Best set up for 78's ?

Zowie, thanks for all that useful information.

I'd have to say my best current reference for how good or bad old 78 recordings might sound is some of the early period tracks on the Ken Burns Jazz CD box set.

I listen to these regularly on my good system. They are all quite listenable and some are quite good in their own unique way within their frequency range limitations. I suspect the transcription and remastering was done quite well!

Keep in mind that when you listen to 78 transfers on CDs and vinyl, they've been processed, sometimes painstakingly, in a manner that can't ordinarily be done in real time playback. It at least requires some extra processing gear that we haven't talked about so far. So don't expect to hear the same thing.

But I'd like to recommend "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of." Also "Joe Bussard's Basement." The recordings are from the early electrical period. Some of their discs are quite nice and others are quite poor but used because they may be the only known copy. They leave in more of the surface noise than the big commercial companies usually do, but the music also has a ton of life and vibrancy that's usually missing from reissues of such old records. This you can more easily get at home.

Then there's the Nimbus method. They used to play accoustic era 78s on a modified accoustic horn phonograph. There's a lot to be said for this, too, for accoustic era 78s. I once did some transfers by playing the records on my Victrola, recording them digitally with a pair of stereo mics mounted a few feet in front of the cabinet, and then applying a little eq, noise reduction and compression afterwards. I liked the results. You don't get the detail or frequency extremes, but quick transient clicks and pops don't get reproduced -- there's more of a steady-state Chhhh that's less districting (like tape hiss at a lower frequency) -- and there was a natural horn in a room ambience reflecting the way the records were expected to be heard.

Zowie, interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing!

What a wealth of information you guys have provided, thanks alot, this all makes such interesting reading and does bring back memories of my fleeting contact with the 78 world and the playback variables involved.

There is a ton of information in these threads, thank you. I set up a table to digitize 78s. I ended up using a Stanton 500 with 78 stylus. I also am using a Stanton TT. It is heavy, solid and has variable 78 speed adjustments.

There are clips that can be added to the cartridge to bring the signal to mono right at the cart.

The set up works reasonably well.
(Most of my other tables don't have 78 settings and have lightweight arms. fyi)