nordmende purchase...maybe?
 

i have been looking around for a nice radio for a while now,i've seen many on "that site" which seem less than pristine and yet go for silly prices considering the great unknown of it all..not that i would mind a project,but,it seems a bit "out there" to spend somewhere north of a hundred bucks,plus shipping for something that you know is likely going to be in need of work,if not a total basket case in need of a rebuild...

so i have stumbled upon a restored Nordmende Carmen going for approx 350 cdn shipped that i'm considering,it is a fair bit higher than i've seen the same model sell for elsewhere...this is not the most common model i've seen labled "carmen" tho...not quite the typical german table radio in style or size..its big,a solid 2 feet wide!from what pics i've been able to find of others i'm gonna guess it's only packing a 5x7 main speaker flanked by two tweeters is this huge cabinet...tho it's labled a "high fidelity" model on the front...is anyone familier with this model or know the one i mean?i'm pretty sure it's in good to great shape and the seller trustworthy,but are there any opinions on it's performance from those who may have actually used or heard one?the asking price is not an issue but is it worth getting as a bit of "functional furniture" for occasional listening?or is it just an imposing looking box best avoided?

For that kind of money I would hope it is recapped. German radios are a major PITA to work on and the tubes are expensive. They sound great but there are American radios that sound as good. I had a Curtis Mathes big table top radio that I swore was German made because it sound so good. Nope. Just good old American tubes and a chassis that made sense.

according to the seller,the radio is "restored"...tubes checked/replaced as necessary,recapped,all circuitry and mechanicals checked and refurbed as needed...and then aligned as well.the seller is "in the business" as it were...the price is a bit steep,but i'm working on the assumption that it should be fully plug and play,working as good as it looks...

Yup. Like 1940s-'60s Zeniths. I have a C845 and a K731; both sound so good, IMHO, that they could well hold their own against any German table model. I can't help thinking that Zenith's design engineers may have taken at least some of their cues from Grundig, et al. when those wonderful Zenith radios were made; for example, the feedback winding on the audio output transformer, the true tone control that varied the entire response curve of the audio stages rather than simply cut the high frequencies, and so on.

That price seems somewhat high, even fully restored. Big Euro tabletops can be great performers, but they usually sell for less. I believe I have seen two flavors of Carmen -- one is more in the 1950s style with rounded edges, and the other more 1960s with a light cabinet and very squared-off look. Sets with 1960s styling are less favored by collectors, because . . . they look newer, I guess.

Even the 1950s Euro tabletops are often priced low at swap meets because they tend to look so much the same ("piano key" style) and some people are intimidated by the electronics.

Only you can decide how you want to spend your money. If you're not experienced with electronic repair and you simply want a hassle-free older radio, then paying "retail" for a restored one may be your only option.

Just my $0.02.

Phil Nelson
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html