Scott Philharmonic - Printable Version
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Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-28-2020
Given that my business is shut down and I'm sequestered for a while, I decided to work on this. I bought it on the auction I talked about on a different thread. This is a 1939 or 1940 "Beam of Light" EH Scott Philharmonic in a Scott Wellington cabinet with phono. The Philharmonic is a 30 tube radio with audio expander and phono scratch suppressor. It has 2 RF stages and 4 IF stages. The bandwidth of the IF is variable from very selective (a bit less than 4kHz) to very wide (about 12 kHz). The RF bandwidth also widens at a certain point as the selectivity is widened out. Reception is from "long wave" (150 kHz) trough the "apex" band up to 60 mHz. Sensitivity is also variable. The output is PP via 4 6L6's, a 15" Scott (Magnavox) pedestal speaker and 2 PM tweeters. It cranks! Half of the caps had been replaced with Solar Brand, so it must have been some time ago. Most of them were OK. I restuffed all the rest of the original caps. The E caps were replace with strapped in caps of incorrect values. I restuffed the electrolytics with caps of closer original values and got rid of the strapped in caps. Most of the resistors were within tolerance, but I did replace a few. The candohm voltage divider had been replaced with a makeshift voltage divider. However, the values were all wrong and the HV, which is supposed to be at 250V was at 220V. Replacing those resistors with proper values brought that back into range. There are 4 "C" voltages that are fairly critical to proper operation so I had to tweak the negative supply voltage divider a bit to get things into spec. The volume control had been replaced with a non-tapped control. Mark Oppat was able to supply me with the proper value control. the tap really improved the bass response. Thank you Mark!
It was fun doing the alignment given the variable bandwidth IF. For proper sound it's fairly critical that the sides of the IF waveform be fairly symmetrical and fairly flat on the top. Using a spectrum analyzer gave a very graphical picture. Hitting a reasonable compromise between selectivity and symmetrical broadband was fun. I went through the process no less than 4 times experimenting with different settings. Gaining experience and knowledge of how each control in the 4 IF transformers affects the curve allowed me to settle in on what I think, is a great result. Complicating matters is the fact that Scott used both an RF and an IF AGC. IF AGC voltage had a tendency to vary the response curve of the IF so I determined the most common IF AGC voltage and nailed the IF AGC to that setting. Then I was able to set the IF transformers to the best curve. The spectrum analyzer was invaluable in this. Final results are awesome. Highly selective and sensitive, yet wide bandwidth (though not as sensitive as high selectivity) provides HiFi audio as good as my Scott 16A FM, if not better.
Finally, after re-gluing many loose joints, I installed the radio in its previously refinished cabinet. That, of course, increased the bass response tremendously. I've been listening to it now for about 3 hours playing all kind of music via my HiFi "transmitter" with signal coming from my computer. It is the best sounding radio I have, without a doubt. Better than my Masterpiece VI. The radio is incredibly sensitive, as one would expect with 2 RF stages. I think I'm going to be happy with this radio. If the AM/FM Philly I bought from Ron comes up to this standard, I will be very pleased as FM would be great! The Garrard turntable is the next project.
A couple of pics:
RE: Scott Philharmonic - mikethedruid - 03-28-2020
WOW ! Just, WOW ! beautiful radio, beautiful job. Congratulations.
RE: Scott Philharmonic - Eliot Ness - 03-29-2020
Beautiful radio
Thanks for the pictures!
RE: Scott Philharmonic - RadioSvit - 03-29-2020
Great job, Rob.
I dream of such a radio. I have a Scott Phantom chassis and I can't find the time to rebuild it. Maybe now I'll find out during quarantine. 
But I was surprised by the fact that your Scott Philharmonic manned Gerard player. Is this the original? Did they ship to the United States from the United Kingdom?
By the way ... I have a Gerard RS 75, a wonderful thing. ..
RE: Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-29-2020
The Garrard is not original. I'm not sure what would have come with the radio. Kent or David on the EH Scott forum would probably know. I believe that Garrard is 50's vintage. Someone with more knowledge on these things can correct me! Since this is in it and is somewhat "vintage", I'll stick with it. My understanding is that this turntable is a fairly good one from its era.
Rob
RE: Scott Philharmonic - RadioSvit - 03-29-2020
Thank you . Rob. I never thought Gerard could be applied to Scott Philharmonic.
What do you think - the cabinet here is original? And what manufacturer is it?
RE: Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-29-2020
The cabinet is an EH Scott Wellington as per Jim Clark's "EH Scott Radio Collectors Guide". Jim Clark was actually at the auction when I purchased the two Philharmonics and said it is an original Scott cabinet. I believe the Scott cabinets that were offered at the time were manufactured by a company called Rockford. They were in the Chicago area where EH Scott was located. So, the cabinet is an original Scott but I'm not sure it is original to this radio. The tuner chassis hangs out the back of the cabinet by about 1/2 inch. The amplifier/power supply chassis needs to be turned 180 degrees from Scott's recommended installation because the plug connections would otherwise butt up against the speaker, causing the chassis to hang over the edge as well. As often happened with these custom radios, the radio was purchased without cabinet and then installed in a non Scott cabinet. Potentially, this Philharmonic was installed in the Scott Wellington cabinet at a later date. There is just no way of really knowing. In addition, over the years, many Scott tuner chassis were mated with a different amplifier/power supply. This power supply has what appears to be a serial number written on the inside of the chassis that is different than the Tuner serial number. Kent on the EH Scott forum says this is not unusual. All in all, I feel fortunate to own it and am very pleased with the way it performs.
RE: Scott Philharmonic - RadioSvit - 03-29-2020
Thanks for the helpful info , Rob.
RE: Scott Philharmonic - morzh - 03-29-2020
Super gorgeous set.
RE: Scott Philharmonic - mikethedruid - 03-29-2020
You've inspired me. I will have to get working on my Scott SLR-M soon. It isn't nearly as pretty, it is a marine radio, built to be used as a general coverage receiver on ships, but it a Scott, built by Scott Radio Labs, the successor to the old E. H. Scott company during WW2. More information about it can be found here: http://www.imradioha.org/scott_labs.htm
RE: Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-29-2020
Mike, I have a SLRM that I bought from Ron. There is a thread here on it. They are built like a tank!
RE: Scott Philharmonic - PhilcoJohn - 03-30-2020
WOW! What a set! I sure bet it rattles the windows. Good luck with it and thanks for posting pictres of that beautiful console.
RE: Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-30-2020
Completely disassembled the Garrard yesterday. Cleaned all the old oil and grease out, relubed with light oil and Lubriplate (don't know if that's good stuff to use!), and re-assembled. It all works with a little help. Need to refurbish the idler wheel. Any good sugestions?
RE: Scott Philharmonic - KCMike - 03-30-2020
If the idler wheel has no flat spots you could try some rubber renew on it.
You can get a rebuilt one from here if needed.
https://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/
RE: Scott Philharmonic - rfeenstra - 03-30-2020
I've been on the Vof M website and will send it there if I'm not successful in rejuvenating the rubber.