Regarding 78 RPM.
If you are primarily looking to play LPs and maybe a 45, DON’T make an issue of 78 RPM.
I was recently going through some 78 albums. Yes, this is where we get the term record album. There are several 78s in a binder, just like a photo album. . . . Anyway looking at them and trying to figure out how to play and/or digitize them.
Many record changers from the 50s through 70s have the ability to play a 78. Not well. A very few have a cartridge/stylus that flips around and has a 78 setting, just like your car rear view may have a night setting. Changers also have the ability to drop one record on another, give you greater playing time without fuss, at the expense of ruining records with ground-in dirt. Not a favorable trade-off.
There are several records that we think of as 78 RPM, but this wasn’t s solid standard. Real afflictionados (Misspelling on purpose) have turntables just for these that adjust from about 72 to 95 RPM. They also have at least two kinds of styli, if they play both Victrola (RCA style) and Edison (Diamond disk style) records. Plus, they have different pre-amps because equalization curves did not exist or were different than the later RIAA.
Does this sound like a Rabbit Hole? It’s a whole rabbit colony.
However I find looking on Apple Music, Tidal, and Spotify, I’ve been able to find ALREADY DIGITIZED versions that someone who is much happier living with floppy eared creatures than I am has provided for me. A surprising number of discs and artists, and probably from records in better shape than you have available.
Oh yeah, I do have an Edisonola in the attic. It works just fine, crank it up and play the records. Even has an arm for steel needles for RCA Victor records. Playing vintage records on vintage equipment is only somewhat destructive. No headphone jack. No electricity either.