Got an unusual one - NuTone control unit

CougarXR7

CougarXR7

Sultan of Swing
A friend of mine gave this to me. He said it came out of the kitchen of a house he was renovating.

It was covered in decades' worth of dirt, smoke, cooking fumes, etc. I spent some time cleaning it up, but I haven't cleaned any internals with DeOxit because I don't know if I can get it fired up. I don't like wasting DeOxit. :no:

I think it needs an external transformer - maybe 10VDC?

Obviously it would have had several satellite intercom units wired in from the house, and those are long gone; only the main unit was left after 46 years. They were going to throw it out.

Even if it doesn't work yet, I like having it around. It was built in 1965.

nutone12511.jpg
 
the external speakers were usually 8 inch cones with a whizzer speaker ceramic magnent a transformer and a volume pot, I have a couple in storage with the gold grills
 
Oh yeah, I remember those NuTone intercom units. I remember seeing that same one at my friends house when I was a kid. They had speakers built in to the walls in every room, one at the front porch and even one in the garage. You could play the radio anywhere in the house, and IIRC they had a Garrard turntable right next to it that folded out of the wall too. Pretty high livin' back then!
 
CougarXR7 said:
It was covered in decades' worth of dirt, smoke, cooking fumes, etc. I spent some time cleaning it up, but I haven't cleaned any internals with DeOxit because I don't know if I can get it fired up. I don't like wasting DeOxit. :no:
Click to expand...
But, your time is cheap? Ha, sorry just giving you crap. I'd do the same thing! :yes:
CougarXR7 said:
I think it needs an external transformer - maybe 10VDC?
Click to expand...
I'm thinking 10-16vac. But, I'm not sure what I base that on. Maybe some 70's Music and Sound intercom and a bad memory :dunno:

Brian
 
This is a model N2561 or N2562.Not sure if we're allowed to post links to eBay or not,but there's a factory manual,and a Photofact up there now for this unit.Search NuTone radio.From what I see,these things can sell for over $200.00,so you did good.
 
The 2561/62 was introduced in 1957 and was in production until 1974, the longest single production model they ever made. Three are 7 different chassis versions, most of the variations were changes in the power supply design and amplifier. It was the first model to use twisted pair wire.

The 2561/62 uses a 20 volt center tap transformer to power the master station. The remote speakers use 45 ohm speaker cones and were available in both 5" and 8" diameter.

The model designation numbers originally had to due with the finish color of the master station, a 2561 was a silver face plate and a 2562 was a gold tone. There was an optional "wood" frame that could be installed around the master station.

In the 1970's the color choices were harvest gold, brown and avocado green. The original remote speakers were available in "sand beige" and late a off-white color.

These models are very long lasting, most of the problems revolve around old capacitors in the master stations and worn/stick switches in the remote speakers.
 
Easier to set up vertically with separate tuner caps, depth wise. Plus back then AM was still very popular and FM was gaining. AM tuners back then were a lot better then too.

Larry
 
Oh, what a flashback. I recall pulling those things out of the walls of houses in the
70's when new owners wanted to use their brand-new home stereo system to pipe audio throughout the house.

Most times, they had come into the stereo shop I worked at because the NuTone systems had stopped working and they did not want to update them. In fact, they usually didn't have anyone in the town who knew anything about them in the construction trades. Most had been installed by an electrician but they wanted nothing to do with them some 10+ years later.

I also recall receiving some requests for on-site servicing of the old units. NuTone was not forth coming with parts or information (I didn't subscribe to Sams back then). I _know_ that many failures were attributable to poor installations and tracking down the gremlins was not worth the labor time involved. The switching systems were usually not well implemented and intermittent as well as many of the units having much construction debris and dust in them.

Pulling them out of service usually meant trying to figure out the wiring of all the speaker systems (some had a call-back feature for the rooms thereby increasing the maze of wiring involved) and then fabricating a jumper system to drive 8 ohm loads. Nothing was labeled from the initial installation.

