Two radically new records are now on the market bidding loudly for consumer support, and it looks as if they both will be around for quite a while. Columbia and Victor each proclaim that its record is the best ever conceived by man. Meanwhile, smaller record companies are making their choice. Capital has joined Victor; and Mercury, Cetra, and Concert Hall have gone along with Columbia. Decca, a key company, has decided to stand by for the present and watch its competitors slug it out.
Although there will be confusion in every buyer's mind for a while, the general effect of the two records is definitely good for the consumer. Both records have greater quality possibilities than old-type records, and they are cheaper. The Columbia record has the advantage of presenting classical music without annoying breaks. The competition between the records has proved a bonanza for the buyer with numrous price slashes evident everywhere.
The big question is what are the real differences between the two records. The leading considerations are speed of revolution and playing time. Both records use speeds slower than ordinary. Victor uses the gain in time to reduce the size of the record; Columbia puts more music on the standard size record. Victor's claim that its speed of 45 revolutions per minute is better than Columbia's 33 1/3 is true only in an historical sense. The Victor speed presents a much easier engineering problem than the Columbia speed. Victor records, therefore, have a uniform quality while Columbia's quality varies from record to record. But Columbia is improving its engineering technique rapidly, and the difference between good Columbia records and the Victor is indiscernible.
Victor's reduction in the size of the record is to reduce what is called "tracking error." Tracking error is distortion introduced when the needle is not aligned with the groove. A curved pickup arm on a twelve-inch record can be perpendicular to the grooves at only a few spots. By reducing the number of grooves, Victor has virtually eliminated tracking error. But the total distortion normally created by tracking error is less than the distortion of most amplifiers, so that tracking error is not heard except on the very fine machines. The fault Victor is correcting in its "quality zone" is therefore one few listeners can detect.
Columbia, meanwhile, has introduced the long playing advantage, which is extremely desirable for classical records. Victor tried to make up for this with a "rapid" changer. Although the drop mechanism of this new changer is extremely fast, the actual break is two seconds longer than on the Webster changers. No matter how much Victor may be able to reduce this break, the advantage of no break at all is always greater.
Equipment for playing these records presents a confused mess of odd gagdets. A curved pickup arm cannot be used with both records because of the tracking error mentioned above. If an arm is designed to minimize the tracking error on a twelve-inch record, that error would be very great on a seven-inch record. Also, there is not yet any quality player for Victor records. The poor needle cartridge in Victor's player negates most of the quality advantage of the record.
Victor and Columbia developed their systems simultaneously. Each offered its process to the other, but neither would give in, preferring to carry the battle to the field of sales. Now, as the companies maneuver with new prices and improving quality, most consumrs stand by and watch, refusing to buy what may soon be obsolete. Until an industry agreement on how these new systems should be used (such as using the Columbia system for classical records and the Victor system for popular) is reached, the present confusion will continue for both manufacturer and consumer.
