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This article is from the Audio Professional FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Gabe M. Wiener others.

9.3 - What are "Hill and Dale" recordings, and how do I play them back?

Hill & Dale recordings are discs where the grooves move vertically
instead of horizontally. Edison, for instance, cut his discs this
way. In order to play Edison discs, one needs a special glass ball
stylus that is 3.7-4.0 mil wide. This is available from Audio 78,
among other places.

Also, since the information is vertical instead of horizontal, one
must rewire a stereo phono cartridge to reject the normal horizontal
information and reproduce only the normally-discarded vertical
information. This is easily accomplished by wiring a stereo cartridge
in mono, summing the channels, with one channel out of phase. In
other words, connect the cartridge as follows:

			  ______________
			  |         ____  to preamp
		+ L -     + R -    |
		|   |         |    |
		|   |_________|    |
		|__________________

One caveat: if your cartridge has one lug shorted to ground, make
sure that this lug is connected to the ground on your preamplifier.
It doesn't actually matter which channel you invert.

Some preamps like the FM Acoustics 222 or the OWL 1 have a switch
that will do this for you without rewiring. [Gabe]

 

Continue to:

• prev: 9.2 - How can I play Edison cylinders?
• Index
• next: 9.4 - What exactly are NoNOISE and CEDAR? How are they used?

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