Newly Acquired Telefunken Concertino 5384W - Questions

[58limited]

I was given this radio today. When I turn it on, it plays well for about 10 minutes and then the sound starts to fade. Is this a capacitor issue? I haven't opened the radio nor have I tested the tubes yet. The magic eye tuning indicator lights up but doesn't do anything as I tune - not sure if it is the tube or the caps, or something else. The right side tweeter speaker doesn't work. The FM push button won't stay down unless you push the button next to it first. And the tuning indicator is off - channel 99.9FM was playing when the indicator was at 95.0FM.

 

Is this radio worth paying for a shop to repair it or would it be better as a shelf decoration? Is it considered a good radio? Worth much? The limited research I've done today (Google and Yahoo for about 15 minutes) basically says that repairing German radios is not for the novice. I'm less than a novice with electronics so I'll take it to a shop for service, I'm just trying to determine the possible problems so I can ask for a rough estimate before hauling it in.

 

This same gentleman also gave me a Chickering upright piano from the 1880s. Me and a friend went to move it at lunch, going back to attempt to move it later with several more helpers - it is HEAVY!

 

[danemodsandy]

Can't Help Your Problem, But.....

....I had one of these back in the '70s, and it was a very good radio. Mine was given to me by a friend who was getting rid of it.

Sound was very rich and full.

 

[58limited]

Sandy, the guy who gave it to me told me that it had a really good sound. It sounds OK, but there is a little crackling that I hope is a capacitor issue, not a speaker issue. I'd like to keep the originals if they are good.

 

I opened the back and it is pretty dusty inside. There is a GE Model MA-2G Multiplex Adaptor for FM Stereo mounted to the inside of the back cover. The Radio Museum website (link below) mentions that a stereo decoder was optional on this radio - is that what the GE MA-2G is? Is it aftermarket or did Telefunken use the GE part on export radios?

 

I'm not using an external antenna so that may be why the magic eye indicator wasn't doing anything - weak signals maybe? I tinkered around some more and tuned in a really strong AM station and the indicator came to life.

Concertino 5384W HiFi Radio Telefunken Deutschland TFK, Gesellschaft |Radiomuseum.org

Concertino 5384W HiFi Radio Telefunken Deutschland TFK, Gesellschaft für, build 1963 ?, 5 pictures, 11 schematics, 8 tubes, Germany, semiconductors, Broadcast

www.radiomuseum.org

 

[danemodsandy]

David:

The GE unit is the stereo decoder.

Back in the Ice Age, when mastodons roamed the Earth and I was in high school, high-end radios and most stereo consoles had FM Multiplex available as an option. You did not get FM stereo unless you paid for the multiplexer, which the seller's service department had to install.

The stereo console we had in the mid-1960s was a W.T. Grant Bradford, the Pinehurst model in walnut-stained knotty pine. My parents splurged on the multiplexer when they bought it. Then Grant's delivered several days late and without the multiplexer, with the result that Queen Mom got on the horn and gave the Grant's people what-fer.

We got the multiplexer - and the service call to install it - fast and free. You did not mess with my mom in those days.

P.S.: The optional multiplexer idea was also found on cars. Chevrolet Caprices used to have one; I remember the one on a teacher's 1966 Caprice coupe. That would have been Miss Chapman, a glamorous lady with a glamorous car - black paint, black vinyl top, black interior and every option in the book, including Comfortron.

 

[58limited]

Thanks for the info Sandy. All of that was just a hair before my time - I was born in 1969 so by the time I cared about radios, everything was solid state.

 

 

 

[retropia]

Oooo, I would love to have Miss Chapman's 1966 Caprice coupe ... did it have the optional wire wheel covers? So pretty ...

Sorry for veering off topic! The Telefunken looks like a cool radio.

 

[danemodsandy]

Doug:

Nope, the Caprice covers. They were more elegant-looking than the standard wheel covers found on Impala and lesser series.

Very elegant car - as I've said, triple black. Miss Chapman looked exactly like a brunette version of Petula Clark, so both she and her wheels were knockouts.

To come back to topic, the car had a huge control panel in the console just to adjust tone, balance, front and rear; it was a panel you didn't see on other Chevys. The multiplexer was behind it, I've discovered since.

 

[ovrphil]

Always, almost always with old radios and tvs - the experienced aw.org members here will confirm - capicitors and/or tubes (if it's not solid state)are the first that need replacing. If it's scratchy with any of the volume or other knobs, buttons - a cleaner called Deoxit or similar(Fry's sells a brand, too) sprayed in the right place will do wonders.

Love the old German radios(and combo units)... hope you decide to refresh it back to new...shouldn't be a big deal. Good luck - others will chime in, here...right? ;-)

 

[whirlcool]

These radios were part of the "German Economic Miracle" after WWII. A bunch of them were sold. I collect these things and have 5 of them right now. A Grundig, two Saba's, a Telefunken, and a Nordmende. The Nordmende gets the best reception.

I acquired mine from a cousin who inherited grandpa's Grundig but the rest I bought off of Ebay.de. A lot of the people in Germany inherited them the same way.
One guy refused to ship his Saba I was very interested in, but a nice telephone call to him promising to pay for the shipping materials changed his mine. The final shipping cost was $35.00 to Houston. I paid him $20.00 for the shipping materials. Not only did he double box the radio, he used a blanket to wrap it in. It arrived in perfect condition. And most all of these radio's are double or even quadruple voltage! So they'll work anywhere without a converter.

