Just acquired a late 1940s Magnavox AM/SW/Phono Console Today!
 

Hello everyone, today I just got from a buddy at a local antique shop a late 1940s (maybe 1948 or so) Magnavox Model 134H AM/SW/Phono Console that is in near mint condition except for a little damage to the top left hand corner of the cabinet by the lid for the record player compartment, and a bad power cord, the guy is holding it for me until I get a spot cleared out for it in my apartment for it, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures yet, I only had to give $5 for it.

I was curious as to what some of you think of this radio as far as performance goes and if its a unit worth restoring and how does it perform once its been restored, also the record changer in the unit has a 33 1/3 RPM setting on it, is it actually able to play modern LPs on it?

The radio should work better than almost anything new. Possably a LOT better!
You can play LP's. It may have a flip over needle so be sure its set to 33.
I would not play any records of value on it.
BTW if you look for manuals you need chassis numbers. They are on
major assy's TT, radio, amp etc. Newer ones on little tags stuck anywhere.
Dont loose them, they love to jump off.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

Thanks! I know I had a relative that used to work for Magnavox in Fort Wayne years ago.

Up until the 60s a large portion of monophonic cartridges lacked vertical compliance badly enough to damage stereo records...

Well most of the records I would be playing on this unit would be old Columbia 10" LPs from the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s that were designed to be played on a record changer like this, and or mono LPs going clear up to the 1980s.

I picked up the unit yesterday, I have some pictures below so you can see what I have including of the model number tag and the chassis number for the radio, this unit has a place for an optional FM Tuner (which I've seen some of the radios like this online that came from the factory with the FM Tuner installed that would of went in the spot where the blank brass plate above the main tuner is on mine) and I was wondering how easy it would be to located that FM Tuner Module, because I tried searching ebay and I couldn't find anything (although maybe I wasn't using the right search terms.)

For some reason someone in this radio's past replaced the original audio cable for the record player and plugged it into the FM Tuner Audio hookup jack on the back of this unit, rather than plugging it into the Phono Audio hookup on the back, plus the power cord has a small section in it with some missing insulation.

Thanks for your help with this radio, as this will be my first time working on a Magnavox radio this old, as most of the Magnavox Radios I've worked on up until this point were late 1950s or early 1960s vintage.

I tried to remove the chassis out of the cabinet but I can't seem to figure out how to get the chassis out of the cabinet, I'm assuming that by the way the chassis is put together in reference to the cabinet that the chassis is meant to slide out the front of the cabinet but I can't seem to get the mounting nuts on the bottom of the cabinet to budge.

Penetrating oil like PBlaster may help if the fasteners are ceased. If you rounded the nuts go to an auto parts store and look for a set of sockets designed to grip rounded fasteners...I had to buy one a few years ago for a stuck rounded exhaust manifold bold on my Lincoln and it did its job.

May also be it's designed to come out the back. I've got a different chassis Maggie from the late 40s and the front of the chassis has hooks to hold it down and those hooks only allow it to be removed from the back.

Ok, I'll see if I can get a look at the mounting bolts more carefully and see if it's mounted like yours was with hooks or if it was just screws holding it in from underneath.:thmbsp:

I got the chassis out, it was held into place by the two bolts on top of the back and the chassis slid out the back.

the chassis has never had any work done to it except for having the record changer's audio output plug changed at one point in time, in fact this is probably one of the most original looking radio chassis I've seen in a long time. :thmbsp: :yes:

See picture below

I tested a couple of the original paper caps inside the radio chassis and the caps still tested good yet, no leakage or anything.

The only thing that seems to be wrong with it is that I needed to replace the original power cord because it had some spots with broken insulation and exposed wire.

I got the record changer repaired and it works as it should, I have no idea about the cartridge as the original audio cable plug that connected to the phono input on the back of the chassis was cut off and modified so it don't plug into the correct audio input jack on the back (it was plugged into the FM tuner audio jack on the back rather than the Phono input jack.)

The plug I need to get the record changer's audio jack functional again is a two pin version of the plug pictured below, but so far I have not been able to find a plug like it nor have I been able to figure out what the plug is called (e. g. Molex, Cinch/Jones, Switchcraft etc.) and I would like to know if there's a specific name for this style of plug and if so, what it is, and if I can still get some NOS plugs like that yet?

Any help would be appreciated.

Something like this ? :scratch2:

https://www.cvkeyboards.com/products...ker-connectors

Says it’s a Jones plug.

jr

Yep, that's exactly what I'm looking for, I didn't realize they called those Jones plugs as well because I thought that's what they called the plugs that they used on the old Pioneer Receivers from the 1960s and 1970s. :scratch2:

I've ordered some of those plugs. :thmbsp:

The cartridge the changer on this unit uses is a Sonotone 2T Cartridge, which I'm not sure how that compares tracking wise to other mono cartridges as far as being able to track more modern vinyl LPs including stereo ones. :scratch2:

You have the 1947 model called the Berkeley. That AM and SW receiver has a sharp tune function that varies the bandpass by a significantly usable amount. This is a rare feature and makes this a superior SW receiver, while delivering better sound on AM stations allowing the filter (treble) to be varied.

