I bought my first console project today. A Philco 296 with a ragged cabinet for $5. It got me to wondering when the first radio-phonograph combination was made and by who. Any of you guys know? Also, any info on my 296 would be appreciated. I already snagged the schematic from NA.

My five dollar Philco:

It might need work but for $5 its a good deal.
Nice looking console too.

Certainly not the first radio-phono console, but an interesting one nonetheless.

The 296 is a 1930 model as I recall. The chassis is almost identical with the model 95 which is the first Philco with AVC.
If the phono is still intact, it should have the winged RCA inertia type tone arm. I always thought the design was a bit bizarre, but the "wings" have weights to limit the amount of twisting of the tone arm on bass notes.

Cool combination and certainly a fixer-upper.

-Steve

The first radio/phono start showing
up in quantity in 1925,,, I have a beautiful Victor 7-3... Basically a Radiola20
with a Orthafonic player.
Robert

The 210 Victrola of 1923 was adaptable to a drop-in radio chassis. There may be still another similar set that came before that one, though.

Here is mine before I got it home and cleaned it up. And after. The 96 is the same circuit minus the player. I thought the magnetic pickup had pretty low output so I sent it to Westech for a rebuild. Frankly I cannot say that it is all that much better, being low as compared to the radio audio. But it works. They did not use shielded wires between the pickup and the amp, just twisted pair, I think. Therefore it is not fully hum free. I payed 75 bucks for it. Then I payed more than that for a serviceable pair of spare 45's to have on hand for it. Dang heavy radio. Does receive pretty good with a wire tossed out on the floor. It is unusual in that it has AVC, being a TRF radio. It does overload a little on the very close local, but otherwise works well. The speaker has sort of a stiff suspension, so do not expect bass like in later 30's consoles. The top picture is after cleanup.

Well, some specialty sets were assembled by small makers beginning in 1922. I recall one rather large and elaborate machine which was offered by an Indiana maker who's name doesn't come immediately to mind, first assembled in late 1922 as 1923 models. Sonora offered combinations as early as 1923. RCA offered a set, the Radiola IX which was especially designed for installation in a talking machine, and was thin enough to install upside down inside the domed lid of a large machine. Brunswick offered a number of uprights fitted with the Radiola IX through their dealer network in late 1923 or early 1924. The customer response was so positive that Brunswick almost immediately concluded an agreement with RCA for the installation of Radiolas in the 1924 line of Brunswick phonographs. Brunswick subsequently offered a complete line of machines, ranging forma simple, plain console equipped with a Radiola III, up up to elaborate Art Case consoles fitted with the new Radiola Super-Hetrodyne.

Here are some photos of a typical Brunswick combination of that early period, a BR-60, fitted with an AR-312, the regular "Super-VIII" chassis on a specially arranged panel:

Beautiful-but appears to be acoustic player? I assume that it was much later that electrical pickups were made to allow electronic amplification of the records? So maybe we should narrow it down to the first unit with all electronic playback with the radio. I think that RCA pickup head in the Philco was not released until ca. 1929?

Thanks for the info guys. Very nice Wazz, hopefully mine will end up looking at least half as nice though it will take A LOT of work. But hey, for $5 I wasn't expecting to get a new radio. Here are a few nicer pics of it. I got lucky, all the tubes are there with the exception on the type 80 rectifier. BTW ..is this speaker original or is that a recone job?

Lyradion, perhaps?

If you go to philcoradio.com and look in the photo gallery for June, 1930, you will see the 296 illustrated there. Seems that there were only about 14.000 made, alot less than most Philcos, and it was 198$, not chump change in 1930. The seller where I got mine also had a Philco 211 radio/phono he was selling (1931 gallery) and those are even more expensive and rarer, having a record changer feature. That radio sold for four figures about the time I got mine.

I think Brunswick announced & demonstrated the first all electric Panatrope phonograph in 1925, and they became available (along with phono-Radiola models) in early 1926. If I remember correctly, the Brunswick Panatropes were released only a couple of weeks before Victor got their first all electric phonograph models on the market.

Electrical pickup? It's all in your definitions.

Saval: Did you get that at the Antique Store on Triplett Street?

Nope, the speaker has the original cone. Though, someone decided to decorate it.

-Steve

Some service tips.... The speaker field and transformer windings in those radios have a tendency to open up, so they should be checked. The filter capacitors are inside the big box next to the tuning capacitor; they are paper caps, since Philco didn't use electrolytics until the next year's models. It does use the infamous Bakelite block capacitors, which will have to be rebuilt. Be gentle with the wiring harness, as it will be brittle!

Ron's Philco site has a MUCH better schematic for the 96 than you'll find anywhere else:

http://www.philcoradio.com/

Chuck's site has more data, including rebuilding instructions for the block capacitors:

http://www.philcorepairbench.com/capbuild.htm

Thanks for the info. How do I go about checking the transformer and speaker field?

Continuity checks with a meter. And if I were you, I would see if the 45 output tubes are good. They would make up your purchase price plus a whole lot, if good. Same for the phono pickup.

I can't test any tubes because the tube checker I bought is broken and I don't have a switch I need. I put the phonograph pickup on my multimeter and got 1k ohms give or take. Am I to believe the pickup is good?

Here are some pics on my pickup. I assume it will need the rubber dampers replaced. Are there any good tutorials for rebuilding? I found this but it's for a different one: http://philcoradio.com/phorum/archive/i ... -1017.html