I recently sold two Studer machines to the University of Santa Barbara's library. I was heading down to LA anyway, so I dropped the machines off. What I found there amazed me. They are one of about 5 locations in North America that preserves RTR tapes, 78s and Edison cylinders by transferring them to computer, then carefully storing the originals. While I knew what an Edison cylinder was, I'd never seen one in person. The USB has over 16,000 in stock! They inherit collections, but will also buy them if the material is rare enough.
The pix of the small filing drawers are full of Edison cylinders, the rest are the 78s, all in new sleeves. The RTR tapes that I saw being transferred are all USB lectures. One Scotch 111 box was from April 1959. The output of the modern day Edison player is a belt drive quartz locked variable pitch unit, with a magnetic tonearm and Shure cartridge with a 78 needle on it. The output is then sent to a digital processor, which removes much of the hiss and pops and clicks. The end result is sound quality close to that of a dictaphone machine from the 70s. Not hifi, but very clear, considering the recordings on them are 90+ years old.
I can add more info if you wish, but I figured I'd just post the pix. Enjoy!
The pix of the small filing drawers are full of Edison cylinders, the rest are the 78s, all in new sleeves. The RTR tapes that I saw being transferred are all USB lectures. One Scotch 111 box was from April 1959. The output of the modern day Edison player is a belt drive quartz locked variable pitch unit, with a magnetic tonearm and Shure cartridge with a 78 needle on it. The output is then sent to a digital processor, which removes much of the hiss and pops and clicks. The end result is sound quality close to that of a dictaphone machine from the 70s. Not hifi, but very clear, considering the recordings on them are 90+ years old.
I can add more info if you wish, but I figured I'd just post the pix. Enjoy!