jwb

Good god that flag is a monstrosity.

bob_32_116

1. What is your favourite month, and why?
February. It's high summer, and the Festival of Perth and the Fringe Festival are in full swing.

2. What non-MB-related thing did you do immediately before reading this?
Put sardines on toast as part of my breakfast.

3. What is or was your favourite board game?
Chess.

4. Generally speaking, do you find it difficult or easy to find clothes in your size (in other words, are you a fat/tall/short/skinny bastard?)
Always been slim (still reasonably so), hence I often find my size is not available in pants/shorts/bathers.

5. What was the very first media you owned for music (CD/MP3 player/Record player/Gramaphone/Edison wax tube phonograph/caveman drums etc)?
A little portable gramophone that I got as a present.

6. If you have a favourite flag, which is it and why?
Canadian. The maple leaf is the perfect symbol, and the fact that it can also be viewed as two faces arguing is appropriate considering the controversy that preceded the flag's adoption.

Mucha na Dziko

A portable gramophone?
You mean you could Move it from place to place or actually listen to music while moving it?

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bob_32_116

"Portable" in the sense that you could close the lid and then carry it around like a briefcase. It did not exactly provide high fidelity, but it was just the thing for providing a bit of musical entertainment, anywhere there was a power outlet.

Larger players, which consisted of a cabinet containing the turntable and large comparatively good quality speakers were generally called "phonograms" or "stereograms", though of course the function was the same.

As for listening to music while moving it, I suppose you could if you were careful carrying it, but I wouldn't advise it. In any case you would be limited by the length of the power cord.

Trollheart

Surely that was just one of the old box hi-fis? Not an actual gramophone? Like, HMV? With the big ear trumpet thing? Surely not. How old are you?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Mucha na Dziko

A gramophone isn't only the big ear trumpet thing, I believe.

At least in polish a "gramophone" is anything that can work with vinyl records, and not a specific thing.

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jwb

Carrying around anything that plays vinyl sounds pretty bizarre to me regardless lol

Trollheart

We grew up with a thing called a radiogram. It was a massive piece of furniture with speakers (well I think only one) built into it and huge knobs and dials on the outside. You lifted the lid and there was a record player inside - turntable, stylus, needle and that bit in the middle, the upright metal dealy that you could stack records on. Pretty sure it had a radio built into it too. TMM a gramophone IS the old ear trumpet thing. If you look it up, you'll get images like this
almost exclusively. Other than that, it was a record player, turntable or hi-fi unit. Maybe it's different in Poland, but I never heard anyone here call a "modern" player a gramophone, except if they wanted to slag it off.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

bob_32_116

To repeat myself, it was definitely not "hi-fi". This was in the late 1960s.

I also saw one of the old style gramophones that you refer to; I think my mother got it from one of her aunts, along with a few 78s. The power source consisted of a motor powered by a spring that you would up with a handle.It did not have the "ear trumpet" speaker though.

The difference between that one and mine was, firstly the power source, and secondly the speed settings - and of course a certain difference in sound quality. Mine had four speed settings: 78 rpm, 45, 33, and 16. (Has anyone ever seen a 16rpm record? I haven't.) Apart from those differences, the functionality about the same, and the size was about the same, hence "gramophone" is a correct term for what I had. "Record player" would also have been correct, but "hi-fi" definitely not.

Of course I can't speak for other countries regarding terminology.

bob_32_116

Yep, that's a radiogram, and that was what most people of my parents' generation would have in their homes. We never had one, which in retrospect I find odd because my father was a classical music buff and we could certainly have afforded it.

Sometime in the late 60s, Dad decided to get a proper "hi-fi" system - you know, where you get to study specs and select the components individually: turntable, amplifier and speakers. Obviously I availed myself of it when i could, rather than listen on my little portable player. though the latter still came in useful if I wanted to listen in the privacy of my bedrooom.