The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Make: Victor Talking Machine Co.
Model: VV 9-15
Serial #: 890 (Numbers began at 501.)
Year(s) Made: 1926/27
Original Cost: $600 (Electric motor examples $35 to $55 additional.)
Case/Cabinet Size: 45 ½" high x 44" wide x 22 ¼" deep
Turntable/Mandrel: 12" steel
Reproducer/Sound-Box: #5 Orthophonic
Motor: 4-spring
Horn Dimensions: Large re-entrant.
Reproduction Parts: Grille cloth replaced with now no longer available original type and pattern made on original looms. Gearing of mechanism to change the sound path between the phonograph and the radio, which was disintegrated potmetal, replaced.
Current Value: Unknown
Interesting Facts: This spring wound example is fairly rare. Only 833 were made. (There were 1,747 VE electric motor examples.) Gold plated hardware. Includes a then high-end RCA Radiola 28 Super-Heterodyne battery powered radio (it takes 10 batteries!) . The radio and phonograph share the same horn, with a manually-operated mechanical linkage to switch between the passage coming from the reproducer and a permanent magnet horn driver connected to the radio. The radio had a large rotatable antenna inside the case.

Restoration challenges include some pot metal parts in the gearing used in the mechanism to shift the sound path between the phonograph and radio, a potmetal horn coupling, and a large potmetal gear used in the antenna rotation mechanism. The Radiola 28 has one of RCA's infamous "catacombs," a metal box in which most of the electronics were installed and then the box was filled with a resin of some sort, making replacement of the parts inside a major operation.

Sweet!

but you're teasing us with only two pictures Clay!

Beautiful! I've always loved the machines with exposed tubes.

Mr Grumpy wrote:Sweet!

but you're teasing us with only two pictures Clay!

It dawned on me as I was finishing up that I did not have many pictures of it on my computer. My camera is currently off being repaired. I will try to add more when it comes back.

Clay

FloridaClay wrote:

Mr Grumpy wrote:Sweet!

but you're teasing us with only two pictures Clay!

It dawned on me as I was finishing up that I did not have many pictures of it on my computer. My camera is currently off being repaired. I will try to add more when it comes back.

Clay

We want 27 photos and a Youtube video or 2.

Phototone wrote:

FloridaClay wrote:

Mr Grumpy wrote:Sweet!

but you're teasing us with only two pictures Clay!

It dawned on me as I was finishing up that I did not have many pictures of it on my computer. My camera is currently off being repaired. I will try to add more when it comes back.

Clay

We want 27 photos and a Youtube video or 2.

Yes please!

Have you used the Radiola 28 in that Victrola? It's a really nice looking machine. I have a 7-3 with a Radiola 20 in it and I need to get it put back together. I finally got the lid decals so I can get the re-finishing job finished up on it. I have to admit that I don't really understand why Victor left those tubes exposed. I have a Radiola 28 in a Brunswick Panatrope and if the tube cover is removed from that, it makes it difficult to tune since having your hands near the tubes will affect how the radio acts. Even with the tube cover in place the tubes will still sense when your hands are near them. The Radiola 28 is an interesting radio to tune and operate, that's for sure. I'm really curious about how that horn driver will sound with that Radiola 20. Victor was making some really interesting phonographs during the last half of the 1920's but the pot metal issues sure can cause some fits during restoration, that's for sure. And the size of some of them sure make them almost unpopular, but some of that has changed fortunately in the last 10-15 years. I really like your machine and would not hesitate to pick one up if it came along.. Well... if there's room left in the place.

Nice set! I had a Florenza in my dormitory room back in my college days. The Florenza shared the same cabinet with the 9-15, but was fitted with the Radiola 25 with the much less satisfactory six tube catacomb.

Do you have the Radiola 28 in your set in working condition? They are really wonderful radios, among the best performing of battery sets. Right up there with the Grebe Synchrophase and the Super Zenith. I actually find the Radiola 28 to be superior to either, though each model will have its partisans.

There is still work to do on the unit. I have the phonograph in good working order, and as mentioned have replaced the grille cloth with the original type and had someone I know talented in such things replace the mostly disintegrate potmetal gears in the mechanism that changes the sound path to the horn between from the phonograph to the radio speaker driver and vice versa. Eventually I would like to get the radio (not currently working) fully restored, but it is hard to find someone here locally I would trust to do it. I had a radio guy in Orlando who is very good, but he is now in ill health and has retired. Some time in the coming year I hope to identify someone really good with radio repair and ship it off to be restored when my budget permits.

Clay

Found a couple more photos on my computer.

Clay