Well, Duh!
 

I listen to my 60's SONY portable several hours every day. Despite it's age and design, it's easy on batteries. Today I noticed the audio was becoming rather distorted and thought to myself "ancient caps dying". Nope...ancient batteries dying! The last time I put batteries in this thing was the beginning of last Summer. I pulled out the old D cells and they measured less than 1 volt each!

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...3&d=1253796925

Cray-Zay!

Nice radio Celt! Does it perform well after all these years?
-Tony

Yep Tony, it really does. It's become a bit flaky on AM/SW and will emit a slow, low-frequency pulse if it can't capture a weak signal. Otherwise, it still performs quite well...especially on fresh batteries! :rolleyes: It has excellent fidelity thru it's 4x6" speaker and Sony was kind enough to add jacks for an external antenna, 6 volt DC in, multiplex out, earphone out, tape out and line/tape level in.

Sony always knew what they were doing w/this kind of radio...Too bad there isn't a market for them anymore...Don't even mention those horrid Kaito/Tecsun/Whatever abombinations, either...They're not even close to being in the same league as the Sonys...

That chrome you see on the radio isn't plastic either. It's honest to gosh heavy cast metal, front and back!

just imagine, if you will, an age not so terribly long ago, in a galaxy not so terribly far away, when appliances like that were ment to L.A.S.T.

I have that guy's Big Brother, a CRF-230 from 1970 that has served me well thru McCallie, Univ of Richmond, etc. Built to last ? Yeah, I guess 38 years of service would qualify...

AFAIK, this one is 43 years old.

Very nice. I like that you use it every day. I have a Panasonic RF-2600 that I use every day, and have for many years. I'm getting nostalgic these days, however, and have "rediscovered" vintage radios. When I was a kid, my dad had a Zenith T-O 1000, and a Zenith Royal 50. These were new at the time, and my brothers and I would use them every chance we could. I think I'll have to find a nice T-O and put it back into service, and give the Panasonic a rest!

Chief

A good set of alkaline batteries should last months or even years (!) in a Zenith T-O, since these sets had extremely low current drain. I have a T/O 1000 I got on ebay two years ago or so that is only on its second set of batteries. I'd probably still be using the first set if a short in the AC adapter jack hadn't drained the life out of them (and caused them to get so hot I thought the battery box would melt or, Heaven forbid, start a fire).

I also have a Zenith R-70 AM/FM nine-transistor portable, another ebay score a while ago, that likewise is still on its second set of batteries and still sounding great. The R-70 is from 1980, with the circuitry mostly on a PCB rather than a steel chassis and socketed transistors, but the set still has that great Zenith sound--even with its 4" speaker. They don't make them like that anymore. IMHO, any old Zenith radio from '50s to '70s vintage will run rings around the small, cheap one-chip gutless-wonder portables found in discount houses today.

I want one of those!

That would be a great little radio.