[RadioSvit]

I made a video about another device from my collection - a rather rare Farnsworth GK-669 radiogram.
Subtitle text from automatic English translation ...

Today I will talk about my favorite 1949 Farnsworth Gk-669 console radio gramophone.
At first glance, there is nothing special either in the design or in the technical characteristics - an ordinary budget 6-tube radio console of the late 40s. The peak of the popularity of these wonderful devices has already passed, the market was saturated with them even before the Second World War, and radio equipment manufacturers in the USA one by one began to stop their production or simply go bankrupt and close. This bitter fate did not pass by Farnsworth either - the 49th year was the penultimate year and the next year the firm ceased to exist.
From the very first moment after getting acquainted with this device, I had two compelling reasons to buy it - it is the unique sound quality for a relatively simple device and ... its pedigree. The company belonged to the brilliant inventor and owner of many patents, Philo Farnsworth. He was a very gifted scientist and inventor, at the beginning of his career, television fell into his field of interest - in 1927, he created the first electron beam tube, the first experimental television set, and received a US patent for them. In the 1930s, he created commercial television systems for Philco, but due to a conflict with the management, he left the company and created an enterprise in Fort Wayne, Indiana for the manufacture of radios and televisions, but the war began and he had to manufacture military products and sell his patents to the RCA Corporation. After the war, his company produced high-quality high-fidelity radio consoles, but due to a decline in demand in the early 1950s, it was forced to close. Nevertheless, being a genius, he worked for the US Military Industrial Complex, developed missile control units, later engaged in nuclear physics and even created a portable nuclear reactor. (!)
Let's return to our topic... This model of radio gramophone was on the lowest step of the company's product line. Yes, the design is not impressive, but it is soft, not flashy and quite stylish - at the end of the 40s, such a simplified design with flat panels was in trend. Five bands, coverage from 520 kHz to 22 thousand. Since there is no radio frequency input amplifier, the sensitivity is not impressive. There is also a rather weak amplifier of only 5 watts. However, we do not forget that this is a budget. But what pleasantly surprised this device was the high sound quality and high sound pressure thanks to the 30-centimeter speaker on a permanent magnet.
Excellent microdynamics revives even old pre-war gramophone records, and all friends and acquaintances who have managed to listen to it say that the sound is lively and not at all similar to modern ones. What can I say - if a simple 6-tube budget budget player sounds so nice, then one can only imagine how the 22-tube flagship of this company would sound if I had it...)
The automatic changer of gramophone records deserves special attention - you load 10 pieces and you can listen to music for half an hour without getting up from the chair opposite... In general, I am very impressed by the commitment of Americans to automatic changers, I see this even on very simple budget devices. At first, a 78-rpm self-made Farnsworth automatic record player with a metal needle and diamond dusting was installed here, but a year earlier, in 1948, the 33-rpm Long Play standard with long-playing records appeared and the native record player instantly became obsolete. It is obvious that for this reason the previous owner replaced it with a more modern Webster Chicago changer model 355 of 55 with a piezo head and a corundum needle.
You can talk a lot more about the features of the design or characteristics of this radio gramophone, but it is unlikely that it will be very interesting to non-specialists, so I suggest you watch a short video, assess the degree of exclusivity of this device yourself and just listen to the music of the 40s...

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PGh6RjDmh0]