Earliest Stereo Tube Set Up...What is It?

[targeteye]

I've got a pre-Concert Grand Magnavox stereo console with dual mono blocks, and a stereo TT . .

Markus,
What do you mean "pre-concert grand"? Do you mean the model the preceded the concert grand or do you have a concert grand?

I'd like to see detailed pics of a concert Grand.

Steve

 

[YL1071]

[...]
Getting back to Stereo, I'm not sure what came first, broadcast stereo or LP's. But Stereo was first applied (I believe) in the Movies. Some Gent in the early 30's first proposed it and executed it in 1931, I think. He died during WW-2 in a Bombing Raid on England, and his loss was lamented by Churchill himself...

LJB

Yes, that's partly true. His name was Alan Dower Blumlein and indeed he invented stereo and many other things, in particular, the differential or long-tailed pair and the ultra-linear output stage. When he died he was in his early 40s and had 140 patents to his name. As for his death, he was killed when a Halifax bomber crashed. It was engaged in trials of secret radar equipment that Blumlein had developed whilst working at EMI.

For the IC engine enthusiasts, the investigation of the crash revealed the cause to be a loose tappet adjusting lock-nut. The tappet screw unscrewed itself, the cylinder concerned ran lean and overheated, the engine caught fire, and hence the crash.

Paul

 

[wa2ise]

This also means that the FM stereo modulation technique had been finalized by the NAB by then.

Cheers,

David

The Funny Cookie Corporation in about 1961 made rules declaring our modern FM multiplex stereo system the standard. NAB surely had a hand in that.

Many years before, Bell Labs were kicking around how to build stereo systems. One group there decided that the 2 channel we use today would do it, another group seemed to be after what we now call "soundstage". And that multiple speakers placed across the soundstage, each playing a specific set of instruments that you'd find at a live performance, was what was needed.

 

[similost]

hhhmm.. well.. I'm guessing the very first mass produced TV's weren't stereo, so then that would kind of detract from having something along the same age if you were to get true stereo. Or were you using a "generic" word to mean sound amplifier?

If it were me, I'd look for a radio console from the same year of the TV, perferrably RCA, one which had the television input on it, and match the TV up with that.

That way you have something that matches the complete period. I'm just chunking in my thoughts on your question.

OH.. another thought might be two mono tube amps from the same year as your TV, then use that to produce "stereo" from the TV?

 

[M3-SRT8]

Yes Similost, it's true. A stereo setup would not be historically accurate. However, I am planning on hooking the television up to cable to listen to Music Choice digital music. I want to tie the audio to a stereo setup and send the video only to the tv set.

Hence my search for the earliest tube stereo setup.

O'tay Banky?


LJB

 

[Aage]

Yes Similost, it's true. A stereo setup would not be historically accurate. However, I am planning on hooking the television up to cable to listen to Music Choice digital music. I want to tie the audio to a stereo setup and send the video only to the tv set.

You know, of course, that what you are proposing was Just Not Done back then, don't you? I think that was the point Similost was making.

The TV was the TV, and it never crossed anyone's mind to connect it to The Radio, or heaven forbid, The Record Player. Why, you would be just as likely to connect your sewing machine to the blender! One just had nothing to do with the other.

But of course, that was then, and this is now. Knock yourself out, man! :thmbsp:

 

[gadget73]

I've got a pre-Concert Grand Magnavox stereo console with dual mono blocks, and a stereo TT . . I *think the FM tuner is stereo too, but not positive . . build date on the speakers is 1957, and it's a 1958 model . . .

Mine is also a 1958 or '59 model, mono AM/FM tuner, with a stereo turntable. To get stereo though, it used a separate speaker/amp cabinet. It also has a set of controls to deal with the second channel, and a position on one of the knobs marked 'radio', which lets both amps work off the mono tuner.

 

[Bob E.]

In 1958, Harman Kardon released the A-224 "Trio" (full stereo preamp/amp), the T-224 "Duet" (AM/FM tuner, capable of using both tuners for simulcast stereo, but not multiplex FM), and for folks who already had a "hi-fi" mono system, the AX-20 "Nocturne" (a "conversion" amplifier consisting of a stereo pre-amp and single channel amplifier, to be hooked up to your existing mono amp for the other channel!). They did not have FM multiplex yet, but it was anticipated, as they had released the FM-100 tuner the year before with a separate output for an outboard multiplex decoder (which they did not have for a few more years).

