Symphonion is disc-playing music box, a mechanical device. It was designed in mid-1880’s by Paul Lochmann, an inventor from Leipzig. The device had a comb with metal tongues of various length, each sounding its own way. A metal disc called the note speckled with little metal teeth would be placed above the comb. While rotating, the disc would punch one or several tongues of the comb and a sound would be reproduced.

The brake lever on the front of the device was used to start the melody. In order to make the disc rotate, the lever was to be pressed down. Once the disc made a full set of its rotation, it would stop. One winding was enough to play up to ten discs. With its lid closed, a symphonion would acquire extra-depth and richness to its sound.

The disadvantage in symphonions was that they would not reproduce human voice. All they could is play factory-recorded music. Therefore, during the first decade of the 20th c., the symphonion was rapidly ousted by the gramophone, a device for playing live music records. The technology was invented in 1877 simultaneously and independently by two inventors, Charles Cros from France, and Thomas Edison from the USA.