I think the green tube isn't lighting because there isn't enough signal to activate it, and that your radio needs a "realignment" to get the indicator dial to match the actual frequency. Any radio shop can do that.
On all the radio's I get good AM/FM reception. But for SW stations I ran a single bare wire from one side of the attic to the other and soldered in a downlead to one of the radio's. Now I can receive a lot of European stations mostly at night.

While these radios looked wonderful (I remember them being sold in TV & Appliance stores up to about 1967 or so) with their glass like high gloss finish inside they were built pretty cheaply. They used a lot of wax and paper capacitors. The tubes don't go out very often. I would have them tested by someone who has a good tube tester.

Since these are quite large inside and easy to work on they make great candidates for someone's first recapping job. When I recapped my Saba Wildbad 9 I used mylar caps and the difference in sound was truly amazing. These radios sound great.

I wouldn't turn it on too often until you replace the caps. Those old paper caps can go at any time and take other components with them. If you replace them with modern caps, that'll get rid of the capacitor issues for at least the next 75 years or so.

And don't play around with the buttons too much. I did that with one of my Telefunken's and broke one of the key caps. It just disintegrated under my finger. There was a Old European Radio website out of The Netherlands with whom's owner I communicated with. He just by chance had an extra key, perfect replacement. He sent it to me for free. He was a very nice guy but he said he was getting too old to run the website and sold off most of his collection of old radios and shut the site down. Sad.

Before pushing any buttons, lightly spray the button linkage with some lightweigh lithium spray. That'll keep everything moving.

All in all most of these radios suffer from sitting on shelves in storage too long without being played. Most of the time they just need a good recapping and cleaning and they are ready for a new life all over again.

 

[cfz2882]

old european tube radios

I 2nd whirlcool's advice on being careful with the selector buttons-selector swith breakage is one of the more common problems with the german radios especially.I have 3 german radios,1 French,1 Yugoslav,and a Russian one-the Russian 1976,but still all tube.

 

[firedome]

there's a guy in Mass...

who specializes in these postwar German multiband radios. I can find that info if you'd want to send it off to him. They tended to look nice with the shiny veneered cabinets, but were mid-fi at best with low output power and small open frame output transformers. That said they were upper crust for table radios. Replacing all caps is a given. I like Illinois polypropylene caps as closest to the originals for a vintage sound, and some carbon composition resistors are likely to have drifted over 5o yrs. as well. If these have any Telefunken 12ax7 tubes in them they alone would exceed the value of the radio, being highly very sought after by audiophiles and guitar players (90% of the current vintage tube market). They can be identified by a diamond shaped impression in the glass in the base between the tube pins.

 

[58limited]

<a name="start_47886.694970">"But for SW stations I ran a single bare wire from one side of the attic to the other and soldered in a downlead to one of the radio's. Now I can receive a lot of European stations mostly at night."</a>

 

I'm in luck, I live on the ship channel and this house was owned by a retired ship's captain who was a HAM operator. There are a couple of antenna-things in the attic, I just need to drop a lead to the radio. I say "antenna-things" because at least one is, well, rather interesting looking. I have so many projects right now, I'll probably just take the radio to a shop for recapping, aligning, and cleaning.

 

I'm a little intimidated with electronic repairs, probably because the first radio I thought I'd repair was a 1941 Zenith Transoceanic (Bomber model, not sailboat) - not much room to work in there at all compared to other radios I've seen. Getting to some of the capacitors, even to cut and bypass, is pretty hard in those.

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[58limited]

Roger

This has one 12ax7 tube that I know of.

 

[firedome]

David, if it's a Tele 12ax7

that alone can bring $60-75 or more depending on whether it's the smooth or ribbed plate version. Look on the bottom for the diamond shaped impression in the glass. 12au7 and 12at7s also have significant value, as do 6DJ8s and EF-86s. These are all generally found in the radio's driver or preamp/control sections. Crazy audiophiles (aka audiophools) and guitar nuts have driven the price of desirable vintage vacuum tubes through the roof. Newly produced versions just don't cut it, much like our appliances.

 

[danemodsandy]

66 Caprice Multiplex

Just for grits 'n gigggles, here's a '66 Caprice interior shot showing the FM Multiplex controls in the console.

They're in the console, just aft of the shift lever - those four knobs you see. They controlled front/rear and side-to-side balance.

 

[58limited]

Roger,

I opened the back again and pulled the tube. It has Telefunken ECC83 printed on it and has the diamond in the base and smooth plate, ECC83=12AX7. Turns out the GE multiplexer has a Telefunken brand 12AX7 as well - it has both 12AX7 and ECC83 printed on it, I can't make out a diamond in the base though. It has a ribbed plate. The multiplexer also has a Telefunken 12AT7 (ECC81).

 

I pulled all of the tubes, they are all Telefunken brand: two - 6GW6 (ECL86), 6AV6 (EBC91), 6DC8 (EBF89), 6AJ8 (ECH81), 6AQ8 (ECC85), and the Magic Eye EM84 (6E3P) - I had to look up the U.S. designations, they were all printed with European designations.

 

[stan]

David

Don't know if this helps, but this was my dads radio. The sound will fade, but if I press the button down a little harder, the sound comes back... So maybe you have a similar problem? a dirty or worn switch?
I don't know much about vintage radios, other than this one works, and sounds pretty good. When my dad had it, he had it hooked up to some type of antenna.

 

[whirlcool]

Don't handle the tubes too much lest the markings and numbers will come off of them right onto your fingertips. I made that mistake when I was a teen!

A lot of these radios had tubes removed and sold on Ebay with the remainders of the radio just being tossed in the trash. Sad.

 

[cfz2882]

foreign tube markings

I have ran into that problem with(mostly)foreign tubes-American tubes are usually etched with the number,but sometimes they aren't and numbers can disappear...