[Jayce]

I found this at an odd little antique shop on my way to check out a large antique mall I had been told about this past weekend. It was the only radio at the whole shop and the price was okay, so I decided to increase my Philco cathedral count up to three. Other than an incorrect grill cloth, it looks complete and in good shape. I actually did run across a model 90 cathedral at the antique mall, but it had seen water and the one side looked a bit like a washboard. Not beyond help, but not worth the $145 being asked for it in my opinion. Though, it was tempting. Here is the little 50.

   

   

[KCMike]

Good find Jayce, I like the styling of that cabinet.

[TimC]

That'll clean-up nice!

[Jayce]

Thanks. It did catch my eye as soon as I saw it sitting in the poorly lit upper floor of the little antique shop. First had to see what it was which is a Philco, then realized I was looking at a 50 instead of a 20 as it was too small to be a 20. Of course getting it into the light and looking at the tag confirmed it. I think the price could have been better on it, but I had no problem whisking it downstairs and purchasing it after seeing it was in decent shape. I am not totally sure about the finish. I might be a redo, but looks old enough to work.

[Arran]

My uncle had a Philco 50 once, he said he was not impressed by it's performance. I do like the cabinet design, and probably would not turn one down for the right price. With regard to the 90, I would go back and have a look at the chassis, if it's a single ended 47 type you might as well pass, if it used dual 45s it's debatable, if it used dual 47s I would see about making an offer.
Regards
Arran

[Radioroslyn]

Agree with Arran on the 50
The performance is not very good and they also like power transformers for lunch. Had one sold it.
Terry

[Arran]

I have a feeling that the 50 was somewhat of a loss leader, that they just offered them to say that they had an entry level model while intending to sell you up to a model 21 or 70. It's a TRF with only two RF amps, a detector tube, and a single ended 47 as well as an 80. On paper it should work all right, I've witnessed six tube TRFs that worked very well with basically the same tube count in the front end, but I haven't known of anyone who was that impressed with a Philco 50 in practice. I guess now you can restore it and find out.
Regards
Arran

[Jayce]

My Mantola 27 is only a five tube TRF and it works quite well with the single 45 output. Though the Mantola used a much bigger speaker than the Philco 50 does and I am wondering if the 50 has the dreaded black speaker cone paper that tightens up like a drum as it ages. I am just glad to find another Philco cathedral that was available. They just are NOT all that available in my region as they sort of got hoarded by collectors early on. (I know where a large batch is at, so there is some fact to my statement) Also, usually people want an arm and a leg for them when they do decided to sell around here. This might surprise some of you, but the model 20 doesn't get great ratings around here performance-wise either. The one I got to hear once it had been fully restored was very grainy on the sound, which had caused the guy to go through it multiple times to figure out just what was going on. Now the ones that surprise me are the four tube models I have, the model 84B and my 37-84B.

[Arran]

The problems I have heard about the model 50 had nothing to do with the audio, grainy sound, or whether the speaker had a stiff spider in it or not, it has to do with the sensitivity. The model 84B and 37-84B were both sets that employed regeneration, using more modern tubes with a higher amplification factor, so it's like comparing apples and oranges. Often there is a lot more to a sets performance then the tubes that are used, the Mantola may use the same tubes but whoever made it may have used a better front end design, same with the Rogers set I heard.
Regards
Arran