Edison recorded classical music on waxed cylinders for the first time in 1888. With playing time limited to just two minutes, producers were obliged to scour the repertoire for suitably brief opuses, such as Chopin`s Mazurka. The first phonographic cylinders were true originals. Multiples were made by arranging a phalanx of horn microphones and primitive recording machines around the performer. They say one of the greediest of these early recording stars was baritone Peter Dawson; his "late" recordings were particularly problematic, as throats tended to fail after as many as 100 recording sessions in a day... and not surprisingly, the recording quality tailed off the further away from a singer`s tonsils the recording was taken! Nevertheless, people (up to 17 at a time) paid to enter musical "dens" and listen, via tubes like stethoscopes, to the miraculous new recorded cylinder.

Emile Berliner, a German йmigrй living in America, produced the first disc in 1891. Now recordings could be copied many times over from a master disc or matrix. The needle on Berliner`s talking machines cut a microscopic zigzag pattern in the wax - as on today`s records - which proved superior to the "hill and dale" cuts of Edison`s cylinders. Early Berliner discs were typically 7in wide, one-sided recordings (double-sided discs appeared from around 1905), with details of the song and artiste stamped directly into the surface - paper labels did not appear in the UK until 1900. After 1897 Shellac became the favoured material for discs, displacing earlier vulcanised rubber. Berliner gave the world an historic new term when he established his Gramophone Company in London`s Maiden Lane in 1898; and an enduring image, a year later when the firm adopted the famous "dog and trumpet" trademark. Ten-inch discs appeared in 1901; 12-inch records two years on. Pathe Freres produced the ultimate wagon wheel of a disc, "hill and dale" cut, measuring an amazing 20in across. Pathe records and the special machines with sapphire stylus that played them are highly collectable today.

Opera - especially singers from the so-called "Golden Age", 1900-20, such as Tamagno, Emma Albani, Amadeo Bassi, Martinelli and of course Caruso - form the most important area for many mono disc collectors. The latest Caruso record cost $1.50 in 1905, a small fortune for those times, and sold like hot cakes; but being issued by the million are small beer to today`s collector. Red label Gramophone & Typewriter Company recordings of 1902 were, however, landmark recordings for the tenor, and any of Caruso`s cylinder recordings - he made only three - are all hot collectables. In the absence of a usable cylinder player, and given that 78s are unplayable on many more recent turntables, collectors are turning to stereo classical long playing recordings. According to one active UK dealer, stereo collectors have oddly rigid tastes, preferring virtuosic violinists, followed by pianists (even Richter makes no more than $2-15), and opera languishes still further down the chart. He claims the tastes of classical collector-buyers is too unpredictable to be easily catered for. "With collectable pop records I buy 100 records and sell a good percentage. In a package of 100 classical records, I`m lucky to sell five per cent." Indications are therefore that stereo classical records are likely to be a steal, once you`ve clarified your specialism.