The Radio People Ltd.

[Mitman]

What have I got here and what can I do with it? My uncle was in Asia in the 50's and picked this up in Hong Kong. It's name is "The Radio People, Ltd." serial # 2378.
The Deco like cabinet is 30"h x36"w x6" to 12" d. The wood looks like oak or ash and has copper anodized punched metal grills, front and back. It contains three Wharfdale speakers. A 10" Bronze SFB, 12" SFB and a 3" ?FR3 model, 10/15 OH, 14,500 lines, aluminum voice coil. The 3" has a warning:" This Wharfdale speaker is designed for TREBBLE ONLY at frequencies above approx. 4000 cycles. It must not be used with L F input, even for a few seconds, as it is liable to be damaged." 10/15 ohms. Each speaker has it's own, lace up dust protector sock. A approx. 2" x 2" grey metal box contatns the following; Conderser, 4A, ZA 1282, 200 VDC WKG, 4MFD, S.C. 0544. The speaker surrounds were foam and are history. It may be a mono speaker, as there was only one and it has a single speaker connection.
It's a unique looking piece and I would love to restore it, but it would be a lot of work. Are there replacement surrounds available for the speakers? Are the speakers even worth it?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[Arkay]

What have I got here and what can I do with it? My uncle was in Asia in the 50's and picked this up in Hong Kong. It's name is "The Radio People, Ltd." serial # 2378.
...
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Can't tell you much about those speakers, but I can tell you what happened to Radio People Ltd. Back "in the day" they were a major force in the audio market here (Hong Kong). They handled (imported and sold) most of the major brands that were sold here at the time, and would also put together their own-label products like yours. I suspect GIs on leave here took a fair number of those things back to the States.

Today Radio People Ltd. are still around, but because of evolution in the marketplace, their business is now entirely centered around just one brand: they are the sole agents for Bang & Olufsun (B&O). They operate a few B&O showrooms, one of them not very far from where I am sitting now.

 

[archie2]

The Radio People were distributors of Wharfedale speakers, out of Hong Kong IIRC. Yes, those cabinets are worth refinishing. Wharfedale made furniture grade cabinets for their W70 and W90 series. Most Wharfedale drivers had wool surrounds, some had butyl rubber and a few had foam. I would imagine that a standard foam surround of the appropriate size would fit but you would need to confirm that. Those are quality sweet sounding speakers worth restoring. However Wharfedale speakers in general are under priced in the resale market. I have never seen that particular Wharfedale, it may be rare.

 

[archie2]

Are you sure those surrounds were foam?

 

[Mitman]

Archie, I'm pretty sure they're foam. The material is brown now and turns to dust when you handle it.

 

[Brian]

Wharfedale was an early adoptor of foam surrounds and then when they discovered they tended to disintigrate moved away from them. Their move from them was about the time most companies were moving to them. The tweetrer is the SuperTweeter3 and though it will not go out to light speed is 1 of the niceest sounding sounding tweeters this side of electrostatics. Not a hint of hardness, just the right level of detail without becomeincoming analytical and not as fragile as the later fried egg tweeters.

 

[Nat]

That is one of the Wharfedale SFB series which was around in the late 50s. They were a favorite of Gilbert Briggs (Wharfedale's founder) and he talks about them in his book on loudspeakers. They had sand filled baffles (hence SFB(?)) and the mutual reinforcement of the twoo woofers compensated somewhat for the loss of bass that is a result of the dipole operation. He suggested having them at an angle a bit out from the wall. Apparently while one might be domestically acceptable, two were not, so the advent of stereo kind of sank them.
They did have isocyanate foam surrounds, which do disintegrate, but could probably be replaced with normal foam roll surrounds. And I think the tweeter faced up, if memory serves.