In response to Matthew Caulfield's question, the Dynavoice players were
made just a short distance from me at Plymouth, MI. My understanding
is that they were made by some former employees of the Daisy Air Rifle
company which had closed their doors and moved to a southern state.
I've had several of the Dynavoice players and found them to perform
as intended but they have some problems, one of which is the excessive
noise generated by the suction motor.
I have paid as much as $50.00 for one but I can't imagine anyone in
their right mind paying $500.00. I suppose it one has a real desire
for one they might consider it worthwhile. I have only one left and
now that it's 'worth' $500.00 I shall look upon it with more respect
in the future.
They are readily portable units, and on occasion I have taken one to a
party where I knew the host had a piano. It was a simple matter to put
the player on the piano, plug it in, place a roll in it, and turn on
the switch. Then, all that was left to do was watch the looks of
amazement on peoples faces while it did its thing.
The ones that I've had required considerable maintenance, due mostly
to the poor fitting of the tubing from the tracker bar to the valves.
They are fun things to have. One of them helped me to sell a nice
spinet model piano as the purchaser wanted to be able to play piano
rolls. Not having a regular player for sale at the time, I sold him
the combination which seemed to satisfy him completely.
Of the several that I had, one was converted to play "A" rolls, another
to play Wurlitzer APP rolls. A friend of mine has one that he converted
to play his Deagan Unafon.
There are lots of possibilities.
Hal Davis
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