12-07-2024, 05:17 AM
Tremendous info Bob, thank you for the response. Knowing that the architect and, not surprisingly, most of his clients were obsessed with modernism and always after the most up-to-date designs and accoutrements, I do find it surprising that this 1952 home was a decade-plus out of date with this unit/system install, but they did achieve their aesthetic goals in the new, custom housing/cabinetry, which is so sleek and clean, and unornamented.
The tone arm says "PHILCO" in all caps—I can't tell from the 1940 specifications sheet and diagram (and it is so cool that the "phorum" has all of this), but I can say that the specific font used for the logo, from what I can see of it on the tone arm, does not immediately call out early 1940s to my eye, even if so much else could. The grill cloth is clearly a replacement, and not a match, but this would have been redone in the new cabinetry, and I do agree that this must have been a complete rebuild. As the caption will be so short on space, I'd hoped to use the shorthand "Hi-Fi" or "Hi-Fi console" but if this is a 1940 unit and mono, it's seems to me definitively not a hifi unit, but as you say, definitions will vary among those versed in these things.
So if you have further thoughts, or anyone else does, please don't hesitate. But I'm delighted the phorum took a look at this info and inquiry, and returned so much already. As a side note, as a former audio guy, the vibe to the sound to these units, hifi or not, is something all it's own and connects us to another time and place in a visceral sense. My family resided on base at joint base Hickam Field/Peral Harbor and was nearly lost in the attack on December 7, 1941, of which today is the anniversary. Radios of this time filled everyone in shortly after, warm glowing tubes and all. Here's grandpa, a surgeon and commanding officer of the hospital adjacent Pearl Harbor on that day, recounting details as they triaged casualties, and other related stories.
https://soundcloud.com/lucadelcarlo/pear...-md-family
Thank you again.
The tone arm says "PHILCO" in all caps—I can't tell from the 1940 specifications sheet and diagram (and it is so cool that the "phorum" has all of this), but I can say that the specific font used for the logo, from what I can see of it on the tone arm, does not immediately call out early 1940s to my eye, even if so much else could. The grill cloth is clearly a replacement, and not a match, but this would have been redone in the new cabinetry, and I do agree that this must have been a complete rebuild. As the caption will be so short on space, I'd hoped to use the shorthand "Hi-Fi" or "Hi-Fi console" but if this is a 1940 unit and mono, it's seems to me definitively not a hifi unit, but as you say, definitions will vary among those versed in these things.
So if you have further thoughts, or anyone else does, please don't hesitate. But I'm delighted the phorum took a look at this info and inquiry, and returned so much already. As a side note, as a former audio guy, the vibe to the sound to these units, hifi or not, is something all it's own and connects us to another time and place in a visceral sense. My family resided on base at joint base Hickam Field/Peral Harbor and was nearly lost in the attack on December 7, 1941, of which today is the anniversary. Radios of this time filled everyone in shortly after, warm glowing tubes and all. Here's grandpa, a surgeon and commanding officer of the hospital adjacent Pearl Harbor on that day, recounting details as they triaged casualties, and other related stories.
https://soundcloud.com/lucadelcarlo/pear...-md-family
Thank you again.
![[-]](https://philcoradio.com/phorum/images/bootbb/collapse.png "[-]")