At first the store owner gave away the installation service just to get the hardware sale. This proved to be a bad business decision as reworking one of these old NuTone systems typically involved well over a week of time - assuming all the old speakers actually worked.

I finally had enough of the foolishness of retrofitting NuTone systems and - gently - informed my store owner that I'd no longer dink around with them. They were just too crazy-making for me!

Can you tell how I feel about these things?

Cheers,

David
 
My parents built a new house in the early 1960's, which I spent most of my childhood in. We had one of those systems in our house. It was a bit bigger: it had switches to turn on many different speakers around the house. Those things were in most rooms and halls (except the bedrooms). Mom could be in the kitchen and page us and talk to us over the intercom. I guess it beat yelling for us!
 
dshoaf said:
I finally had enough of the foolishness of retrofitting NuTone systems and - gently - informed my store owner that I'd no longer dink around with them. They were just too crazy-making for me!

Can you tell how I feel about these things?

Cheers,

David
Click to expand...

Nice , there is actually a thread on this old unit...The mighty NuTONE 2561.
Don't replace these, Just keep them as wall art if nothing else.

As for me, I am still using mine, CONTINUOUS 24/7 operation for at least the last 10 years...I leave it powered up.

This model was was one the first high quality TRANSISTORIZED "Radio-intercom" models that could take 24/7 operation...It is a special unit as it could operate ELEVEN stations, Plus an outdoor music station, plus 3 door stations, plus the low voltage Nutone wall clock, and the Nutone door bell/chime system...This is a lot of operations for a single unit. For most part, top of the line.

One of the novel features of the 2561 is the ability to "Loop" wire it, or be standard satellite wired, or some combination of the two. This greatly aided installation flexibility, but...at the same time, made the loop wired units near impossible to retrofit. Which is why it should be left in place.
There are places that repair the master unit for around $200 (Space age electronics in Canton repaired one of mine) and this is the route to go. http://www.spaceage-inc.com/nutonerepair.html

The 2561 had TWO input jacks, one in the wall cavity, and one external RCA (on the bottom front edge) which are great for an MP3 player or even better, your computer.
I used to hook my computer directly into the front of the unit with a stereo to mono adapter. This opens up all manner of crazy possibilities...Such as, holding a Skype conference call while being in some remote location, far from the computer microphone, using only the 5O year old hand controls and speaking/and listening directly from the ancient 45 ohm speaker cone.
You could walk from one end of the house to the other, hold a skype conversation the whole time, and never need headphones or carrying a hand phone. :thmbsp:

The real way to upgrade these (if you want 2 channel stereo) Is to buy a nice used companion unit. Which is what I did (I actually have 4 of these now, for parts). I wired up another unit, and use one for the main 11 station intercom, door answering functions, and RIGHT channel audio. Then the companion unit handles the LEFT channel functions to select rooms.

The sound is not audiophile, but it is high fidelity, and sounds surprisingly good...plus getting the companion unit was FAR cheaper than any retrofit (which would be north of $3000 for 11 stations, before labor).

So don't replace, appreciate...
Vintage USA engineering
I love my Nutone.

http://www.phacproducts.com/Nutone/NUTONE PARTS 2/parts/Intercom/2561,2562parts.pdf

very good tutorial on this model
http://tinyurl.com/mjcq74z
 
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That's interesting...Most of the TT and cassette built in units I've seen look like they go with the 2500/2600 stereo musicom units...Which came slightly later and were a notch up from this model. They had an extremely large footprint with all those built ins. Basically they were a full stereo and your living room wall was the cabinet. The 2561 is still a nice unit to stick by your kitchen land line phone, It has a much smaller footprint and is still full featured (but monophonic). I know most of the switches are high quality Centralab like used on electric guitars. This is back in an era when all the subcontractors that Nutone used were all still American.
 
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The full systems showed up i quite a few old 60's and early 70's tv shows.

You can clearly see one in Mission Impossibles Jim Phelp's apartment, complete
with fold down VM turntable.
 
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