All the 1958 offerings had brushed copper-anodized faceplates. The prior series from 1956-57 had brushed copper-plated faceplates (deeper copper color) with black surround and copper cages...very attractive!

--Bob

 

[goraman]

I had a 1957 blond berch RCA console all tube including the tuner the tuner had FM stereo it had 1 stereo input and a needle that fliped over one side was mono the other side stereo it has 2 3 inch tweeters alincos and 2 12 inch woofers alincos and all where free air not enclosed but the tweeter frames where sealed .And I wish I still had it .

 

[jaymanaa]

Interesting thread, I have a HK TP200 tuner preamp (stereo) from 58 (I think) as well.

 

[Brian]

Aage, actually very early on with the 2nd coming of the television (the first predated WWI but other than in Britian, during the war years there were no broadcasts and in the US at least no manufacturing of sets) companies incorporated televisions into consoles that included the radi and phono or a phono, amp television. I had a Motorola that had the television, changer, am-fm-sw tuner/preamp, amp and a field coil powered speaker. It was from the early to mid '50s. I remeber seeing an Andrea in the late '50s with a stereo changer, am-fm simulcast receiver, stereo amp and speakers in a console. We sold 1 to a Dr in town and when FM-multiplex became official we got the mpx adaptor from Andrea to do the conversion for the Dr. This set was interesting in that just a few years after when color arrived, he had us order an Andrea color chassis and do a swap. The color chassis had the same dimensions and control layout on the front as the b&w so it was unscrew 1 and screw the other in, no cabinet modes. As stereo television is a rather a late development, I doubt there were any incorporated into a console with tuner and changer as by that time vinyl was "dead" and all-in-one consoles were out of style.

 

[Rivieraranch]

That is what I read, too.

I think the 1st stereo records began appearing in 1958. The 1st stereo "hit" was the Jamies' "Summertime, Summertime" from summer of that year. "High Fidelity" had only been around for about 10 years then, spurred on by the development of the LP in the late '40s by Peter Goldmark.

Then everybody began recording their books in stereo.

 

[Aage]

Aage, actually very early on with the 2nd coming of the television (the first predated WWI but other than in Britian, during the war years there were no broadcasts and in the US at least no manufacturing of sets) companies incorporated televisions into consoles that included the radi and phono or a phono, amp television. I had a Motorola that had the television, changer, am-fm-sw tuner/preamp, amp and a field coil powered speaker. It was from the early to mid '50s. I remeber seeing an Andrea in the late '50s with a stereo changer, am-fm simulcast receiver, stereo amp and speakers in a console. We sold 1 to a Dr in town and when FM-multiplex became official we got the mpx adaptor from Andrea to do the conversion for the Dr. This set was interesting in that just a few years after when color arrived, he had us order an Andrea color chassis and do a swap. The color chassis had the same dimensions and control layout on the front as the b&w so it was unscrew 1 and screw the other in, no cabinet modes. As stereo television is a rather a late development, I doubt there were any incorporated into a console with tuner and changer as by that time vinyl was "dead" and all-in-one consoles were out of style.

Yes, Brian, I lived through that too. We're the same age, you and I, so I rather guess when you say "we" sold one to a Dr in the late '50s, you mean your dad did.

Our TV in the mid-'50s was a blonde Crosley that, in a vertical style cabinet, held the TV and an AM-FM radio plus turntable in a drawer in the lower part of the cab. There were some people that had a system with those components in a coffin-style box, but very rarely, at least in my little part of the world in the '50s.

But please let me know if you ever saw anyone that connected a separate TV to a "radiogramme" (radio/record player). I never ever saw that happen "back in the day". Not one.

