My first disc was a 78 rpm disc on UK Columbia, which was an EMI company and not related to CBS. It was the overture to Schwanda the Bagpiper by Janomir Weinberger. The disc cost seven old UK shillings and six old UK pence. This would have been roughly a US dollar at the 1953 conversion rate. The disc was purchased at Murdoch's of Chatham, and all I had to play it on was a wind up acoustical gramophone my father had bought in India and brought back with him.
What is however more significant was my second disc, and my first LP.
I felt that seven shillings and six pence for 10 minutes of music was a bad bargain. For Christmas later that year I was given a pre WW II electric HMV radiogram. This unfortunately only played 78 rpm records. So I saved pocket money and bought a passive geared turntable converter in which the lower platter turned at the 78 rpm turntable speed and the upper at 33 1/3 RPM. I fitted an Acos Black Shadow crystal pickup, with slide on LP and 78 heads in a addition to the heavy pickup, that was part of the turntable.
Then I bought my first LP. This one.
Handel Organ Concertos No. 2 & 4. Geraint Jones organ, and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Wilhelm Schochter. HMV DLP 1037. This disc still plays well with few crackles.
I added a 12" Goodmans external speaker in an open backed box.
Results were far from satisfactory. The result: - the beginning of a life long quest for unobtainable audio perfection.
