The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I called a good collector friend the other night and tried to have him talk me out of going after a Victor 9-40 (Same case as the Borgia II.) that's not too far from me.
It's big, it's heavy, it will take up a ton of room, it has pot metal parts, my wife will faint, etc., etc., etc.
There's something intriguing about a phonograph that sold for $1000 in 1926.
I can pick it up reasonably.
Any recent price opinions and/or restoration cost info. appreciated.

I need additional therapy!!!!!

Any help?????

Gene

Go get it before its gone

Bill K.

I agree.

Jim

The Radiola 28 is a very interesting radio to use and tune. It works quite well and although I have not heard one through the horn driver Victor used, should sound pretty good. The same thing with the phonograph side of it. I have only seen one of those and it had been converted to play through the later 6" speaker driven by a 210 tube. I don't know how common that conversion was, but if that's happened to it, don't let that scare you away from it as that is a very good (and loud) combination. And it makes sense that those thing had that happen to them early on as the later version would have come out within a year of the 9-40 getting made. And if you had the money for that set in the first place, you would have the money to update it. That ballast tube puts out a lot of heat!
I have a 7-3 with a Radiola 20 in it and it actually sounds pretty good. I don't know if they use the same horn driver, but I would guess it's more or less the same thing as it has a diaphragm from an orthophonic reproducer in it. So it should sound at least as good as that, but with the 7-3 you cannot play phonograph records through the horn driver as the Radiola 20 in that is a battery set and not set up for socket power like the machine you are looking at is. If you play records through the electric side, only one of the 199 tubes will be in use, but all of them will be when using the radio.