The 78s they released were dubs recut to shellac. Consumer LPs started about 1948. That transition period between 78 and LP is pretty interesting. It wasn't as quick a changeover as people think. I think that photo is around 48 to 50 or so. You can tell these early Columbias because they had plain graphic covers, the vinyl was thicker and more rubbery feeling, and the pitch of the grooves was coarser than modern LPs. The first stereo LP was in 1958.

Thanks for this information. I was unaware of the 10 & 12 inch 33 1/3 intro but still mono by Columbia. Your historic information matches the time period I wrote about initially. I was born in 1955 & my father bought our stereo system around 1962 when I was seven. Since the first stereo LP came out in 1958 then the timeline is pretty accurate considering the turnover from mono to stereo took some time to establish itself, e.g. the production of home stereo systems (which came mostly in cabinet form) & people switching from mono to stereo when buying albums. Somewhat reminiscent of what eventually happened to the 33 1/3 itself when CDs were introduced.

The other factor is that stereo records & systems more than likely sold in the U.S. first before making their way up to Canada same as when televisions first came out. Stores in Canada began stocking and making televisions available to households a couple of years after the U.S. did. Really appreciate the info from it's historical aspect.

Good thing they didn't improve the sound impact of the tea tray & maybe altering the course of audio history