Magnavox people re these little speakers

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Bob, I may be confusing, but I am definitely

Committed.
The older I get the more curious I become and, sadly, the more I learn, the less I know...except that there is ever more to be learned...
In all seriousness, tho', it is not the frequency response as much as the THD and overall linearity which determines whether such small speakers sound good or dreadful. They may only be 100-15,000Hz (anal-retentives, let's not, ok?) but if their THD is under 7% and their reproduction flat plus or minus 4% I bet they will sound pretty damned fine.
Or, you may be right...those horrid rectangular car radio thingees which all seemed to come with a blown voice coil and no elasticity straight from the factory may be lurking behind those fascia.
The RCA jacks, by the by, mean absolutely nothing. I have seen some very good equipment from that era which used them as well as K-Mart blue light specials...
Today, at my age, I am anything but qualified. But in my prime, I was made our school orchestra's Concert Master mainly because of my sense of pitch (it sure as hell wasn't my playing). Some of the best sounding equipment I ever heard in the 1960's was from Magnavox. The sum of the parts is, sadly, seldom equal to the whole and I can remember Macintosh systems which glowed pretty blue colors but sounded like beam guides which had been de-aligned.
 
Porta Fi

I have two GE consoles and several porta fi transmitters and remote speakers. Only one console at a time can be connected to the house wiring via the transmitter, as all the transmitters I have are the same channel/frequency (GE labels them channel A or B). Connecting two or more transmitters of the same frequency cancels out the signals. GE offered two frequencies in case your neighbor using the same transfomrer on the power pole a house or two away also was using Porta Fi.

Most of my remote speakers use tube circuits. I have one that is solid state and one that is bi, as it has a switch to select channel A or channel B. The early transmitters were tube type, but mine are all solid state. I find that the speakers work best when they are on the same circuit (breaker) as the console transmitter. The further you go in the house (onto different circuits), the more static there is. My garage has the main power panel, and the house now has a sub panel. The signal is too weak to make it through the sub panel into the garage outlets. Also, use of power strips that are surge protected totally filters out the signal.

The sound at the Porta Fi speaker I primarily use is very clear, but all Porta Fi output is mono, even though the console is stereo. One of my GE consoles has a porta fi control switch, so you could listen to one input, like the radio in the living room, and the record player on the porta fi speaker in another room. GE seems to have deleted the selector switch feature around 1966. From the vintage ads I have seen, Porta Fi began around 1958 and faded away around 1972.

My parents had a GE console, which is the main reason I have collected them, and it had the Porta Fi switch. Unfortunately, they did not buy the transmitter or Porta Fi speakers and as a kid, I never knew what that switch was for. It is very cool to show it off to house guests now. Most are amazed that this technology was around 50 years ago.

Oh, and this technology really got it start on sound equipment with jukeboxes in the 30's. Remote selectors used the electrical wiring in the cafe or bar to send signals to a receiver in the juke box for selections and some units also sent the sound over the wiring to remote speakers plugged in around the establishment. Recent articles in Always Jukin' covered the restoration of this equipment. Very detailed reading for those interested. You can find back issues at www.alwaysjukin.com

BTW, this pic is a couple years old, and the Pioneer RT909 is now with a Spec 1 and Spec 2 unit rack mounted in the game/laundry room off the garage.

Mike

http://www.alwaysjukin.com
10-13-2007-01-10-22--gewa1054wguy.jpg
 
I'm surprised. I never knew about that system way back when either. That looks like the same GE tabletop stereo radio I have as in your picture sitting off to the right. I must go bring it back from moms basement where I've stored it for +30 years when I moved out west. It worked a couple of years ago when I was back here on vacation. Has surprisingly wonderful sound
 
Your GE Porta Fi's are fabulous Mike, and the rest of your wonderful collection is too. You certainly are the GE collector and thanks for posting the pics of your HI FI. I love listening to it whenever I visit.
 
Thanks for the link Mike, those consoles are amazing. GE really did a great engineering job on them. Its a shame more people dont collect them, but then seems like lots of air inbetween the ears makes them overlooked, along with a lot of other............
 
Very nice GE hi-Fi system.Collecting Hi-fi consoles would be very neat-but because of their large size this presents problems to some appliance fans.I have only enough space for selected favorites.Appliance fans need to live in castles!As one of my freinds pointed out when he saw my vacuum and appliance collection.Was the tape deck standard equipment in that unit-I haven't seen too many consoles with tape decks in them other than Grundigs and Telefunkens.Did Maganavox make consoles with RR tape machines in them?In those earleir days some folks didn't like RR tape machines because of having to handle and thread the tape.RR machines are second nature to me at this point.
 
Rex,

I have seen two mid-60's Magnavox consoles with reel-to-reel tape decks that were obviously installed either by the dealer or the manufacturer, both in the area otherwise used as LP storage...and both of a level of quality out of tune with the rest of the console. One my parents owned, but, silly them, they didn't think to ask six year old me for my opinion before buying it.
I know from reparing them that VM (still a player at that time) and GE did offer R-R as built-ins, as, unsurprisingly, did Motorola (which once competed directly with the TL Magnavox! wow!) so I can't imagine Magnavox not doing it.
Two consoles do not an entire brand over 50 years make, but it does give a sense of direction. I personally remember that they did offer 8-Track and cassette units which were built in and did match the same general level of the console.
Gosh, when you look at Magnavox today...
 
Yes-is sad-Maganavox seems to be the "low" end brand with Philips.Maganavox used to be a HIGH end brand!At my place I will ALWAYS have room for a "Maggie" console or two!Would like to look into Fisher and Scott consoles too-they were truely High End brands-the Fisher and Scott Consoles contained the same components that they sold as separates.also the Fisher and Scott consoles had Dual or Garrard TT's.
 
Now that's a beautiful console. Exactly my taste. I found this chair a couple of months back at the ReStore and it would look perfect alongside that console, the legs are similar but not quite

10-27-2007-07-25-51--petek.jpg
 
Yes, Dual did OEM turntables for quite a few manufacturers.

That Danish style GE console reminds me more of a Telefunken console than a GE. I also think it's interesting how they "split" the control console between the two GE's, One is vertical and the other horizontal. Were these solid state units?

Didn't Magnavox use the tagline "The MAGNIFICENT Magnavox" for their products?
 
GE Tape Deck

Good day,

Yes, for the GE model I posted, the tape deck is standard. It is a VOM (Voice of Music) tape deck. The turntable is a GE tonal 1 unit and of course, the amp and tuner are solid state by this time. There are tubes in this unit! The porta fi unit installed uses tubes. The solid state porta fi transmitters do not have the vented mesh that the tube units use.

I hope someone can save it. If I was close by, I would get it. My father lives about 3 hours away but his wife would never let anything OLD in their house.

Mike
 
yes-the Maganavox folks used the "Magnificent Maganavox" on many of their consoles and other equipment-seen that on their TV's too.the Magnificent Maganavox was on my Moms unit on a big metal nameplate on the front-"Magnificent Maganavox-Concert Grand"Truely nice peices of equipment.
 

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