Angelo's RCA Table Radio

Just delivered, a new addition to the fleet---an RCA table radio to go along with my recently acquired Zenith table radio (reviewed here a few days ago).

All it took was the usual combination of glass cleaner for the tuning area and wood oil and wood polish for the cabinet.  It was dusty/dirty when I received it, but now it shines.

Performance is good.  The sound is actually QUITE good.  Based on the first (admittedly short) listening session, I believe the audio tone is more to my liking on the RCA than on the Zenith (mildly surprising in my opinion, as I've perceived Zeniths to be slightly better, more serious electronics).  Reception is NOT as good as the Zenith, but I believe the addition of some FM antenna wire will correct that.

I love the cabinet and in fact it's a better match for my entertainment center than the Zenith is, so eventually, I think the RCA will get that spot (now occupied by the Zenith). 

As I said in the Zenith review, while Sony and Panasonic were building extremely competent and beautiful sounding table radios that were very unimaginative in the cabinet design department, Zenith and RCA were building...for lack of a better word...FURNITURE.  The woodwork on the new RCA is especially impressive and of terrific quality.  After all these years of apparently collecting dust, five minutes of light cleaning and polishing has this radio looking really nice.

Again, I think collectors who are open to something different should go rooting around on E-Bay to find one of these.  There seem to be a lot of wood tone finishes and cabinet styles and the radios are for real----definitely not junk. 

I do believe I found a couple keepers on the cheap.

 

Angelo       

Comments

[Keith B.]

Nice!
Speaking of audio gear that looks like furniture, the styling of those sets reminds me of those old, floor-model console hi-fi's from the 50s and 60s that many of our parents and grandparents had. My wife and I had one briefly in the 90s or early 2000s. Don't remember what brand it was because I wasn't into radios yet, but it had a (mono) am-fm tuner and a record player. It had tubes because it took about a minute to "warm up" after being switched on, and it sounded great. We ended up selling it because we needed the space for some other piece of furniture.

[Carlos Edwards]

Nice radios, Angelo. I like the styling of the RCA Victor.

[Angelo]

Keith: It's true---these radios are like mini versions of those big console stereos. My parents had several of the big consoles while I was growing up. I remember the oldest one vaguely, but I don't remember the brand---might have been an RCA. They replaced that with a big Magnavox in 1971. The Magnavox was spectacular, but unfortunately, Hurricane Agnes flooded our house (along with thousands of others) in 1972, when the Magnavox was barely a year old. We relocated and the next purchase was an RCA, with turntable and 8-Track player. Over time, the turntable malfunctioned as did the tape deck, but that AM-FM stereo radio was good as gold---booming bass that could rock our house (and it did). That console ended up going to a landfill in a dumpster when both parents died and we sold the house. Couldn't give it away, even though it was still beautiful furniture and the radio sounded great.

[Harry]

Here is a full size "never used" Grundig hi-fi console with turntable, reel to reel, and shortwave radio. Ebay 230602244342