Magnavox people re these little speakers

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petek

petek

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I picked up these two satellite or bookshelf speakers today. They're Magnavox "solid state" on the front, real wood in Walnut finish. Can't really decipher all the coding on the bottom etc. I'm guessing they were satellite speakers for a Magnavox console or other stereo? Both have RCA jacks. Anyways they were too nice to leave on the Value Village shelf where usually there's just junky Yorx or plastic Radio Shack stuff. Anyone know what they were for? Whenever something says "solid state" on it I generally assume it's mid to late 60's. The condition is better than what the pic shows

10-11-2007-14-38-10--petek.jpg
 
Porta-Fi--early '60s to early '70s. This is 1969. Plug your transmitter into the stereo, plug the speaker into the electric outlet on the wall.

10-11-2007-18-34-36--63getelevision.jpg
 
I thought you had mentioned these at some point, Alan.

Now I'm wondering what the RCA Jacks are for.

Inquiring minds need to know!

-kevin
 
Do the speakers have line cords?-not clear on that.If they do-these are most likely "amplified speakers"The speaker has a small SS amplifier built into it-and it looks like some sort of volume control on the front-you can try the theory by plugging the output of a CD player-or IPOD into them and see if you can hear the CD machine or IPOD playing.Makes me think of "Fostex" amplified speakers-they have many uses-you can use amplified speakers with just about any line level audio source-and listen to the source-the two speakers together would give you stereo by plugging each channel into each one.
 
The volume control looking things on the speakers is just a circle with a Magnavox crest on it. I think they are just speakers, and I have seen single units alongside a stereo radio speaker amp unit in the brochures. I own a Magnavox stereo radio set that does not have the decorative trimwork on the bottom edge of the companion speaker.
 
Interesting if they are just speakers-you can plug the output from an amplifier or the consoles-speaker line out into these extension speakers.There were extension speaker outs on my Mom's Maganavox.They were never used.A rotary switch in the TT well selected ext speakers or main speakers-or both together I beleive.was a while since I really lookedat it-just remember the selector switch.
 
Using power lines

To transmit data is nothing new. Back at the turn of the century high-frequency signalling was used to turn street lights on and off in many cities. (Turn of the 19th/20th century, I mean).
GE has marketed telephone extenders which send the telephone line signal over the household 120V AC line for many years. They work, too.
Various firms offer both audio, modem and network connections over the AC Mains.
As long as the appropriate filters are used, the whole thing is perfectly safe and reliable. After all, here you have this enormous (by communication standards), thick cable, firmly connected and running everywhere in the house already. Why not use it? Our "M-Net" here in Munich uses this for telephone, TV, DSL and, yes, 230V AC. Here's a link to a review from 2002, about the time the network technology had become stable and cheap: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,85003-page,1/article.html
And here a link to an interesting review on applying this American technology to the European situation:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp?url=/iel1/2218/13399/00612596.pdf?arnumber=612596
I have read that you must not skip from one 'leg' to the other without signal loss (anal retentives please spare me the PC language lesson, sigh) but have seen it work just fine with network connectors here in Germany, so go figure...

I am curious, tho'. Is there anyway to safely open one of those speakers and take a look inside? At that point in time, Magnavox was still a serious audio components producer with genuinely unique ideas and technology.
 
There are two faux chrome (maybe) knobs on the side of the SP46 receiver. The word receiver must mean that they are more than speakers with an on/off control and a tone control; tone control does not sound very state of the art for stereo. This big speaker weighed 16 lbs and used a 60 cycle power supply according to the tiny print. Thank you Pete and Alan for showing us something many of us had never seen. I wonder about the sound quality compared with the consoles' exponential horns for the very high range, those magnificent side-firing bass speakers with the tunnel between them and that wonderful Loudness control. I remember how, when our parents were not home, we would put on something really primo like the Virgil Fox Christmas Album from Command Records or his recordings on Mr. Wanamaker's Organ; any of the powerful arrangements of Now thank we all our God where so much is added above and below the chorale that, by the end, further embellishment seems impossible and if it did not come to a close, the whole beautiful creation would come crashing down under its own complexity and beauty; E. Power Biggs with Brass at St. Georges after he learned to play above and below the ranges of the instruments, maybe no longer so much of a Baroque Boy
(Fox's term) and passages like the Entry of the gods into Valhalla--Folge mir Frau, in Walhal wohne mit mir (sp?) then after the Loge's quieting the kvetching Rhine Maidens, his cryptic forecast on the doom awaiting the fools and wondering what he will do, the majestic music was unleashed.

We would shut the door opposite the left speaker so that we would not lose any music down the hall and let ourselves be enveolped by the Great Voice coming from the Magnavox. We never blew any fuses nor damaged any of the speakers and I think it was self-dusting when played loud enough. Mom still has the Magnavox and I am wondering if I should have it restored.
 
This got a bit convoluted. These are just plain speakers, no amps, no line cords, no switches/controls on them whatsoever, just a wire with an RCA jack to plug into a console or some sort of tabletop radio. My guess is they were and included part of a certain model unit or that they were optional accessory speakers. What I'd like to know is if anyone with a Magnavox console or tabletop sets have RCA jacks on the back for additional speakers.
 
cheap speakers

Howdy, Pete.

They're cute. They look like you might have used them as extensions for your console, OR they might have just been attached to a small 8-track tape deck, or other small magnavox radio or phonograph, and I'd say from about 1966. If you test across them with an ohm meter, you'll probably find 8 ohms. Could be 16, or 4, but I'll bet you a dollar they're 8 ohm speakers - plain, and indeed very simple. They're likely to speak, but not very likely to impress. For real. Things have improved in speaker technology and these never were what you'd say 'high end'. They're likely to sound like 2 clock radios at full volume.

TOM - Those organ records are WAY more valuable than the magnavox you played them on. I hope at least you do still have the records. I'd love to hear the Biggs on the Wannamaker, even though I'm not at all into Biggs. I have seen the Wannamaker in person recently (earlier this year), just after the Vox Humani ranks were restored.

Those GE extension speakers which used the a/c as the carrier were only made a very short period and I suspect were a miserable failure, however as Panthera says, using the a/c as a means of broadcasting audio is not a new concept. That posting did stand to cause a lot of confusion in this thread though - I was never confused by it, however.

The two speaker systems are in NO way similar, not even the least bit related. Ok, they're both from USA in the 1960's. Other than that - apples and oranges.

B
 
Me? Cause Confusion?

Moi?
Surely, surely you can not have been refering to me?
!!!
As a matter of fact, and to answer the question, I had a small Magnavox portable (that is not a contradiction in terms, some "portables" weighed a ton in those days) which did, indeed use RCA jacks for the speakers. Had a Micromatic, but not the infinitely adustable kind, rather one which raised and swung the tonearm, but only looked for one of three sizes.
As for the sound, I am not so sure that it won't be rather decent. Not, of course, compared to a several thousand dollar, Thx certified system...but some of the late 1960's speakers were put together fairly well. Do let us know!
 
not the confused

No Sir, Panthera.

You are obviously not confused. You appear to know whereof you speak.

Please do not be upset. That's never my intention. It may be my tone, but I'm not gonna apologize for that again. Opinions and approaches to communication are allowed to vary.

I'm sure those cheap speakers will sound perfectly "groovy" attached to a 3 watt solid state amplifier, playing Petula Clark Downtown on the FM radio receiver, or 8-track tape cartridge.

You get more mileage from a cheap pair of speakers.

At least they do not appear to be laden with 40 years coating of cigarette smoke. I might have bought them myself, if the price was right.

b
 
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.
 

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