I agree that the V is great, Al. I think the Amberola V is a highly
undervalued machine by collectors. It has the second best motor made by
Edison in the pre-fire period, second only to the Opera motor. It is quiet
and has very low flutter due to its fairly massive flywheel and it's springy
flutter-filter. The automatic shutoff is also a novel feature found only on
the larger amberolas. The diamond B reproducer works very well with the V
horn to produce the best audio that any of the Edison table models produced.
The sound is better than any of the later amberolas 30, 50, or 75. I can't
speak to the 60 and 80 models which had a much larger console cabinets than
the others (London and Sheraton, respectively), so they probably also had
larger horns. I think I remember seeing a model 80 at Tim Fabrizio's and it
did have a larger horn. Still, the V has the best sound in an Edison table
model. Frow says in his book that the V bedplates were painted in brown -
he makes no mention of the maroon color being used.
Everybody seems to "Ooo, Ooo this" and "Ooo, Ooo that" about Amberola
1As and get all googly-eyed and take out a second mortgage over Operas, but
the fact is that the best sounding Edison was NEITHER of these models. The
Amberola 1B is hardly ever mentioned by collectors and they don't command
near the price of a 1A, but they are actually harder to find in my
experience. And they sound WAY better because the Opera motor in them is
much quieter and much smoother with much less flutter than the spur gear
motor in the 1A. The horn is superior to anything else Edison ever sold to
the public, INCLUDING the open wooden horns of the Opera and earlier models.
It's also better than ANY of the DD player horns, including the Edisonic.
The metal horn in the Amberola III is about the same size as those peculiar
leather or fabric or whatever they were in the model I, but it is not quite
as smooth with a distinctly peaky midrange by comparison. With the same
horn as in the 1A, the superior motor makes the 1B the quietest, smoothest,
BEST sounding Edison acoustic phonograph ever made. I use mine almost
exclusively now for playing BAs.
Greg Bogantz
----- Original Message -----
From: "Albert" <cenfin at comcast.net>
To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 12:55 PM
Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet
>I have a beautiful original Amberola 5 in Mahogany and it has the medium
>brown finish. Of my entire collection the 5 is the phonograph of choice
>to listen to Blue amberols. The motor is silent, and the fidelity is
>awsome. Al Menashe
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Maeder" <appywander at hotmail.com>
> To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 8:46 AM
> Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet
>
>
>
> Were Amberola V's ever produced with a brown bed plate and gear covers? I
> have one that is a medium brown as opposed to maroon. I would swear the
> finish and striping are original. It is in a mahogany case. John
>
>> Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:44:06 -0800
>> From: antqflea at yahoo.com
>> Subject: Re: [Phono-L] Amberola V Cabinet
>> To: phono-l at oldcrank.org
>>
>> This story is what makes collecting so interesting, one collectors joy,
>> is someone else's I'll pass to expensive. If we all liked the same
>> thing it would get very crowded and probably expensive.
>> Since my traveling partner and I were the ones that passed on the
>> machine two years in a row we are, and have been interested in why this
>> machine was so special that it commanded a premium price. My partner
>> said that he owned two or three of the V's with the 50/75 mech, and had
>> been looking for a nice one that had the fancy mech with the brown
>> painted bed plate. Are the V's with the plain 50/75 mech really more
>> desirable and do they command a premium price??
>> Apparently we have erroneously thought for a few years that the Iowa
>> sun , the chase and then the thrill of just finding something out there
>> in the wild may have fogged Jerry's good senses. I guess we were wrong??
>>
>>
>>
>> DeeDee Blais <deedeeblais at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Sorry, but I don't have a spare Amberola V cabinet but
>> I have another story... On my way driving from Oregon
>> to Union at few year ago, I stopped at an antique shop
>> and found what appeared to be a typical Amberola V. I
>> opened the lid and was surprised to find an Amberola
>> 50 type mechanism cleanly and without modification
>> installed in the case. I closed the lid and quickly
>> came to an agreeable price with the dealer. When I
>> arrived at Union, I was talking to another collector
>> that made the drive. I told him of my find and he
>> said that he'd seen that same machine for the last
>> couple of trips. I smiled and thought to myself,
>> thanks for passing on it. Can you tell me why I was
>> so pleased? Jerry Blais
>>
>>
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