Califone on Rick's Restorations
 

As usual, when I watch these "made for TV" antique shows, I almost want to throw up. Tonight was no exception.

Someone brought in a Califone tube record player/PA system for Rick to restore. Rick was saying 1960's; but, it's actually a '50's model. The owner said that when he plugged it in, the thing smoked. Rick immediately quoted him $1600 to restore it. The owner questioned this price and Rick gave him some line of BS about the tubes being hard to get and cost between $50 and $300 per tube. Now, you and I both know that these record players use common tubes that are not that hard to find or terribly expensive.

When they opened it, I saw what looked to be a burned power resistor that they were calling a capacitor.

When he came to pick up the record player, Rick only charged him $800 because "the damage wasn't as bad as he thought." He did say that he had to replace the speaker and some of the tubes were hard to find. For the cosmetics, they stripped off the old case covering and painted the case some hideous green.

For that amount of money, he could have found some decent looking case covering and done a full restoration on the amp and drive mechanism. Also, in real life, most people would have a hard attack if you quoted them $300, let alone $1600.

Now, you'll suddenly see these listed on ebay for insane prices after people saw one on TV.

My worry is people will now think a box of junk tv tubes is worth the price of a small car!

Don't knock it; small cars can be expensive!

I never considered the effect on selling things :)

Hehehehehehe... Somebody oughta tote a Merrill in there & have him struggle w/IT..Oh, well, they prolly have a staff for the show that weeds out "Ringers", though.

I've seen that in some junke/anti-Q stores for years...

Also fro years color H output tubes cost a fortune from reputable vendors because of illegal CB boosters and audio perverts.

Everything shown on TV is fake.... even sometimes the news we watch.

Lol audio perverts - I would build an OTL amp with them myself if
They were cheap enough, why not

I still remember that Predicta "restoration" they did a year or two back. Ooops...sorry...I'm about to lose my breakfast.

That term is borrowed from one that goes to the local radio club meets...It's far from my primary interest and I don't particularly like being labeled one (especially by the ignorant), but I can't deny that audiophile stuff is an aspect of my hobbies.

You would be better off with 6AS7/6080, 10/6JA5, or 12B4 types than the horizontal deflection types for an OTL....They are cheaper and you would need less of them to properly match impedance of a normal speaker. The first type I'm using in my OTL project because I can get them for 5$ a piece from a vendor I know. I'm building a 4 channel amp with 4 tubes per channel, and a provision to take the outputs from the unused channels in stereo mode and add them in parallel to the active channels to increase power output. The unit sounded better than any amp I've heard when I had it working on only two channels, and 3 outputs per channel...But that was the best it could do thanks to the lousy power supply (I resolved to make it from junk I had on hand with the exception of the cabinet, tubes and a few small parts) limiting the number of tubes and power it could support. By next weekend I should have sufficient parts to finally get it to the goal I set for it at the start of the project (4 channels @ >7W per channel before clipping).

What circuit did you use ? I was thinking a circlotron with 6C33s when I looked into it about ten years ago, but the complex power supply requirements and lack of reliable tube options put me off it.

Reverse connected Futterman (sometimes called the Technics futterman)...It yields the lowest output impedance of any topology that I know of. I considered 6C33 tubes last year in the design/prototype stage (I don't think I found a type better electrically suited to the task), but abandoned the idea because I could not find a remotely reasonable price from any source that had some...From what I've read they used to be cheap and plentiful, but are now scarce and costly.
I was able to achieve +-60V output supply rails with a 60V secondary of a transformer, a doubler circuit, and a lot of filtering....The only problem was the transformers and the grid bias circuits tended to sag under load. I have plans to remedy it with beefier transformers I have laying around, and linear regulators which should arrive within the week.
If you have a decent amount of tube and SS power transformers on hand it is doable to build a supply from junk....The only difficult part is finding a beefy enough filament transformer for most output tube compliments. 6AS7 tubes use 2.5A @ 6.3V so my unit takes 11A @ 12V from 2 12V windings of a transformer whose secondary windings are composed of wire thicker than the wiring in the walls of my house.

FWIW, car battery charger transformers work pretty well for filament supply, placing the 6.3 volt tubes in pairs across the 24 v center-tapped secondary.

I had a Schumacher charger that had some malfunction with the regulators. A guy at work was building a tesla coil with #833 tubes requiring lots of heater current, and it worked out well.

UGH! I saw the episode. I could not believe the BS Rick was feeding the dude concerning tubes. I did NOT like the "after".....

The Califone players aren't that exotic. Likely $125-$150 to do a really proper restoration electronically and mechanically. No more than $200.

Doesn't Antique Radio Supply sell the covering for those ? (Or something very close...)

I always wondered why my 6-amp car battery charger can power a high-beam headlight, drawing only about half its available power whereas the same load kicks in the protection circuit of my 12-amp constant/14-amp surge 13.8 volt power supply.

For the sake of conversation I'm tempted to ask "What the heck is Rick's Restorations" but fear the "google it" response. :D I don't have TV service.

Good lord, (having never seen it) does this show's entertainment value pivot on the taking advantage of people? Folks balk when I quote $175 to restore something like that.