I went to a record Museum yesterday in the town of Yufuin. Really fascinating place. They had all these old record players and phonographs dating back to even before the 20th century. Almost all of them were originally from America or England, so I suppose it was somewhat ironic for me to be learning about them in Japan, but they really had a nice collection assembled
We've all seen them in old movies, ect, but it was neat to actually see them up close. And the curator would play some of them for us. Fascinating the sounds these things could produce in the days before electricity. I expected them to have a static and fuzzy sound, but it was really quite clear.
Some of the phonographs with the large bells (those funnel shaped things where the sound comes out) on them had a very loud sound as well. And there was no volume control on it. It made me think it would be fun to own one of them. Imagine playing it late at night, and the neighbors are banging on the wall yelling, "Turn down your phonograph," but you would just have to shrug and say, "sorry, no volume control".
After the tour, they had a coffee shop with a bunch of old records, where we could pick anyone we wanted to listen to. In front of my Japanese friend I showed off my ability to pronounce the American musician's names correctly, and perhaps pretended to be more cultured than I was. But it was good fun