The PHILCO Phorum
Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - Printable Version

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Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - jeibner - 09-23-2024

I'm looking for a museum or other permanent home where I can donate a unique Philco prototype of a very top of the line stereo console that featured electrostatic tweeters, a reverb unit, a very unusual record changer, and a radio receiver configured to allow simultaneous reception of AM on one channel and FM on the other to enable reception of simulcast stereo before stereo FM was approved by the FCC.   Photos and a very complete description of the item and its provenance are provided in the attached pdf.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - GarySP - 09-23-2024

Welcome to the Phorum, jeibner. Several of our members have connections with radio-related museums. I'm sure others will chime in with options to choose from. Sounds like a very interesting, probably one-of system. Take care and BE HEALTHY! Gary

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - MrFixr55 - 09-24-2024

Hi J Eibner,

Welcome to the Phorum.  Lots of Phriendly Pholks with Phine (See a pattern here?) advice.

It is very much a shame that these "home entertainment systems" have gone out of style.  It does look like a quality unit, and I hope you either find a home for it or keep it.

This is rather high end for Philco, RCA, Magnavox, etc. It is just a step below Fisher, Scott, etc.  Is this solid state or tubes?  The provenance, showing that this is one of 3 or 4 protypes is also very neat.

The use of a dual voice coil woofer was quite clever.  Motorola had a similar setup except that they used a higher powered PP 6BQ5 amp to power a "center channel" and 2 lower power single end 6BQ5 amps for the left and right.  I don't think that the center channel was an actual subwoofer with a cutoff at 300Hz like modern systems, I believe that they carried most of the left and right info as a "center channel" and, of course, most of the bass.  there were several schemes for "center channel" back in the early to mid 1960s.

The Satellite speakers are unique.  I have never seen them on American sets as a kid. I did see them on a neighbor's Grundig

The reverb is definitely cool.  Fisher had that option, as did Fender guitar amps, using a similar setup.  In my teen years, my neighbor had a custom console built, having one of the first solid state Fisher stereo receivers, a reverb, Garard changer, Ampex tape recorder and 2 12" Coax University speakers in Bass Reflex cabinets.

I have 4 units that have separately tunable AM and FM sections:
Electrostatic speakers were definitely high end, and still are.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - jeibner - 09-24-2024

It's a vacuum tube set and it's over 60 years old.  My uncle acquired it for my parents when Philco was done with it, and my parents used it for 30 years.   When they gave up their house I took it, but never used it.  It worked when I got it, but I haven't turned it on in decades, so I'm sure the capacitors are gone by now.   I don't know what type of cartridge is in the changer, but if it's crystal that's probably gone as well, and the changer would probably need a really good cleaning before it would work properly.   I really hope to find a permanent home for it.   If I don't, I'll certainly keep it as long as I can, but I'm getting older, and none of my kids or grandkids would have any interest in it. I've written to a radio museum, the Smithsonian, and the now defunct Atwater Kent Museum, but none of them would take it because of its size.

Any suggestions for other possible homes for it would be appreciated.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - RodB - 09-25-2024

We have a regional museum here in the Twin Cities called The Pavek Museum. They have an extensive collection of communication and media equipment. You can contact them through their website. There must be other regional museums.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - GarySP - 09-25-2024

For what it's worth, the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan may be an option.
https://www.thehenryford.org
The obvious issue is its' size and shipping costs. But, nothing ventured ...
Take care and BE HEALTHY! Gary

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - jeibner - 09-25-2024

Thanks for the suggestions.  I'll write to the Henry Ford.   That would certainly make sense since by the time this product reached market Philco would have been part of Ford.  I'll try the regional museum too, but they might not have as much a connection to it.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - morzh - 09-25-2024

>>I'll write to the Henry Ford.

I heard, his secretary answers his mail, not he himself.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - MrFixr55 - 09-26-2024

Given the 1960s vintage, it is likely that the cartridge is ceramic, likely more stable. The changer looks like a Voice of Music. Interesting that it can mix 7, 10 and 12, and change speeds? VoM changers had 2 sensors one came up to sense a record.
The other was triggered as the record dropped. If both sensors were activated, it was a 12" record. If only the sensor that came up to sense a record was triggered, it was a 10" record. If neither, it was a 7" record. I believe the average VoM could intermix 10 and 12"records. This must have had a different sensor, as with the 12" diameter platter, the unit does not have the 10" sensor. I believe that newer VMs with the 12" platter would have only the one sensor. If it was triggered, it was a 12" record, if not, it was a 10 or 7" record. It is likely that setting the speed to 45 rpm dictated the turntable to act as if the record was 7". So this must have had a sensor that measured the size of each record that dropped.

