Italian Phonola 681 tube radio

[Kiwick]

Here's my latest score!

This radio has separate SW-AM/FM tuning with coaxial knobs, a 5Y3 rectifier, and a two way sound system with a nice 6x9 IREL alnico speaker, needless to say it sounds awesome with plenty of clean undistorted bass

I only had to replace the tweeter's series capacitor as the original one was totally dead, the rest of the radio is working fine on its original parts!

[ggregg]

That's nice. First Phonola radio I've ever seen. They made some cool record players.

[Kiwick]

the Italian Phonola brand was a trademark of the FIMI electronics company based in Saronno
FIMI became a Philips subsidiary in 1972 and is still in business as a manufacturer of medical display devices
After 1972, the Phonola brand was slapped on some Philips consumer products, at least until the late 90s.

I don't think they had anything to do with the US Phonograph maker.

by the way, this radio was made in May 1959

[Reece]

Somebody took pretty good care of that radio. Nice find.

[ggregg]

Originally Posted by Kiwick

the Italian Phonola brand was a trademark of the FIMI electronics company based in Saronno
FIMI became a Philips subsidiary in 1972 and is still in business as a manufacturer of medical display devices
After 1972, the Phonola brand was slapped on some Philips consumer products, at least until the late 90s.

I don't think they had anything to do with the US Phonograph maker.

by the way, this radio was made in May 1959

The puzzling thing to me is that the logo looks very similar if not identical to the US phonola. Also a 5Y3 rectifier is not very common in a European set, is it?

[Kiwick]

American type tubes were used a lot in Italian sets, as many manufacturers had ties with american companies, for example, Marelli had strong ties with RCA and used only American tubes and sometimes also American RCA speakers, they also had their own tube plant in Italy, FIVRE, which basically made clones of RCA tubes.

I can't rule out a tie between FIMI and the US Phonola company (maybe they licensed the trademark)
The Phonola brand first appeared on FIMI sets in the early 30s (they made some real nice cathedral radios back then)

[electroking]

The trademark Phonola was also used on some radios produced by the Canadian
company Electrohome.

Here is an example:

http://www.radioatticarchives.com/radio.htm?radio=9099