This extremely large, heavy, and very ornate phonograph was put on the market just in time for Christmas, 1898, at the astonishingly high price of $300 (equivalent to over $6000 today). It was designed to play giant 'Grand' cylinders of 5" diameter, which were priced at $5 apiece (over $100 in today's money, for a single song!). Clearly this was a phonograph for the ultra-wealthy music lover. The large diameter cylinders yield faster surface speed and longer tracks, resulting in significantly louder and clearer recordings than were available on the soft wax 2" cylinders of the time. The drawback was that the records are extremely bulky and fragile, and take up a great deal of room. Not to be outdone, Thomas Edison released his own version, the 'Concert' Phonograph, in February 1899 for $125. Columbia countered by cutting the price of the Graphophone Grand in half to $150, still a substantial sum. There are few 19th century phonographs that can rival this extraordinary machine in beauty or sound quality, however the high price and unwieldy nature of 'Grand' or 'Concert' phonographs and records kept these out of the reach of most people. Unfortunately for the well-heeled owners of these phonographs, they were completely obsolete only three years later when molded 2" records of hard black wax came into the market, offering better sound at much lower cost.