The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This is quite a monster of a machine weighing in at approx 275lbs. I found it at a local salvage shop, it is in the process of repair and should be ready soon. I am most interested in getting the phonograph working. I think more radio guys might be interested in a machine like this than Phonograph collectors but for me I can barely wait to hear some Big Band tunes on this bad boy, The cabinet has always been questioned as to its style and is considered ugly by most...but I found it to be impressively massive and this one should clean up quite nicely.

Congrats, Altona. You are in possession of one of the most impressive prewar consumer entertainment centers ever made. It dates from 1935 and was the top of the RCA line that year. It had just about every bell and whistle that RCA knew how to put into a set. The model number derives from the fact that it has 22 tubes and was RCA's answer to the the other superior radio sets of the day, particularly the E.H Scott Alwave 23 (with 23 tubes). Several things distinguish these top sets: It boasts the biggest power amplifier that RCA had ever put into a consumer set thanks to four 2A3 output triodes in push-pull-parallel which makes about 35 watts of audio power, similar to the Scott. It has two large speakers. And it is one of the very few sets to include a dynamic volume expander (also available as an option with the Scott). Plus the home recording feature, which is of dubious value these days but is still an interesting show-and-tell feature. And the radio tuner is an "all-wave" type which could tune every AM broadcast available back in its day via several radio bands. The "slinger" record changer is kinda scary to observe in operation, but when used with the durable Victor records of the mid 1930s, it is pretty harmless. This is a mighty machine and well worth the effort to get restored well. We have had several discussions here on the TMF about this model, so check the archives for more about it.

Congratulations! That would be dream find for me. Could we please see lots more photos?

Jim

That is an awesome machine, I have a Western Electric 4-C Audiometer, with that pickup and tone arm, and it seems to me well balanced, and to my ears is the best sounding pickup or cartridge I have ever used to play 78s, the lows are smooth and natural, and it has a clean top end.

That is an awesome machine, I have a Western Electric 4-C Audiometer, with that pickup and tone arm, and it seems to me well balanced, and to my ears is the best sounding pickup or cartridge I have ever used to play 78s, the lows are smooth and natural, and it has a clean top end.

Thanks for the info/comments guys, always appreciate hearing from those who are interested. I will post more pics as soon as I get the set home...haven't told my wife about it yet...hmmm...

That is a great piece. The last one I restored took about 6 months as I made all new wiring harnesses, one of the problems with the set is all the rubber wire in the harnesses crack and you end up with shorts if you move them too much. Another problem is the contacts on the wafer switches on the transfer switch have a tendency to fall out.

I have some service bulletins and a internal "confidential" memo on my web site that makes interesting reading. Your lucky in that you have the back, usually it is missing, in fact if you read the bulletins the backs were not shipped from the factory on early production units.

Another thing the expander uses a 6L7, you will go nuts trying to find one that is not microphonic. I went through about 20 before I found the 1612 which is a selected 6L7 with very low microphonic elements. You can't get the full impact of the expander unless you play the specially selected records they had to demonstrate the unit, the titles are listed in the RCA Red Book for the set. One last item make sure you open the record "slinger" arm and replace the rubber bumper at the end of the arm, makes it smoother when the 2 pound cylinder weight inside rolls from end to end.

Does the amp have the original flat plate 2A3's? If so you can sell them for way more than what the whole unit cost you.

Chuck

Quote: "Another thing the expander uses a 6L7, you will go nuts trying to find one that is not microphonic. I went through about 20 before I found the 1612 which is a selected 6L7 with very low microphonic elements. You can't get the full impact of the expander unless you play the specially selected records they had to demonstrate the unit, the titles are listed in the RCA Red Book for the set."

It sounds like the expander operated like an early version of dolby or dbx? Was it an attempt to lower record surface noise?
Are there any equalization curves that would simulate this?

I agree it's a nice phono!
Bob

The size and shape reminds me very much of an early, enormous RCA TV:

Yes, Bob, the dynamic volume expander is the same idea as the broadband dbx. It does not operate in a frequency-selective way, so it's not like Dolby. The purpose of it was to restore the volume compression that was beginning to be used in electrical recordings. The expander operated in the reverse way from the compressor used when the recording was made. The intention was not so much to reduce record noise as to restore the full volume range from loudest to softest of the original performance.

By the way, 1935 was about the time when the audio industry first got serious about audio quality and started using the term "high fidelity". Philco and E.H. Scott were using the term on their products and in their advertising. The volume expander was one of the tweaks that set makers were introducing to improve the fidelity of reproduction in the home. Philco, Zenith, and Scott were among the prominent brands that were including woofers and tweeters and crossover networks in their premium sets about this time. AM radio was also capable of hifi performance, and radio stations in large cities were broadcasting live performances with excellent fidelity. If you had a hifi set from Scott and a few others, you could adjust the IF amplifier for increased bandwidth which would produce real hifi performance in the audio. This selectable IF bandwidth is very rare to find today in an AM receiver which is why AM sounds so dull with poor high frequency response today.