Music lovers, stereos ... what are some of you doing?

[Neighmond]

My poor old Hallicrafters all got new power supply filter caps and electrolytics, have you priced that *^% #80 recently? They seem to be going up!

Radio Phono combo units are not very sought after amongst collectors because once you have 5 of them your spouse will probably knock you over the head for carrying a 6th one home but there are some neat ones.
a few were bar radios like the wunderbar, it had a nice liquer cabinet and radio combined.
most of the older tube radios had tube type diodes, such as the #80 tube. as we went into the 60's there are some later ones with selenium rectifiers. these ones sometimes blow up leaving the room full of smoke. they can be replaced with modern diodes.
any tube radio needs its capacitors replaced, especially the electrolytic ones for the power supply. there are techniques for reforming capacitors and it is sometimes possible. If you have something that hasn't been plugged in in years it is best to replace the electrolytics first. Many older radios use electrodynamic speakers , the coil of wire is used bot as a speaker magnet and as a source of a large voltage drop. powering a adio up and blowing the electrolytics will produce a loud bang and a room full of smoke but the result can be that the speakers field coil shorts and they are harder to find or rewind. so it is bes to replace those electrolytics . also as with that telefunken they used a lot of little paper caps. they are cheap and easy to replace. I restuff the old cardboard tubes with modern capacitors but keep the original tubes for authenticity. recapping a radio is a matter of course but usually once that is done the radio plays without hum and troubles.

the other thing that happens a lot is that especially on older radios , sometimes they used rubber wire, it is under the chassis and you won't see it unless you open the chassis. the rubber turns to much or peanut brittle and fals off. so it is important to inspect the wiring and often it can mean replacing every single wire or putting spagetti over each wire to make it safe again. If it is cloth wiring it is often still serviceable.

I never leave them plugged in or hooked up to the antenna or run them when I am not around, because they can create fires especially if not properly restored.

[arwenmark]

I currently have 8 REVEL speakers in my home theater and I use my KEFs with the living room TV. All are wired and when we move to our WV house they are coming with me and I don't care about the size or the wires I care about the SOUND.