[Boatanchors] Question about Portables

[Rodger Singley]

Hi Keith,

Grundig used a lot of bass boost with their big transistor shortwave sets and that practice was soon copied by other quality manufacturers including Phillips and Panasonic.  I have several of the big Grundig portables and they do have a well engineered audio section designed to produce rated power with low noise and distortion and that practice continued into more modern sets like their Satellit 700.  Their YB-500 can sound pretty nice but out of respect to battery life it can be set for a more restricted audio.  The bigger older Grundig sets also had a decent separate high frequency driver as part of the integrated speaker system.

Most of the communications sets were designed with somewhat restricted audio to match their major intended use, other designers didn’t put a lot of effort into the best audio for the same reason.  But there are certainly tube type sets that can sound wonderful when matched with a good speaker and proper program material.  One of my favorites is my Hammarlund SP-400X which is what I consider the last generation of the authentic Super Pro series with continuously variable IF bandwidth via coupling in the IF transformers, a well designed push/pull audio section, and a large external power supply.  I have a few flavors of the SP-600 which are nice sets in their own right but audio wise they can’t compare with the earlier members of the family.  National did a similarly nice job with the NC-183 series and these sound great when coupled with a good speaker as do the Hallicrafters SX-28, 42, and 62 family of radios.

What the portable manufacturers had to their advantage was integrating the entire system including the speaker into the original design so it all was designed to work together as a matched system.

Rodger WQ9E

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From: Keith Densmore<mailto:ve3gem at gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 6, 2022 4:51 PM
To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net<mailto:boatanchors at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Boatanchors] Question about Portables

Hi Group,
I have had the chance to play with a couple of better vintage portable
transistor sets from the 60's-80's. Grundig, Phillips and Panasonic.
What surprised me is how awesome the audio sounds from these radios! I can
only describe it as vibrant, alive and full. I hate to say it but to my
ears the audio is better than the tube sets I have, and I have a few.
Does anyone know why the audio sounds so good? Transistors used? Type of
speaker used? I am quite impressed with the sound that comes from those 4-6
inch speakers, maybe someone can tell me why.
73,
Keith ve3gem
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