 

[wa2ise]

You know, of course, that what you are proposing was Just Not Done back then, don't you?
The TV was the TV, and it never crossed anyone's mind to connect it to The Radio, or heaven forbid, The Record Player. :thmbsp:

Back in the early 60s, my father did essentially that. The TV sat atop a big speaker, and the sound was piped thru the stereo amp. Actually it was a pair of mono blocks, and for some reason once channel wasn't usually used, and the Tv sound came out of the other speaker and not the one the TV sat upon. So imagine TV sound coming several feet away from the talking heads on the TV set...

 

[M3-SRT8]

hhhmm.. well.. I'm guessing the very first mass produced TV's weren't stereo, so then that would kind of detract from having something along the same age if you were to get true stereo. Or were you using a "generic" word to mean sound amplifier?

If it were me, I'd look for a radio console from the same year of the TV, perferrably RCA, one which had the television input on it, and match the TV up with that.

That way you have something that matches the complete period. I'm just chunking in my thoughts on your question.

OH.. another thought might be two mono tube amps from the same year as your TV, then use that to produce "stereo" from the TV?

Yes, all true. But, I live in the 21st Century, and, I love Music Choice (Digital Cable Feed) in My Living Room, in Stereo.

Interestingly enough, perhaps the Engineers over at RCA had Stereo (or Twin Mono Sound) in mind when they designed the 630TS. The Cabinet has 5" Holes cut for TWO Speakers, Left & Right.

Anyhoo, I want Stereo, preferably Tubes, and the earlier, the better.

LJB

 

[M3-SRT8]

Yes, that's partly true. His name was Alan Dower Blumlein and indeed he invented stereo and many other things, in particular, the differential or long-tailed pair and the ultra-linear output stage. When he died he was in his early 40s and had 140 patents to his name. As for his death, he was killed when a Halifax bomber crashed. It was engaged in trials of secret radar equipment that Blumlein had developed whilst working at EMI.

For the IC engine enthusiasts, the investigation of the crash revealed the cause to be a loose tappet adjusting lock-nut. The tappet screw unscrewed itself, the cylinder concerned ran lean and overheated, the engine caught fire, and hence the crash.

Paul

Yup. That's Him.

On the Handley-Page Halifax Bomber, which engine did it have? Merlins?

LJB

 

[YL1071]

Yup. That's Him.

On the Handley-Page Halifax Bomber, which engine did it have? Merlins?

LJB

Yes, that's right; most of them had Merlins, all in fact except the Halifax B III which was fitted with Bristol Hercules radial engines. It is obvious therefore that Blumlein's aircraft had the Merlins, since the Bristol radial engines used sleeve valves!

Read all about the Halifax here.

Paul

 

[M3-SRT8]

Yes, that's right; most of them had Merlins, all in fact except the Halifax B III which was fitted with Bristol Hercules radial engines. It is obvious therefore that Blumlein's aircraft had the Merlins, since the Bristol radial engines used sleeve valves!

Read all about the Halifax here.

Paul

...except the Pegasus, and the early Jupiter Radials.

LJB

 

[tcdriver]

But please let me know if you ever saw anyone that connected a separate TV to a "radiogramme" (radio/record player). I never ever saw that happen "back in the day". Not one.

Actually, it was not unusual in the early days of high fidelity for well healed people to put together component systems that included televisions. My Radio Craftsmen RC-10 has a “TV” input as did a Pilot tuner/preamp of that same era. If you look in the very first issue of High Fidelity magazine (volume 1, issue 1, summer 1951) you will see,starting on page 29, several installations of component high fidelity that incorporate televisions .

The Radio Craftsmen advertisement on page 77 describes the RC-101 this way: “An outstanding new high fidelity custom video tuner with the same fine, big-picture quality and sensitivity as its famous predecessor, the RC-100! Features include keyed AGC and booster switch, plus new, double-shadow tuning eye for precision tuning. 20 – 20,000 cycle audio output permits remote hook-up with high fidelity audio and FM-AM tuners…”

Here is a cover from Radio Electronics showing a television installation into a component Hi-Fi system:

 

[M3-SRT8]

Sooo. I'm not Insane.

Good. No Guilty Conscience.

LJB

PS: I'm picking up the 1963 RCA MX-7 Today. I'll give a Report as to it's condition, etc. later.

L