1951 Crosley Model 11-119U Radio
 

Hello everyone, Saturday I went to my local Antique mall and was looking around and I spotted an old 1950s vintage AA5 radio on a shelf that was a light blue color and was in pretty decent shape yet for its age (minus a little dirt on the cabinet) so I picked it up and sure enough it was an old Crosley which I thought was kind of interesting because I've never seen an original Crosley Radio from the 1950s in person before (that's how rare the original Crosleys are) and to be exact it was a 1951 Crosley Model 11-119U which from what little research I was able to do on the 11-11xU line series of radios they were given away for free with the purchase of a Crosley Refrigerator back in the day and "light blue" colored one like I found was referred to as Smoke Blue colored and was actually rarest of the 11-11xU series of radios because of the fact that the Smoke Blue units were made specifically as the promotional models whereas the other models (the 11-115U-118U models were actually made as regualar retail models as well that could be bought at the store making them more common.) Anyways my unit for some reason had a large cotton ball glued to the back of the speaker for some reason when I got it and when I took it apart to check the unit out (it was sold "as is" not working) I had figured out that the 12AV6 tube was missing for some reason so then I installed a 12AV6 tube into the empty socket and powered the unit on and sure enough it powered on albeit with an incredibly loud hum, So I shut the unit down and unplugged it and figured out that I needed to replace the power supply caps (which the unit is actually now on its third round of power supply filter caps because the original caps had already been replaced previously at least 30+ years ago as it had an old Pyramid 40 + 40 @ 150 Volts electrolytic cap in there that was obviously not original as the "mounting bracket" for the replacement cap was soldered onto the old filter caps mounting bracket that had previously been cut off at the chassis), And I replaced the old replacement cap with a replacement cap I had laying around in an old radio I had previously recapped but then failed to opoerate properly inspite of the recap so it was then used as a parts unit.

Anyways once I replaced the old power supply caps with my new ones I had the unit powered up nicely and played perfectly except that for some reason when I removed the old cottonball out of the back of the speaker the speaker started "rattling" when it was pushed past a certain volume level so then to stop the "rattling" I ended up stuffing another cottonball into the back of the speaker which has of course muffled the speaker so that now its not as loud as its supposed to be.

Anyways what I'm curious about is what would be causing the speaker to "rattle around" when its pushed past a certain volume level? And why would a cottonball shoved into the back of the speaker fix this particular ailment?

Also is it true what I had read (and also mentioned earlier in the post) that original Crosleys are extremely rare and highly sought after?

Original Crosley radios are not all that rare. I've owned at least 3 in the past decade, and have passed by god knows how many at radio club swap meets and antique shops.
They were not the biggest brand, but there were MANY contemporary outfits that were much smaller that are still reasonably easy to find examples of. Of course within a brand some models will be more common due to higher original sales/production.

interesting, I wonder why I've never seen any original Crosleys before until this one, if they're as common as you say they are? The only Crosleys I've ever seen were the reproduction ones before but never original ones up until I found this one at the antique mall recently. And why would it be that most of the radio collector sites I saw that had Crosleys and in particular this model listed said that this particular Crosley that I have was a pretty rare model then?

Most fridge models ARE much rarer than most regular ones. Either you you don't get out to enough radio rich places (like radio collector swap meets), or you are in a region where they did not sell well. :dunno: A brands presence in an a geographical area is proportional to their representation among local merchants, and their relative sales compared to other brands. Good case studies are Packard Bell, and Andrea brands. Packard Bell was a west coast brand, and they are very common in California and surrounding states, but once you get out towards the Midwest they are very rare to find in the wild (I've only ever seen two of their later offerings in person here, and none prior to the last 5 years). Andrea was an east coast brand IIRC and most of their offerings show up there. Even big national brands like Zenith and Philco have regions and pockets where they outsold all the other brands 10-1 or other brands outsold them by that amount.

Go to the big nationally attended radio swap meets like ARCI's Radiofest, MARC's Extravaganza, or Kutztown regularly for a few years if you want a good feel for what brands are out there and how common they are.

I don't live near an area where there are Radio swap meets, and besides I can't drive outside a 50 Mile radius of where I live so no I don't and can't get out to Radio Swap meets. The only places I frequent are local antique shops and flea markets (and when Goodwill and Salvation Army used to carry vintage electronics those places as well) but the vintage and antique radio/TV market in my area has pretty much dried up since the DTV Transition (basically right after the DTV Transistion happened everyone in my area tossed their old TVs and or old Radios to the curb and the ones that were sensible enough to do so brought their old Radios and TVs to the local thrift stores like Goodwill or Salvation Army or even the locally owned Mennonite run Thriftstore in town) but then all of the aforementioned Thrift stores (except Salvation Army) stopped accepting electronics (except for the occasional clock radio which aren't neccesarrily vintage) so the only places left I can go to around where I live to find any vintage electronics are the local antique malls and flea markets and even then those places tend to over charge for their vintage or antique electronics if they do have any, case in point there is a local antique mall near me that has a booth in it that mostly specializes in primitives but they just so happen to have a late 1930s Philco Console Radio in their booth that is in absolutely horrible shape (the cabinet needs refinishing, its missing its preset buttons dial glass is missing, and speaker grill cloth is damaged) and they want $350 for the dumb thing which is way too much in my opinion for a radio in such ratty condition, there was even a booth in the same mall that had an early 1960s vintage stereophonic suitcase record player that wasn't even in that good of shape (the vinyl wrapping around the case was peeling off and the grill cloth on the speakers was soiled really badly and a few other issues with it) and he was wanting over $100 for it (which is also too much in my opinion.) So see where I live vintage and antique electronics are a scare comodity (I don't come across them very often and if i do they're either over priced or they're in horrible condition or both.) And even if I do come across anything its usually never brands like Crosley, or Philco, or Atwater Kent or Capehart, or anything like that. The only brands I've ever come across were usually Magnavox, Zenith, Arvin, Silvertone, RCA or GE, but even then they were usually the crappy models (either solid state or very late tube electronics never any of the early stuff.) The only exception to what I stated above was when I found at the same antique mall that had the aforementioned overpriced radios and record players I had found a 1937 Vintage Delco radio for $10 that was complete except for the cabinet was in horrible condition (it was water damaged and the veneer was peeling and chipped and the original cord was dry rotted) but even then that radio I had to give up on because the cabinet was too far gone to save and I didn't want to be holding onto a radio chassis that I might never find another cabinet for, so I just scrapped it out.

