True Elizabeth. I found an article at Mechanical Music Digest™ Archives and hope there is some truth in it.
I think reproduction will be adequate for the small quantity of 78's I'm likely to purchase. This entire project is intended to be an experiment to see what I can get in terms of sound.
Don't forget that for playing 78 RPM records you will need a spherical stylus, not the elliptical type normally used for 33-1/3 LP's. The old 78 RPM groove was cut wide and the modern elliptical will not make contact with both the outer groove walls. Stanton, ADC, Shure and some others still have spherical styli for use in their cartridges.
The Shure styluses for 78s are also elliptical, but bigger than the styluses for 33/45. The elliptical shape gives a better fit in the groove. If you have an equalizer in your system, you can get some pretty fair reproduction from the old 78's. The RIAA equalization curve did not come into play until the first LP's.
However, the only result of using RIAA is a bit of bass boost. Provided there is no bass feedback, I find most 78s sound fine played with the LP equalization.
I think reproduction will be adequate for the small quantity of 78's I'm likely to purchase. This entire project is intended to be an experiment to see what I can get in terms of sound.