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https://ronsradios.com/2022/04/04/the-ce...ss-philco/
Little has been known about what is probably the rarest Philco in existence, the 1933 model 16CPX Century of Progress model. And for good reason - Philco only made 75 of these. This unusual chairside radio with separate speaker was priced at $600 in 1933. For many years, none were known to have survived.
In the latest post on my blog, Ron's Radios (link above), I try to clear up a little bit of the mystery - and present, for the first time in the radio collecting community, actual color photos of a surviving set (with a sincere thank you to the photographer for making this possible).
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Ron Ramirez
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Really interesting article on the history of this set - thank you!
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Ron,
Thanks for that article! That is an amazing set!
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Thank you Ron - most interesting article, an amazing radio and lovely pictures.
What a stylish and, for its time, modern/futuristic cabinet. And with a Model 16 chassis, it would have been a very good performer.
I don't hold with furniture that talks.
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The Philco Gallery entry for the 16CPX is now updated with the new photos:
https://philcoradio.com/gallery2/1933c/#Model_16CPX
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I revised the article with a little additional info. The URL is in the first post, above.
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Ron Ramirez
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Very lovely set !!
But ..... (there's always a "but") .... I wonder why the dissimilar cabinet sizes, particularly with the speaker cabinet being larger when it carried the lesser equipment ....1 - medium size speaker, versus 1 - large chassis.
I have to think that this radio was sold as much to be a decor statement as it was entertainment, so why not the same size cabinets?
.. just curious ...
cheers
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Well,
Let's consider other Philco chairside models that used a separate speaker cabinet.
You will notice that all of them have speaker cabinets that are larger than the chairside radio cabinets. In the case of the 1935 model 16RX, the speaker cabinet is roughly the same size as the 16CPX speaker cabinet. A different style, of course, but still very large.
My opinion is that it was done as much as a fashion statement as it was for sound quality.
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Ron Ramirez
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You are probably right Ron (about the cabinet size). These were obviously luxury items for the extremely wealthy - simply judging by the list price. 'twas ever thus... A regular 16X console was expensive, this was astromomical!
Now, from what I know about open backed speakers, the size of the baffle (cabinet) does affect the depth of bass - larger = deeper to an extent, but it does seem that the show factor is hard at work here, and it was designed for an exhibition after all.
It is still a really great piece of radio history
I don't hold with furniture that talks.
