Doc Mark
10-21-2009, 03:32 PM
Hey, Friends,
I got a note from one of my stove collecting/Living History friends, today, who came into a nice old tube receiver, and is seeking some additional info on it. Here is part of what he told me:
"The equipment is a Bogen - Presto model RP-40, "Home Music Center" and was made about 1961. My friend cleaned about 1/2" of dust out of the cabinet, tested each of the 23 (!) tubes and reenstalled them. The advice he got on the internet was to gradually bring up the voltage with a variac over a 12 hour period. As fate would have it, I stumbled across a variac at a yard sale (I didn't even know the word a week before, it sounds like something out of a cheap 1950s sci-fi movie).
I brought the power up gradually to 110 volts and, shazam, the FM worked. I then plugged it into the CD player and wow: bright, very clear, very crisp sound. I connected the Bogen to a pair of Dokorder five speaker three way speakers cabinets from 1970, so they were somewhat contemporary. With all those tubes and three big transformers, the machine does get hot, and the cord is off the pulleys for the AM tuner, but the thing works.
Bogen made commercial audio systems for theaters, etc. Apparently this was a venture into the consumer market. It sold for $400 in 1961, so it was an expersive item. Bogen apparently only made the model for two years, so it's a pretty obscure item. It was in the range of the Fisher 500 tuner amp."
Is this bit of kit familiar to any of you, and if so, could you please share some more information for my friend? He's a great guy, and is very happy with his new find. Any and all info will be greatly appreciated! Thanks, very much, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc
I got a note from one of my stove collecting/Living History friends, today, who came into a nice old tube receiver, and is seeking some additional info on it. Here is part of what he told me:
"The equipment is a Bogen - Presto model RP-40, "Home Music Center" and was made about 1961. My friend cleaned about 1/2" of dust out of the cabinet, tested each of the 23 (!) tubes and reenstalled them. The advice he got on the internet was to gradually bring up the voltage with a variac over a 12 hour period. As fate would have it, I stumbled across a variac at a yard sale (I didn't even know the word a week before, it sounds like something out of a cheap 1950s sci-fi movie).
I brought the power up gradually to 110 volts and, shazam, the FM worked. I then plugged it into the CD player and wow: bright, very clear, very crisp sound. I connected the Bogen to a pair of Dokorder five speaker three way speakers cabinets from 1970, so they were somewhat contemporary. With all those tubes and three big transformers, the machine does get hot, and the cord is off the pulleys for the AM tuner, but the thing works.
Bogen made commercial audio systems for theaters, etc. Apparently this was a venture into the consumer market. It sold for $400 in 1961, so it was an expersive item. Bogen apparently only made the model for two years, so it's a pretty obscure item. It was in the range of the Fisher 500 tuner amp."
Is this bit of kit familiar to any of you, and if so, could you please share some more information for my friend? He's a great guy, and is very happy with his new find. Any and all info will be greatly appreciated! Thanks, very much, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc