[jcr1972]

Hello!

Well, I think it was about time to introduce myself properly and show a radio I got a few days ago.

First, I'm Jan, I live in Denmark (Europe), am 41 years old and am an eletronics technician. I never learned anything about tubes during my education, but tube radios/tv's has been on of my interests since I was just a small kid.
I joined this phorum because I actually have a few american radios too, one of them beeing the Philco 37-690. It is not restored yet, and as from what I read in this phorum, this is just the right place to be, when restoring a Philco. And other old radios too, of course.

The radio I am gonna show in this thread is a Bang & Olufsen from 1939. I am actually not a big fan of B&O products. More on the contrary. I think it is the same as with brand Z in the US. Not that they didn't produce some good sets too, but mostly it was just show off, and now everybody just thinks that because it is B&O it has to be high quality. Well, it's only high price...
A friend of mine who had a small B&O museum is giving up his collection. He is retired now and they are planning on moving to something smaller I think. I bought a few of their topmodels from him. One of them beeing this Master de Luxe 39 S:

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/sha.jpg]

It is a small floor console, having their top of the line chassis for that year. Different cabinets where available for this chassis, both tabletop and floor models.

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shb.jpg]

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shc.jpg]

It has 8 tubes including the tuning eye. 8 tubes may not sound like many, but several of them contains two systems, so it would be 11 if all tubes had one system only. It has a push-pull output, and the large transformer seen under the chassis is the output transformer. B&O's own by the way.

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shd.jpg]

Underside of the chassis. I replaced a few caps only. No resistors were replaced and it still has some of the original tubes too. The filter cap was replaced by the former owner, and the set was fully working. I just replaced those few caps to make sure it would still remain safe to use. It has variable bandwith and it is seen in the top right corner. It is a couple of plates attached to the treble control, and they changes the coupling factor on the first IF transformer (the two coils between the plates).

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/she.jpg]

Here the chassis is back in the cabinet. To the left at the front, is the pushbutton section connected to the chassis through an octal plug.

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shh.jpg]

Here is the 10" speaker. It is B&O's own production. They actually made very good speakers and they began to use permanent magnets very early. This one is very effective, and even though the output power of the radio only is maximum 7 Watts, it is capable of playing very loud and clear.

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shi.jpg]

The beautiful dial and the push button section. B&O was very proud of this system. It was actually not very stable because they didn't use AFC, and the system had a tendency to drift from the station, and this just shows that B&O were not really good at building radios.

[Image: http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j323...0S/shj.jpg]

Well this was about it for now. I hope you all enjoyed watching this vintage danish product. I have some more to show for the future.

Jan - Denmark