Let's see your tube radios!
- Thread starter Aerobat
- Start date
Poultrygeist
Lunatic Member
I have an old True Value console that's been gutted. Plan to convert it to a modern system using a class D amp and OB speakers.
Looks a bit later to me, pushing mid 1930s.
Aerobat
Class A all the way
I have an old True Value console that's been gutted. Plan to convert it to a modern system using a class D amp and OB speakers.
When you're done, loan it to the local True Value, they'd be tickled!
Last edited:
I have a "big box" 20 myself, both transformers were open.I bought it for fairly small money in very nice cosmetic shape, fully tubed with Cunningham CX301 tubes for less than the set of tubes was worth. I can only presume someone had attempted a rebuild on it, found the trafos were dead and gave up. The inside was dust-free and the brass bits inside are all shiny like someone spent some time on it. New transformers stuffed in the can and it works quite fine now.
I'll have to dig out some pics of assorted stuff I own when I get home.
The mid 20s "coffin" battery sets are a favorite of mine, but generally still go cheap for their age. I still have an AK 10 with personal history at a friend's house, the little 20C is one of my faves of the genre, beautifully proportioned and common still, affordable in nice cdx.
Aerobat
Class A all the way
I've seen that wall in person and it's awesome.
johnlcnm
Active Member
Nope. Manufacturers date on the back. November of 1929.
Are you sure you're not looking at a patent date? The average 1929 Philco console radio looked more like this:
Not mine, just a picture of a Philco model 65 "lowboy" console from 1929, more typical of the period. The radio in your photo looks more typical of their 1935-1936 offerings, like the 650X. More 1929 Philco radios can be seen here, here and here.
-Adam
Actually CA 1917, it was licenced to other US manufacturers by RCA ca 1929.
As to origin of the concept, see this:
http://antiqueradios.com/superhet/
Model # should be definitive.
Some of mine:
The Sears "Long Range" MCM
A favorite combo I've had since 1975, Atwater Kent 20C with RCA UZ1325 horn.
A well used Aeriola Sr with Baldwin and Western Electric 'phones. A 1925 Howe crystal set in remarkable original cdx, paired with an entry level Philmore crystal set.
The Sears "Long Range" MCM
A favorite combo I've had since 1975, Atwater Kent 20C with RCA UZ1325 horn.
A well used Aeriola Sr with Baldwin and Western Electric 'phones. A 1925 Howe crystal set in remarkable original cdx, paired with an entry level Philmore crystal set.
Last edited:
johnlcnm
Active Member
Pio. Looks like you are the knowledge folk here! I had not really looked at this radio since the mid 1970s. The model is a 655. I have no idea what the inspection numbers mean! I can't find the exact model on the Philco Radio site, but looks like the vintage is approximately 1936-37ish. I have not turned it on in the last 15 years. Picked this one up in 1975 from an old peoples estate. They were moving south to the warm weather. Now I'm the old guy, Ha Ha.
Tube types used would be helpful as well. Any octals would mean it's from no earlier than 1935, though the use of 4/5/6-pin tubes continued well past then for some types like eye tubes and some audio output and rectifier tubes. Late '20s/early '30s sets also tended to use 2.5 or 5V filament tubes, then as the '30s progressed, 6.3V filament tubes became the norm for transformer-powered sets; tubes meant for series-string sets were a whole 'nother ball of wax which I won't get to here, since the set in question is transformer-powered.
The 655(X) was an upgraded version of the 650 series, so I wasn't far off. Philco had the annoying tendency to use model numbers to identify sets using the same chassis, but in radically different cabinets. The standard 655B would have been a tabletop model, likely a 'tombstone' (vertical cabinet), while the 655X denoted a standard console with the dial placed above the speaker. Then there were various console cabinet variations like the 655MX (door over the dial), 655H (legged cabinet, i.e. a low/highboy like the 65 I posted an image of above), 655PX (radio/phono combo), etc.
-Adam
