Vintage Audio Activities...

[CitroJim]

Those Round Ekco radios are iconic and some varieties are very expensive and very collectable now... Sime models are more valuable than others and not all Round Ekco radios are equal...

Ekco and not Echo as may people think as the name is made up of the company founder's name: E K Cole.

The Murphy 'Batwing', likely a 146, is highly regarded in vintage radio circles... They sound awesome but its sheer size puts some people off...

The Pye Black Box record player is also one very iconic and highly sought-after and collectable model although some models were badly compromised in the amplifier circuitry... The final transistorised version was a disaster and not much better was the version that used PCL83 TV valves in the amplifier... The design had a tendency to 'take off' (uncontrolled oscillation) and to this day can be hard to make good... 'Nice looks, shame about the works' applies to those models!

An odd name as not all were black although some were finished in that rich black Japanese lacquer with a classic Japanese scene on the front....

[NewcastleFalcon]

I am sure you could have had a fascinating and informative chat with the chap at the Hexham shop, I did and showed enough curiosity to have a decent conversation.

The old radio sets, speaker record players can be gorgeous objets d'art in their own right particularly the art deco stuff.

What is your view to the items being for want of a better word (which I dont really understand) "bluetoothed" so they really have all the modern functionality, and as the chap in the shop showed with the batwing, completely controllable from an App on his phone. Does the demise of "the analogue signal" relegate the "non-bluetoothed" stuff to a crackly rendition of 5-live at its best and nothing else in the Radio department?

Interested to know your opinion.

Here's some more stuff with not the sharpest of focus of the other things he has lying around.

Neil

[Peter.N.]

I like the Murphy baffle set and also the Pye Black Box. We sold them when I worked in London in 1954, they were expensive. We sold Quad and Leak amplifiers, mono of course they were I believe 48 guineas, I was earning £3 per week and had to pay my train fare out of that!

Peter

[CitroJim]

I am sure you could have had a fascinating and informative chat with the chap at the Hexham shop, I did and showed enough curiosity to have a decent conversation.

I'd love to Neil and yes, I could - for hours!

What is your view to the items being for want of a better word (which I dont really understand) "bluetoothed" so they really have all the modern functionality, and as the chap in the shop showed with the batwing, completely controllable from an App on his phone. Does the demise of "the analogue signal" relegate the "non-bluetoothed" stuff to a crackly rendition of 5-live at its best and nothing else in the Radio department?

It's discussed at length on the vintage radio forum and the view is that if the underlying set is left standard and all the mods are reversible then there's no issue at all... I fully concur. The forum actively advises on how. It's when the original set is destroyed, just leaving a shell of a cabinet, that it's seen with some disapproval but again, if it's a common set in no danger of extinction then no great issue.. It's when rare sets - like a Batwing or Round EKco are 'upcycled' and vandalised by the Steampunk brigade that some disquiet is expressed. I too agree.

I like the Murphy baffle set and also the Pye Black Box. We sold them when I worked in London in 1954, they were expensive. We sold Quad and Leak amplifiers, mono of course they were I believe 48 guineas, I was earning £3 per week and had to pay my train fare out of that!

I have a 1959 Hi-Fi yearbook here Peter, the prices look good but when adjusted for inflation they are eyewatering! Amazing so much top-end vintage Hi-Fi was ever sold at the prices asked... Maybe because it was such an investment so much has survived...

[Peter.N.]

I think a lot of that wasn't sold to hifi enthusiasts but people had plenty of money and wanted to show it Jim.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

Taking the "lockdown out of the title" and probably being imprecise about "vintage" came across this which was lying unloved in the pages of the "Pickled-Egg Library" thread which has absolutely plummeted into obscurity, as plainly no one reads books anymore, or if they do fail to post up their current book/books on the go, ones recently acquired, or received as gifts etc etc.

As ever the FCF Off Topic section does have a home for such things it is here

The Pickled Egg Library viewtopic.php?p=510862#p510862

Meanwhile in my eyes there is nothing not to like about this....tremendous artwork



Neil

[CitroJim]

I love the pictures on the front of the 1950s PW magazines when they were known - along with several other titles - as 'Camm's Comic'

The pictures are incredibly atmospheric...

The content was good in those days too... I have quite a few in my collection.

And yes, I still read a lot...

[NewcastleFalcon]

And yes, I still read a lot...

Deposit something in the Pickled Egg Library, it hasn't had a post since October 2022 needs a bit of revival!

As ever the FCF Off Topic section does have a home for such things it is here

The Pickled Egg Library viewtopic.php?p=510862#p510862

Neil

[Peter.N.]

Very nostalgic now Jim but the cutting edge of technology then.

Peter

[CitroJim]

Very nostalgic now Jim but the cutting edge of technology then.

Yes, absolutely Peter From that same year I have a copy of PW describing the construction of an FM Tuner with AFC using just three valves... For the time, very cutting edge... The means by which AFC was achieved with so few components was quite innovative

AFC was needed in the design as it was a three station preset tuner - a switch selected either the Light, Third or Home...

[xantia_v6]

I have really updated the topic title.

[CitroJim]

I have really updated the topic title.

Thanks Mike, it needed it given lockdown is now long in the past and history - we hope

[mickthemaverick]

This may be of interest to certain members!!

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 000175b975

[CitroJim]

This may be of interest to certain members!!

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auct ... 000175b975

Useful little receivers... That one's going to need a lot of restoration work...

I'll pass!

[bobins]

I could have put this in several threads, but I'll plonk it here.

1951: Building the HOLME MOSS TRANSMITTER | Newsreel

A fantasticly dated newsreel short of building the Holme Moss TV transmitter and mast from a long time ago which may appeal to those interested in such things For those not interested - move along please, nothing to see here

BBC RP narration - Check.
Men in suits and ties - Check.
Jolly music playing along - Check.
At least one man smoking a pipe - Check.
Bugger-all health and safety whilst building the mast - Check.