Rattling speaker
 

The rattling sounds may be caused by the speaker or the cabinet. In either case, the cotton pad is damping the sound and so helps some.
I would try to separate the speaker and the cabinet. If the distortion ceases, it was something vibrating in the enclosure.
Or it may be the speaker... maybe you can try with another one.
Remember your chassis is AC/DC, so don´t touch it while the AC cable is connected (or use an isolating transformer). Unless the chassis is made from bakelite, like your Westinghouse. Anyway, it is not safe to touch anything metallic (speaker, control axles, IF transformer screens) unless the power cable is disconnected. Reattach the knobs to the controls to be able to operate the radio safely.
If the cabinet is not guilty and you get distortion with another speaker, we are dealing with some amplifier trouble, keep us posted.

Well I tested it out again in the cabinet and it seems that the rattling noise it made before without the cotton ball in the back of the speaker had settled down a bit (its not nearly as noisy as it was before) but it still rattles around a bit none the less which I'm wondering if it might the cabinet because the speaker isn't attached to the cabinet its attached to the chassis so maybe the speaker is rattling against the cabinet since its just sitting up against the cabinet and not attached to it...

Well, I would try to mechanically damp the space between the front of the speaker and the cabinet. Maybe something like a rubber ring. Most speakers had some form of cushioned ring around the mounting surface, but on an old set they may be missing or became hardened.
These are the times I regret the old mouse pads went the dodo´s way after the modern optical mouse came out.
Those pads were great because when one needed some flexible, damping, isolating material, you could cut them into any shape. (In my country the hardware stores are not as well stocked as they should, and one has to improvise :D. Maybe you can get something better off the shelf.)

That's certainly possible but I've had a couple of these and both had issues with the speaker. I just swapped it out with another 4" from the parts box and they played fine. I'm thinking they just used a really cheap speaker on these which is odd because the larger Crosley Coloradios, of this same vintage, had very decent speakers in them.

yeah, I noticed that the speaker inside this radio is what appears to be an el-cheapo 4" electromagnetic speaker with 3 1/4" on center screw holes and untreated paper cone. anyways the speaker just seems to be able to be easily replaced with a modern electromagnetic speaker (no special plugs or output transformers attached to the speaker) I have an old 1970s vintage stereo portable 8-Track player that had built-in speakers and the speakers in the cabinet seem to be the same size and wattage/impedance rating as the original speaker in this radio so I think I might steal a speaker out of the 8-Track player (its a junk unit anyhow as it had a bad volume control which was one of those slider type controls which are NLA) and stick that speaker in the radio and see what happens.

I found it amazing to see a radio that new to use an electrodynamic speaker.
The speaker frame is even stamped "Crosley". Not a rubber stamp, but a stamp in the steel, so evidently Crosley made the speaker themselves.
If you change the speaker, the filtering supply has to be changed to an R/C network, with higher value electrolytics, in order to use a PM speaker.

Or buy an audio transformer.

It does have an output transformer in it, its mounted to the bottom of the chassis though.

The field coil is in the power supply, not in the audio circuit. :boring:

Learn sumpthin' new every day seems like. I never before seen a radio with this tube lineup using an ED speaker. Had to look it up. Sure enuff, tis true. And it shows the alternate (standard) layout using a permanent magnet speaker (and higher value filter caps).
http://www.nostalgiaair.org/pagesbym...1/M0003211.pdf

Yeah it shows a Permanant Magnant Speaker as being the default wiring of the speaker set up, and I think my radio has a permanant Magnet Speaker in it currently (I just got the wording mixed up) so I think my radio should already be setup for a permanent magnet speaker, all I have to do is just get another one (salvage the one from the aforementioned junk 8-track player) and I should be all set.

I looked my Crosley. A model D10WE. It has a fancier cabinet and a pointer dial. This is the one with the field coil speaker. Another strange thing is that it has the standard miniture tube line-up, 12BE6, 12BA6, 50C5 and 35W4, but the 1st AF, detector is a 12SQ7GT with a shield. Go figure!
I have 3 Crosley radios with this line-up. :scratch2:

So by the looks of the schematic my radio is already set up to take a permanent magnet speaker (that's basically what's in there right now) so basically all I have to do is get the PM speaker out of that old junker 8-Track player and install it into my Crosley radio and it should be good to go without any sort of modification needing to be done to the radio.

That's exactly what I would do! :thmbsp:

Thanks, for the help. :)

I'm actually trying to get around a few radios so that I can go into business with a local flea market that a good friend of mine runs that he told me he would help me sell some of my radios that I restore and then in turn I could have a repair shop inhouse with him where I would repair any old radios and record players that he gets so that he can sell them. I would be getting paid of course to do this. :thmbsp::yes:

I changed out the speaker on this radio and now it works perfectly! No buzzing or crackling noises out of the speaker. :thmbsp: