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Now I know - Printable Version

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Now I know - Ian M. Gordon - 04-22-2015

What all the fuss is about.


Visited a mentor and friend's curated collection recently and heard what I had heard are two of the best radio's of the entire era. The statement true. They are the 2nd version of the Philco 16B and the 37-690. 

The 16B. My goodness what a rich powerful sound. It is just about everything in a table radio. The output power and sound quality puts others to shame and more importantly, the speaker, almost too big for the cabinet, practically blew me out of the front due to it's output capability. The fit, finish and chassis engineering never ceases to impress. It is also one of the most beautiful that I have studied. That radio is very elusive. And when they do surface on ebay, they are either overpriced, refinished wrong and questionable in terms of technical maintenance. 

The 37-690 is a masterwork. I have operated and worked with audio and radio gear for the 25+ years of my career and I was not prepared to hear one of the best AM receivers of any time. Frequency response and bandwidth spread as good or better than any pro monitor made today for AM. The output power is so strong that you can put the thing in a club, play songs with your transmitter and be none worse the wear. They thought of everything with the tweeters and acoustic clarifiers and the chassis is fascinating. As I sat in front of it listening to Dawn Upshaw and big bands I turned to my friend and said that this radio moves out of the realm of the consumer and into the professional. His response was that this product almost killed the company. The consoles that came later, although sounding excellent in a different frequency balance, doesn't approach the bandwidth of this at least from my exposure thus far. Owning both is a microcosm of the era. My search for both continues.

Ian M. Gordon
NEARC
HARPS

RE: Now I know - Paul Philco322 - 04-26-2015

As someone once told me "do not underestimate the electronics of the golden era". Every generation thinks they are more advanced than the previous because they do not "know". Most people think of AM radios as cheesy little plastic things from K Mart. They have not listened to a symphony on a Phine Philco, Scott, or Stromberg. If they knew they would give more credit to and understand why Radio ruled for 30 odd years. You are a lucky one. Sounds like a Yodaism....

Paul

RE: Now I know - Ian M. Gordon - 04-26-2015

Beautiful sir.

RE: Now I know - Fred Taylor - 04-26-2015

You are right Mr. Gordon, when I had finished my 16b and sat back to listen to it I was amazed at the power and beautiful sound it had, its a true master piece. Here are a few pics of mine. I mite add that 2 of the 16b,s are at an auction coming up and will try and get both of them to do full restore on them , one is an early and other is the later version, pretty rough but are restorable.

RE: Now I know - PhilcoJohn - 04-27-2015

Fred, Nice 16b ..I have one in my collection and its is a great radio! Mine is a early radio with the same cabinet but with the knob on the back to fine tune your station in.

RE: Now I know - morzh - 04-27-2015

I will eventually have two: one's Ron's and one is the cathedral I have yet to tackle.

RE: Now I know - TA Forbes - 05-04-2015

Ahhhh...... I currently have 8, although two of them are at my friend Henry Harmony, a Great American, 's house. 

I had 9 but restored a 16B Cathedral I found last summer and gave it to my parents.  

RE: Now I know - Ian M. Gordon - 05-04-2015

Thank you Fred. I find it interesting that the finish on yours looks like ash black which adds something. In looking at your well cleaned and worked on chassis, I am wondering if the speaker is original? And with apologies to the webmaster, I am very looking to acquire the second version at some point from someone.

Ian M. Gordon
NEARC
HARPS

RE: Now I know - Fred Taylor - 05-04-2015

The speaker is original and the main part of cabinet is extra dark walnut which could have been maybe a notch darker.The inside if cabinet was lightly bead blasted because it was real nasty, painted a flat black lacquer. Not factory buts looks nice 

RE: Now I know - TheUniversalDave1 - 05-09-2015

Fred, your 16B is magnificent! I got the same one today, but it's in pretty tough shape. Hopefully, I will eventually get it that nice. But probably not for a few years.