OT. Vintage table radios, anyone collect them?

[Chicago_Pete]

Im thinking that a tube table radio would be pretty cool for my home office.

FM is a must. Maybe one of those 2 speaker Grundigs or a Kloss?

[Mark Hardy]

"anyone collect them?" Heck, no :-)

In all seriousness, the vintage Grundigs, Telefunkens, Normendes, Tandbergs, bang & olufsens, etc., etc. included some terrific radios. Kloss' KLH Model 8 is a classic, but the solid state KLH 21 was also pretty nice, as were his later Advent 400 radio and, truth be told, his last -- the Tivoli Model One and its cousins.

[whamo]

I want a 1937 Zenith tombstone radio. It doesn't do FM though. I also want a Tivoli for the kitchen. Sadly the only good radio around these parts is NPR. No good music stations. Mark

[jt1stcav]

I've got a very small collection of old tube tabletop and mantle radios from Zenith, Philco, Crosley, and Emerson (my dad now restores them for customers worldwide now that he's retired). There are tons of antique tube radios with both AM and FM bands on eBay and on radio websites, so finding one that suites your fancy ain't a problem. And old Grundig, Telefunken, and Philips radio sets from the late '50s early '60s are plentiful as well (exceptionally well made and great sounding to boot).

Just a side note...if you do buy a vintage tube radio, be mindful whether its been previously restored or not. If it hasn't, it's a good bet it'll need new caps and/or tubes to bring it back to spec. Possible damage could result if an unrestored tube radio is turned on for the first time in years, as the selenium rectifiers are one of many components that could fail and catch fire!

[oldbuckster]

jt1 ............... your dad has some real nice ones, I've seen his website ...................... awesome work !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chicago_Pete]

Thanks guys!

Jim, I sent your dad an e-mail. I would rather buy something restored than roll the dice on eBay.

Pete

[jt1stcav]

jt1 ............... your dad has some real nice ones, I've seen his website ...................... awesome work !!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, sir. The radios he has on his site are those that he's restored and later sold either on eBay or to private collectors. Now that he's retired and repairing antique radios on a full time basis, he's busier now than he's ever been before (which works out great...it keeps him off the streets)![]

Jim, I sent your dad an e-mail. I would rather buy something restored than roll the dice on eBay.

Oh really? I just got home from work and haven't spoken to him yet today...I'm sure he'll tell me all about it tonight when I see him. Hope he hooked ya up![]

[Erik Mandaville]

Jim's dad does truly beautiful work, and has the knowledge and experience to design his own radios built very much from the ground up. I know that from personal experience. Some radios make audio amps look pretty simplistic.

Old radios are where all of this started. They are lots of fun, even if they don't 'do' FM. AM and shortwave can be even more fun, and sort of an adventure.

Here's one of mine: an Atwater Kent, I completely rebuilt, along with a radiola horn speaker.

Erik

[Erik Mandaville]

oops. That was my Crosley and another Radiola, both above a Hammarlund shortwave receiver.

Here's the AK. These were battery operated, and this one, as well as the Crosley, run off of a battery replacement power supply I built.

[Erik Mandaville]

Here's Philco my dad rebuilit inside and out and gave me this past summer. This thing is capable of surprising loudness and clarity for a piece of this age. Pulls in stations from other countries very well, too, and has good separation for local Broadcast band that usually swamps everything else. Output stage is a pair of push-pull 6F6s in what looks like would be a good hi-fi audio power amplifier.

IMO, this is not off topic. We wouldn't be listening to what we have right now if not for these old radios.

[Erik Mandaville]

Chassis: The rectifier socket is installed right on the power transformer.

[whamo]

Very nice!

[Erik Mandaville]

Thanks -- Mark's collection is really neat, as I'm sure Jim's is. My dream vintage radio is one of Atwater Kent's bread board types. They are really incredible, but are kind of in the same league for old radios as the Marantz 8Bs are for vintage hi fi: Expensive for examples in good shape.

Erik

[Erik Mandaville]

1937 Zenith in beautiful condition. People like them!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ZENITH-MODEL-7S232-WALTON-7-S-232-WORKS_W0QQitemZ270180032161QQihZ017QQcategoryZ38034QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[jt1stcav]

Thanks for the kind words, Eric (as does my dad, who appreciates the fact you still enjoy the shortwave tube receiver he built for you). My tiny collection hardly compares to yours, and the Philco tombstone your dad restored for you is breathtaking as well (I think our two fathers would get along splendidly)![]

[oldbuckster]

Very nice stuff guys .................... seems so much simplier than todays audio gear, and amazing how it picks up stations todays radio can't. Maybe in the end that type radio is better than todays throw away junk .............

[Erik Mandaville]

Very nice stuff guys .................... seems so much simplier than todays audio gear, and amazing how it picks up stations todays radio can't. Maybe in the end that type radio is better than todays throw away junk .............

I suppose they are more simple in some respects, but more complex in other ways. There are actually many, many modern radios that are extremely sophisticated. Performance in many cases could be subjectively said to be better than these old table top or floor standing models from the 20s and 30s, but that's not necessarily what's important to collectors.

Jim: You're right. My dad was also very impressed with the workmanship on the receiver your father built for me. This shot gives a general idea of the wiring your dad did, as well as the attention to detail with lead dressing -- in this case actual lacing rather than zip ties for convenience.

edit: That was a huge file. I'll trim it down.

[Erik Mandaville]

Let's see how this is: A lesson in expert point-to-point wiring.

[jt1stcav]

The similarities are present in my smaller shortwave receiver he built for me back in '03...I'm just as impressed as you are, Erik!

[Erik Mandaville]

Absolutely. We often see wire crawling all around the insides of chassis here, and your dad makes it look so straightforward and easy. I know a few audio amp builders that do similar work, but it's the lacing, I think, that lends such a finished and professional look regardless of whether the piece is a regenerative receiver or stereo music amplifier.

His work is what prompted me to learn how to do some of the lacing experiments I did awhile back with crossovers, and then to an extreme with some homemade speaker cables -- until may hands ached.

For Christmas last year, Jim, my dad gave me what he said was kind of a coincidence with respect to your father's radios. A very small SS regenerative radio that fits in the palm of a hand. This first one was sort of the breadboard version, which still works incredibly well. He's made another that truly resembles your dad's but is just many times smaller. It's a neat little piece, and one for which circuit boards were designed and etched by hand.

I know not everyone here is interested in radios, so this can be for those who are -- and for others who might be curious about the 'geneology' of their own audio systems.