Roberts Model 50 Receiver

[gssound]

Found this little guy the other day, and thought I'd share some experiences and pictures as there doesn't seem to be a lot of info on the 'net about this Model. From what I've learned, this was probably built by the Akai company in the early 70s; otherwise, not a whole lot of spec information is available. A member here - @djmtascam - seems to have done quite a bit of work on a unit a few years ago, I wonder how that is working out.

It was fairly clean when I purchased it. Lots of static and pops upon starting it up. Volume output was weak, and - strangely - frequencies on the right side of the dial were much quieter than frequencies on the left side of the dial! After about 10 minutes, and some preliminary knob fiddling, operation appeared to wake up and settle into normal range. The only thing that appears to not work at all is the stereo indicator bulb; it looks pretty tricky to get into, so I'm not even going there.

Last night, I took it apart and gave it a deep cleaning. Everything looks okay inside, a few caps have some gunky looking stuff on them, but I'm guessing it might be some kind of glue, rather than leaking caps. I've taken close ups of those: Your opinions, please!

Otherwise, I'll put it back together and take some other pics, and share them, when I'm done. I'm curious to see how the cleaning will affect operation. The chrome cleaned up nicely with some tinfoil and WD-40.

 

[2N697]

Nice find! Yet another label I have not heard of. That looks like old cement on the capacitors to me.

 

[gssound]

Nice find! Yet another label I have not heard of. That looks like old cement on the capacitors to me.

Yes, I thought some kind of glue, too. However, I couldn't figure out why those areas would really need glue or rubber cement.

 

[2N697]

I could see using it on the radial caps at the base for support, but the rest just looks like they slopped it on. It always makes things a little more difficult to remove....... I know in the industrial applications I have worked on, a big cap which is just suspended by it's leads without any other support will eventually shear off (usually) at the point where the lead goes through the board from vibration.

 

[Uncle Farmin]

How is your Roberts 50, gssound? I bought mine new in 1968 at Morrisson's in Ashtabula, SN 1305 01652, which lacks the VU meter. I have a dead left speaker channel, which I have remedied in the past by cleaning loudness and balance pots. The left channel has since become increasingly scratchy to the point of silence. Maybe I will replace pots. Thanks for reading, and good luck.