[Ron Ramirez]

I'm copying the following from comments I made in Doug's thread about his Philco 37-650 radio-phonograph, since they pertain to this Magnavox:

The very first radio I ever acquired was the chassis and speakers of a Magnavox CR-181. This was back in 1974 when I was 14, and had at that time only begun to be aware of the vintage radio hobby through Jim Fred's articles in Elementary Electronics magazine.

Last year I stumbled across a Magnavox Belvedere. At least I thought it was a Belvedere. It did not have a CR-181 inside, but a newer chassis. I passed even though it was only 20 bucks. My wife Debbie, who was my fiancee at the time, wanted me to get it. So we went back later, and of course it was gone. I had passed on it because I didn't think we had the room for it, not because of the price.

Since then I have seen someone's Magnavox on YouTube, which has a CR-154 chassis (which looks like a CR-181 to me) in a cabinet similar to the Regency Symphony. It has an instruction manual with it, and the manual refers to it as a Belvedere. This cabinet looks nothing like what I thought a Belvedere looked like. I had seen a photo in Billboard magazine many years ago of what they called a "Belvedere." Now I'm curious as to whether that was a Belvedere or not.

Here's the YouTube video, where the guy shows the owner's manual:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX-PdYn1Vw8
The changer in this set looks like a Webster 56.

A short time back, after I had recovered from my surgery, I found this Regency Symphony on Craigslist in Indianapolis. It cost me $30 plus gasoline.

Mine has the CR-188A chassis, AM/SW, no FM. It has a space in the cabinet under the main tuner for the optional FM tuner, but does not have the FM tuner. I would be interested in finding one of these tuners. It has a separate AMP-101 amplifier, using four 6V6GT tubes and two 5Y3GT rectifiers. It has two 12 inch speakers.

I will look for the manufacture dates and post these later.

The girl who sold it to me had it playing when we arrived to pick it up. She started showing me the breaks in the AC cord...with the cord still plugged in! I quickly unplugged it before anything happened.

So anyway, my acquisition of this Magnavox is a reminder of that first radio which started me in this hobby, 36 years ago.

Just now, I did a little bit of research on the Web, and it was indeed a Belvedere that I saw locally a year ago. I saw a picture of a Belvedere on the Web that showed a tuner identical to my CR-188A. I think that is the same model that I saw locally. This Belvedere I saw on the Web today also had a Webster Chicago 56 changer.

The Magnavox in the YouTube video linked in the quote above is not a Belvedere cabinet.

I would have preferred a Belvedere, but I like the Regency Symphony that I found. I'll like it better when I have it up and running. I want to recap both chassis and replace that power cord before operating it again, even though it was playing when I bought it. One never knows when an electrolytic or paper cap is going to fail!