I second the motion. I had an Electrola XVII myself, and it was a beautiful machine, with the record light, etc, but to be honest, I missed the pure joy of winding the spring myself, which I think is central to enjoyment of phonograph collecting. I sold it in favor of an English Oak XIV (or was it that XVI L-door?). Listening to records is obviously an integral part of collecting, but you have 'record guys' and 'phonograph guys', and phonograph guys, which is the category that I suspect I belong to a bit more than the other category, like to wind up the machine. To me, Electrolas are for record listeners. John Alan Wohl <bubba2u at optonline.net> wrote: I know when I bought my first Victrola the whole novelty of the thing was that you had to wind it up to play a record. None of my friends had ever seen one and it was amazing that it worked without electricity. It was a VV XIV. I gave away the XIV when I got a XVII and had a chance to get an electrola XVII but let it go. When you get into the Orthophonic era, I would rather have a Credenza with an electric motor. I had one which I gave away when I found a mint wind up version. I miss not having to wind it up. I think by the mid twenties there were more electric motors sold so having the Credenza "experience" with an electric is more acceptable. When it comes down to dollars and cents, the general public would rather have a wind up so the dealers "value" them more making them more desirable. Al _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org