TheVictor Orthophonic Victrola, released in 1925 byVictor Talking Machine Company, was the first consumerphonograph designed specifically to play electrically-recordedphonograph records. The combination was recognized as a major step forward in sound reproduction.
Electrical recording was developed byWestern Electric, although a primitive electrical process was developed byOrlando R. Marsh, owner and founder ofAutograph Records. Western Electric demonstrated their process to the two leading recording companies, Victor andColumbia, who were initially unwilling to adopt it because they thought it would make their entire existing record catalogs obsolete. However, parched revenues in the record industry caused by the mushrooming new medium ofradio soon forced both Victor and Columbia to begin experimental electrical recording.[1]
The design of the Orthophonic was informed by progress intelephony andtransmission-line theory. It was developed by two Western Electric researchers, Joseph Maxfield and H. Harrison. Early electrical recordings sounded harsh when played on theacoustic phonographs of the day, which had been designed bytrial-and-error, had highly "colored"frequency response, and emphasized higher frequencies. The researchers invented theexponential horn, and, on realizing that it needed to be nine feet (3 meters) long to reproduce the lowest frequencies on the new discs, designed a method for "folding" the horn into a cabinet of practical size. The design was released by Victor as the "Orthophonic" Victrola in the autumn of 1925.
Its first public demonstration wasfront-page news inThe New York Times, which reported that:[2]
The audience broke into applause...John Philip Sousa [said] "Gentlemen, that is a band. This is the first time I have ever heard music with any soul to it produced by a mechanical talking machine." ... The new instrument is a feat of mathematics and physics. It is not the result of innumerable experiments, but was worked out on paper in advance of being built in the laboratory.... The new machine has a range of from 100 to 5,000 frequencies [sic], or five and a halfoctaves.... The "phonograph tone" is eliminated by the new recording and reproducing process.
AWanamaker's ad from October 31, 1925 invited people to come to "Wanamaker's Salon of Music" and "join the throngs" who were "HEARING the new Victor Orthophonic Victrola .... imagining performers present .... blinking unbelieving eyes" and promising "you will never forget it if you live to be one hundred!"[3]
A historian comments that:[1]
...playing one of the new records on an Orthophonic was a revelation to listeners accustomed to acoustic reproduction: the dramatic increase in volume, the clearsibilants, and, most of all, the amazing reproduction ofbass notes. The Orthophonics set the standard in sound reproduction. Backed by advertising which rightly claimed that their sound was vastly superior to any other machine, they sold very well.
As part of a publicity blitz, Victor designated November 2, 1925 as "Victor Day" and, within days, was "swamped with orders exceeding $20 million."[4][n 1]
List prices ranged from $95[n 2] to $300[n 3] depending on cabinetry. $375[n 4] "Victrolas with Radiola" incorporated a "five-tube Radiola tuned radio frequency receiver with orthophonic reproduction." A $650[n 5] "Victrola-Electrola" incorporated a"two-way valve" allowing both "Orthophonic as well as electrical reproduction", while the $1,000[n 6] "Orthophonic Victrola—Radiola and Electrola" had it all, including aneight-tube RadiolaSuper-Heterodyne.[7]
Dance music enthusiasts were not initially impressed; it wasclassical music that "sold" the new device.
The Orthophonic became recognized as astatus symbol.Liberace's father, for example, though unemployed, maintained hisself-image as anartiste by "own[ing] the best record player available, a 'very special Orthophonic Victrola'".[8]
In the early 1950s, the memory of the Orthophonic was fresh enough forRCA Victor to introduce the name "New Orthophonic" for its improved recording process and line ofhigh-fidelitylong-playing records, and "Stereo-Orthophonic" was applied to RCA Victor's celebrated"Living Stereo" recordings issued later in the decade.
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