78s came in 10" and 12" size. There were also 7" 78s, mostly children's records. Almost all LPs were 33 1/3RPM and 12". There were "transcription disks" of radio shows that were 16" and would not fit on consumer record changers. So there must have been some real mechanical smarts to determine speed by record size.

All Genie (single play portable) record players, all VoM, Garrard, BSR and Collaro changers of the 1960s vintage in consumer level electronics used a "capstan" drive where a spring loaded rubber wheel, contacted both the motor armature and inner rim of the turntable. These wheels do dry out and the spring tires, causing stalling as the change mechanism operates. the change mechanism is driven by a gear at the center of the turntable. In addition, the grease used to lubricate the mechanism gets hard and becomes glue instead of lube. If the changer is a VoM, the wheel may be available. There is a website for VoM changers that offers advice and some parts.

I do hope that you find a home for it or get it working yourself. I would love to see a schematic or pix of the amp section.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - jeibner - 09-26-2024

It's a Glaser Sears changer which Philco's engineers thought was an upgrade over a VM, but in retrospect I'd prefer the reliability of a VM over any advantages this one has.   The unit really had awesome sound, so the changer may have a lighter tracking weight and better cartridge than a VM, but it turned out to be very unreliable.  The turntable stopped when it was about to drop a record, so the turntable isn't part of the drive mechanism like a VM.   Even when it wasn't so old it often needed a helping hand to get going again, and since the turntable was disengaged, you had to squeeze a finger under the deck and give the mechanism a push.  It only has one device to sense what size the record was.  It works on the same principle that the 12 inch sensor on a VM uses, but the horizontal part is long and slanted so that a 10" moves it a little and a 12" moves it all the way.  You can see it in the photo, but because of the angle it's hard to spot.  It's silver in color and directly in line with the spindle.   It could change speeds from 33 to 44 for a 7", but You had to turn a knob to enable that feature.  I tried it a couple of times, but never had any occasion to want to intermix a stack of LPs and 45s.   In truth, we only used it to play 12" LPs, so all those extra bells and whistles gave us no benefit and just added to the reliability issues. 

I still have some of my own 7" 78 RPM children's records, and I have a few 10" LPs from the late 1940s or early 1950s.  I just recently purchased a newly recorded 12" vinyl and I was surprised to find that was recorded at 45 RPM for improved fidelity on the inner grooves. 

I fixed up my wife's old GE portable stereo for my grandson who likes old things and wants to play vinyl.   It has a VM changer that I needed to take completely apart, clean and lubricate (I learned how on YouTube.)   My friend 3D printed a new capstan with a groove for an O-ring and so far that seems to be working.  I replaced all the capacitors, and the vacuum tube amplifier is now working fine.   It had a crystal cartridge, and like the old capacitors, those don't survive.  I wasted some money on a new old stock one, but it was shot too.  Finally I put a ceramic in and made a little transistor pre-amp to bring it up to the same output level as the original crystal.  The whole thing works now.  I hope it holds up.

I have no desire to fix up the huge Philco.  Nobody in my family has any interest in it, and it will end up in the trash when I'm gone if I can't find it a home.

RE: Looking for place to donate unique Philco Philco J-1930 Prototype - MrFixr55 - 09-27-2024

Thx for the description. I thought that it had to have a single 10 - 12" Sensor.
Congrats on restoring the GE and VM changer. Back in the 70s and 80s, both radio Shack and Lafayette sold a small packaged preamp for magnetic cartridges.
I did that on a couple of friends' console phonos, replacing the ceramic or crystal with a Shure M3D or M7D cartridge. Big improvement ofver a ceramic and extremely big improvement over a Crstal cartridge. (Lafayette's main store and clearance center was within bicycle distance from my home, what fun!!)

See if Salvation Army or St Vincent DePaul will accept it as a donation. SVDP sells furniture and the profits go to their charitable programs. Mine had a Fisher console. Unfortunately, I had neither the room nor the money for it (They knew what it was worth and it did sell.