Output tubes 6L6G in push pull will drive those two 12" speakers with 15 watts, according to the sales info I had. It is built like a proverbial brick Scheiss-haus, putting it in league with Fisher and other high-end players.

CR-198B is your chassis - The presets are solid mechanical adjustable like a car radio. An optional CR-206 FM tuner (with its own tuning eye tube) can be installed in a delete plate above the AM-SW escutcheon, though I don't recommend looking for one. The DXing on the AM-SW far outshines the early FM tuner :sigh:

I know - I have one where I recapped the entire chassis and FM chassis as well, that has its own power supply. It is one awesome radio when connected to just a 15 foot antenna, the filter really makes a difference :thmbsp: I had to rebuild the bottom of the cabinet, it was in a flooded basement, then put concealed casters on so I can roll it out on my porch.

Your stock record player may be only 78 rpm, the original in my Berkeley was replaced by a newer Magnavox Custom that played all four speeds. I use a stereo ceramic cartridge that is available from V-M as Pfanstiehl P228-DS73. If you play only 78, this can also replace your Webcor's original crystal cartridge if its shot.

First get the schematic from Riders, or have a good look at all of those cap values, order a replacement of EVERY wax capacitor and EVERY electrolytic. Don't save anything and check the resistors, Magnavox used crappy ones just like RCA that drift high :thumbsdn: blueprint this worthy set by changing out-of-tolerance and wax-bomb caps and you will be very impressed.

Interesting, mine though has a stamp on the back of the chassis that says CR-198 E on it, which I'm not sure what that indicates but I think mine is a slightly later version than yours, also the changer on mine is definitely original to it, and its a 33 1/3 (LP) and 78 RPM only model, its definitely not a later replacement model, from what I can see.

Also This radio has from what I can tell all of its original tubes in it (RCA and Ken-Rad rebadged GE tubes) that all have date codes from 1947 and 1948, which seems to place my unit's manufacture date to 1948 or so.

Anyways I do plan on recapping the radio I was just trying to get a baseline functionality of the unit, because the original cord was bad so I had to replace that, and so far the radio seems to be functioning well with its original capacitors in it right now, but I will definitely replace them.

I think mine is CR-198 E. Both original 6L6 are Ken-Rad (GE). I'm not surprised its playing on original caps either. No RCA or Philco of that vintage would work as found.

That record player is awesome, fine candidate for stereo ceramic cartridge, so you can play stereo records. I think my 48 Windsor has that same RP.

I got the proper audio plug in the mail yesterday and I installed it, but unfortunately there was no audio coming from the cartridge, which I figured out it was because someone screwed with the original tone-arm wire and so I have to install some new wire in the tone-arm. :sigh:

The original cartridge by the way is still good, I tested it for output with my newly acquired EICO VTVM (that I finally found a set of test probes for) and I got a good strong deflection on the VTVM with it set in Ohms. :thmbsp:

Something to consider here, if sorting the wiring in the arm doesn't bring back the sound;

The typical failure of old carts is not that they fail electrically, but physically. Meaning, the soft parts that allow the needle's vibrations to shake the electrical pieces dry out and become solid. If it's a crystal cart the crystals themselves solidify with age, and old magnetic carts don't fare much better. In other words, electrically good is not proof of a working cart, making vibrations into amplifyable electrical representations of sounds is :thmbsp:

I agree continuity isn't a definitive check of a cartridge....However if you read between the lines it sounds like he did an AC voltage test on the cart. If it produces AC voltage in proportion to stylus movement in a groove (or rubbing a finger tip on it...I know it's not the best thing to do) then its at least not dead...
Granted carts do dry out and get into a state where, while not dead, audio distortion is intolerably bad.
The best test is actually listening to it's output.

Does the phono input work? perhaps there was a good reason the plug was changed so that the phono could be plugged into the tuner input.

jr

It seems to, when I hook the phono cable into the phono input and touch the ground lead it does hum.

Apparently when I went to remove the record changer from the cabinet the unit does indeed have its original record changer, but its been modified, the record changer used in this unit is a Webster-Chicago (Webcor) record changer model 256-19 which used its own unique cartridge assembly that had a flip over needle that selection of the proper side of the cartridge/needle was done via a lever on the back of the tone-arm (which that is what's missing/modified on my unit) they replaced the original cartidge (which I'm guessing was probably a high output crystal cartridge of the 3v variety,) which would explain the modification for inputting the phono output into the tuner input rather than the phono input, because the more modern 1V ceramic cartridge like the Sonotone 2T that they used to replace the original cartridge wasn't loud enough to play through the original phono input.

See picture below.