Normally, I'm not a fan of most GE tube radios from the '50's and '60's. Most of them were cheap AA5's that were built on cheap PC boards using cheap components.
Today, I bought this late '50's GE "musaphonic" AM tube radio for $10. It is missing the knob on the slider tone control, there is a piece busted out of one coner, and two of the chassis mounts were busted whenever this radio had it's accident. As far as the circuit goes, this is a 6 tube set with a tuned RF stage, dual speakers, and a phono input jack. Surprisingly, this radio works fairly well with it's original components. I was shocked that it has no filter hum and it still has the original orange multi-section cardboard filter cap still installed. I can't think of too many times where I've found one of those caps that was still good. Of course, I will re-cap it and go over the chassis for any other faults. Then, I will have to figure out a way to fix the busted chassis mounts.
I also bought a cheap GE AA5, from the same period. It had two paper caps and the multi-section filter cap that needed to be replaced. It now works; but, the sensitivity and sound quality are no where as good as this bigger GE.
05-14-2011, 01:04 AM
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