The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This turned up at a local auction yesterday. I seem to attract these big machines (some psychological problem, I'm sure- no comments on that please!!). There was also a nice VV-130 and a bunch of phonos that were obviously left in a leaky bldg. Most were beyond repair.

I bid against a furniture dealer who later told me he would not have done any restoration, just flipped it for a profit, so I was glad I was persistent and won it. There are many missing parts but I think it will be worth restoring. As with the other late Victor's I've acquired, I'll need some help with the electrical stuff but met a person at the auction who said he would help.

Anyway, the cabinet was so nice I couldn't let it become a wine rack or cupboard. It was also announced that this machine was once owned by a famous person but no documentation was offered. Did Victor keep any records of sales on the more exotic machines that might point me in the right direction??

Steve

Its a beauty and would be nice to hear play again.

Steve,

Nice find!

It looks like you have all the hard to find parts, usually the radio is gone. You have the volume control, and transfer switch, again hard to find parts. If the amp & speaker are missing
they aren't that hard to find, motor and TT won't be too much problem either.

Usually you find these with the legs cut off and converted to a storage cabinet.

Early units used the cone speaker similar to the RCA model 100 speaker, later ones used the model 104 electrodynamic speaker, much better sounding unit.


Chuck

The Hyperion is a really handsome machine and the cabinet looks to be in really nice condition.

Clay

LFTD says this big bad boy sold for $900 in 1926/1927. Dat's a lot of lettuce!

What a glorious machine. So good to know it will be valued and restored!

ChuckA wrote:Steve,

Nice find!

Early units used the cone speaker similar to the RCA model 100 speaker, later ones used the model 104 electrodynamic speaker, much better sounding unit.


Chuck

There was a span in serial numbers that were built with the electrodymic loudspeaker. But then around serial number 2000 they switched
back to the cheap permanent magnet speaker. Would be interesting to know which speaker you have..

Jeff

This one has the "cheap permanent magnet speaker", or at least the remains of one. The antenna was also out of the unit and in some disrepair, but at least it is all there (I think). The main missing parts are the turntable and motor, plus the amp looks fried. The back is also gone but I have something that'll work.

It'll be a while before it is restored since I will depend on others to do a lot of the work on this one. As Chuck said, most of the critical parts are there so we'll see how it goes. I have a gent who volunteered to come over, he's a member of the Houston Vintage Radio Assoc., to help me hook up the 10-69 and 9-55 that've been sitting silent, so I'll ask him to take a look at the Hyperion to assess what he recommends

Steve

Retrograde wrote:LFTD says this big bad boy sold for $900 in 1926/1927. Dat's a lot of lettuce!

Indeed! North of $11,000 in current dollars per the government's CPI Inflation Calculator!

Clay

Nice buy Steve. Glad you picked it up. You know it would have been stripped if that furniture buyer got his hands on it.