The PHILCO Phorum

Since I'm posting a few of my radios I thought I'd mention a German set I have. 

I've owned a Telefunken Opus 7 radio in a blond cabinet for quite a few years now. It was recapped about a decade ago and has wonderful FM sound. I listen to it often. A person who loves German radios was talking with me at a local radio show about 5 years back and told me to look for one of the Saba table top radios. He mentioned how nice they were and that they have terrific sound. The problem I soon realized is I never see Saba radios locally. After a couple years I was thinking of possibly buying one and having it shipped.

Very shortly after I found this Saba locally on craigslist at a very low price of $100. The lady knew very little about it, just that it had belonged to her parents and she remembered it since she was a small child. Anyway, it's a very large Saba 410US radio with automatic tuning. This is really a large radio! I brought it up on a variac and it worked but when on automatic it only stopped at a few strong stations. It does have great sound! It's been sitting on a shelf with other unrestored radios for about 3 years now but I look forward to some day having it play again!

Here's a front and rear pic.

[attachment=17107]

[attachment=17108]

Is that Saba larger than the Opus 7?  I have an Opus and it's a fantastic performer.

Craig R

Hi Craig.

Yes the Opus 7 is a great radio and has incredible sound for a tabletop.

Size....
Opus is 26 X 16 X 11deep 34 lbs Original price 519DM
Saba is 28 X 18 X 12deep 52 lbs Original price 1130DM


So a little larger and was quite a bit more expensive when new. The Saba does have 5 speakers and 14 tubes compared to the Opus's 4 speakers and 9 tubes. It also has automatic tuning so you touch a button and it fine tunes the next station on the dial. The auto tuning, extreme high quality speakers and the fact that they are rumored to sound very good makes the Saba very expensive now. I've seen several of the Saba's with the speakers changed or some of the 5 missing and they still seem to do well in auctions.

I'm looking forward to hearing the Saba but both are exceptional radios. As of now the Telefunken is the best I've heard.

You have a beauty, tabletop, those are big, that may be an understatement.

Paul

About half way down the page:

https://www.russoldradios.com/blog/archives/09-2016

(08-29-2018, 07:37 PM)Paul Philco322 Wrote: [ -> ]You have a beauty, tabletop, those are big, that may be an understatement.

Paul

Thank you Paul. I'm looking forward to listening to it!

(08-29-2018, 08:59 PM)Phlogiston Wrote: [ -> ]About half way down the page:

https://www.russoldradios.com/blog/archives/09-2016

Very nice! I've listened to a 300 and 400 automatic in the past and they are great sounding radios. They can fill a good sized room with HiFi sound.

I hope I don't break any dial strings! Luckily I have the plug-in FM decoder but I've read where they are a pain to rebuild. I don't remember if it worked when I tested it as I was just happy the radio was working on the AM and FM bands 

I just found this which is great reading on this radio!!

http://www.radio-antiks.com/IndexRadio-A..._410US.htm

I found this person who is making the FM multiplex decoders that plug right into some of the Saba radios, including the one I have. I found him in a google search but it looks like he is sold out. It looks like some of the Saba repair and sales people in Germany are using this decoder and have good things to say about it. I'll have to ask if he's making more as it would be nice to have the FM stereo working until the original decoder is repaired. I'm going to start on the radio soon and not having to worry about the decoder would be nice. I've read that it is very difficult to get an original working properly

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FM-Stereo-Decod...Sw6MxavQKY

Well I ended up purchasing one of the new stereo FM decoders as I've read good things about them. Now I can rebuild the set without worrying about the decoder not working and will rebuild the original later. The decoders were optional in the Saba sets during the early stereo broadcast years. It seems to be the most difficult thing to get working as the originals are solid state using very early germanium transistors that often develop "wiskers", shorting out the transistors. I know you can zap them with several hundred volts to sometimes get them to work again. I had instead bought rare replacements from France so I could just swap them out. With the new working decoder I can concentrate on getting the rest of the set working well.

Here is the original and new FM stereo decoder. With a couple of easy wiring changes you can also use this decoder in the SABA 300 and 400 automatic sets, as well as a few others.

[attachment=17166]