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  #1  
Old 04-03-2009, 08:29 PM
anden anden is offline
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FM Only HiFi table radios

I've found a few nice ones.

1) Of course the KLH 21 is a well known example with audio from a mere 3 inch speaker being great.

2) The Scott model 100 is a strong performer which sounds as good as the KLH

3) Recently found a sleeper in FM only sets - a Realistic hifi Concertmaster from 1969. It has a 6 inch woofer + 3 inch tweeter. These can be found for
$10-20. and was surprised how good it sounded, I think it's bass response out performs both the KLH and the Scott.

Have yet to find the Advent 400, but these have seperate speaker, not a all in one unit....it's more of a rec/amp + speaker.


Any other brands owned out there ?
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Old 04-03-2009, 08:34 PM
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Celt Celt is offline
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My middle brother still has his Advent 400 he bought new in '73 or thereabouts. Heathkit offered a few nice FM only radios. One was a little tube unit with high sensitivity and a very rich sound and a SS walnut clad FM stereo unit. I remember those Concertmasters!
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Old 06-06-2009, 01:32 PM
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Splatter Pak Splatter Pak is offline
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The Proton 300 is FM only, is biamped (100 watts total, I'm told, and sounds like it) with woofer + tweeter. A separate 301 powered speaker can be added, or both can be operated in powered speaker mode. I'm told the 300 is the best table radio ever made. My 300/301 units currently provide my computer audio, and they're way better than the usual computer speaker dreck.
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Old 06-28-2009, 09:00 PM
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The Fisher 100 Microceiver - A funky little tabletop FM only unit with excellent sound. It was about the size of a KLH 21 and it had 5 seperate little tuners for station presets. The grill cloth was the same brown with gold thread that they used on the XP7 speaker systems. I don't think it had any in/out jacks as I recall.

The Lafayete Criterion IV (3525W) - said to have even better tone quality than the KLH 21 but the tuner wasn't as good. I knew someone who had one of these and it was pretty good. At first glance I thought it was a KLH - looks very similar, only larger and had an aux input. Also had a speaker output like the 21 but no preamp out.

The Realistic Concertmaster 12699 was another good one. The sound was reported to be about as good as the KLH 21, but again it was a larger cabinet and didn't have the in/outputs. The tuner wasn't as good as the KLH or the Fisher either.

These all date back to the late 1960's - The Fisher from '67, Lafayete from '68 and RS from '69. Sony made some beauties in the late 70's and 80's, but they were am/fm.
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  #5  
Old 09-16-2009, 09:57 AM
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Zenith also had several excellent table radios in the '50s-'60s, but they were also AM/FM. These were the 800 series (C835, C/H/L845, etc). Eight-inch speaker, five-inch tweeter, true tone control, even terminals for an external speaker. These radios had an RF stage on both AM and FM (both sharing the same 6BJ6 tube) and worked well in most signal areas, using only the built-in antenna. Using any type of external antenna, the FM dial on one of these would probably be so loaded with stations it wouldn't be funny. I live in an area of northeastern Ohio near Cleveland, Erie, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio (I'm within a mile of Lake Erie as well), and my C845 regularly gets stations from all three of those cities as well as across the lake in southwestern Ontario, again just using the built-in antenna. (There are times during the summer and early fall when my radio dial is packed with stations.) I wouldn't be surprised if, in their heyday, these sets sold like hotcakes in far-suburban and fringe areas, miles away from big-city FM stations.
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Last edited by Jeffhs; 09-16-2009 at 10:00 AM.
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  #6  
Old 09-17-2009, 09:35 PM
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You all have missed one.

A sylvania, from about 1967 or so. Solid state--TO-3 germanium outs-- probably 5 full watts or more, to a sealed 4" speaker, and a HEAVY wood back. (just like the AM-FM version, from about the same time frame. Both have bass and treble controls and such.) They WILL outperform the Zenith H-845, and Realistic concertmaster(in MY opinion--those have WAY too much speaker for the P..$$ Poor little amp, of MAYBE 2 watts..) Those sylvainas WILL produce "gutter bass", and pretty loud sound--cleanly too. Can't recall the model # (something tells me RM-500 or such) of the FM-only one, but the AM-FM versions are RM-90 and RM-300.

I have both the concertmaster, several of BOTH models of the sylvaina AM-FM and recently...the sylvaina FM-only version. The chasssis looks the same....without the AM section.
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  #7  
Old 09-18-2009, 09:43 PM
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Pete Deksnis Pete Deksnis is offline
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On the low end...

Besides the FM only receivers listed so far, my own little collection niche covers a New York manufacturer who in the fifties put FM on the proverbial map with its low-cost, yet not bad sounding table models. Granco made bare-bones stuff from the mid fifties through the beginnings of multiplex stereo.

Here's a link to a page I made about four years ago when I finally assembled a working Granco receiver and Stereo Companion combination. I did it just for myself and never linked it to the world.

http://home.att.net/~pldexnis/granco...nion_story.htm

Pete
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Old 09-21-2009, 10:06 AM
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zenithfan1 zenithfan1 is offline
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That's cool Pete!
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