A NEW GRAMOPHONE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 12

A NEW GRAMOPHONE

AN INTERESTING TEST. Yesterday afternoon Messrs. E. J. Hyams, Ltd., gave a private demonstration of a new "His Master’s Voice" gramophone, which was invented by the Gramophone Company. London, m conjunction with the Western Electric Company and the Bell Telephone Company, of America. Although this gramophone returns to the sound-box. tone-arm and amplifying chamber. it exploits new principles with remarkable effects. Yesterday two gramophones were used, one an old model "His Master’s Voice" machine and the other the new gramophone, which was to be demonstrated. The method adopted was to play records covering a wide range of music first using each - disc on the old model machine and then on the new one. By this method the great superiority of the latest gramophone was forcibly illustrated. and the listeners were delighted with the results. The greatest claim of this new instrument to praise is the much greater volume and depth of tone which is produced. The hardness of tone and the confusion of heavily scored orchestral and band works were replaced when the records were played on the new machine by a mellowness and depth of tone unheard before. The base notes. In particular, were reproduced with much more accuracy, and in proportion to the higher tones, which did not seem to be possible on the older type of machine. The old model gramophone was incapable of reproducing records with the precision and the volume which was yesterday manifested by this new "His Master’s Voice" instrument, on which, with the reproductive range extended to about five and a-half octaves, every note that matters. from the highest to the lowest has its adequate reproduction. This result is accomplished by the aid of a new type of sound-box, a taper tone-arm of smaller diameter than previously, and a much larger internal horn. These are constructed to work in harmony, and, judging from the demonstration held yesterday. it would seem that the optimism of the makers as to the future of their now instrument is wholly justified. It Is a revelation as to the possibility of gramophone construction.