The PHILCO Phorum

I had mentioned in another thread that I picked up a Philco AM/FM receiver recently.

It is a P1002, from the 1966 season.

Two quick photos from the eBay ad:





Pros:
Good looks (yes, the wood cabinet needs to be refinished), compact size, lightweight.

Cons:
Flea powered (the output transistors are just as tiny as the other transistors in the set), and the real kicker...designed for use with 32 ohm speakers.

So...my question to you is...what do you do when you have a pair of 8 ohm speakers and a receiver designed for 32 ohm speakers?

Never mind the low output power...had I known at the time that this receiver was intended for use with 32 ohm speakers, I probably would not have bought it.

Three more pairs of 8-Ohm speakers?

Not many good options for using normal speakers. Requiring 32 ohm speakers was how they could use tiny output transistors without exceeding their low current ratings.

You could connect a 24 ohm resistor in series with each speaker to protect the output stage from over current and dissipation, but unfortunately you will lose 75% of the audio power in the resistor. It certainly won't play very loud.

You also might try a step down transformer to match impedances, but finding something useable might be a problem.

Another possibility would be to use the Philco's outputs to drive an external audio amp capable of driving 8 ohm loads. In effect the receiver would become a tuner-preamp and the output would only be limited by the capability of the external amp. This would most likely give the best quality audio, overcoming the limitations of the flea power internal amplifier.

Ron, if your speakers are two way (woofer and tweeter), pop them open and see how they are wired. If you have a 16 ohm tweeter and a 16 ohm woofer wired in parallel to get 8 ohms, just rewire them in series to give you 32 ohm.

Well, I dunno...I might do something with this, or I might just shelve it and set my sights on a Fisher 175 or Sherwood S-7900 or S-8900 instead (after Christmas).

I used to own an S-8900. Boy, that was a great sounding receiver. When I bought it, its output transistors were blown. I replaced them, and the electrolytic capacitors in the power supply. It then worked great for several years, until the finals blew again, at which point I got rid of it. And I never played it really loud, either.

The S-8900 is FM only; the S-7900 is AM/FM but otherwise identical to the S-8900. 60 watts RMS per channel. I used to run my S-8900 through a pair of B-I-C Venturi tower speakers. I had an omnidirectional outdoor FM antenna on the side of the house where I lived back then, and could pick up FM signals up to 100+ miles away. I could easily hear several Nashville FM stations at my home (at the time) in western Kentucky. (I still have the antenna; I just need to put it back into service here.)

The speakers I have are Radio Shack speakers which were highly recommended by a fellow on the other forum. I have yet to try them out. I have a more modern Sony receiver that I have not used in a long time; it is sitting on a shelf collecting dust right now. I was thinking about selling the Sony since I never use it anymore. I find that I prefer the look of the older analog receivers.

I've heard of blown power output transistors being a common problem with Sherwood amps, I'm not sure in what years and what models though but I guess the S-8900 you owned was one of them. I've never had much interest in audio amps with "sand" in them, all of the ones I have were either garbage picked or hand me downs from someone else.
Regards
Arran