Admiral tuner

[William]

Wondering around on eBay tonight I came across this, which I thought was kind of impressive. It even has a chrome chassis.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285035309574?h ... R6yLppKqYQ

Bill

[electra225]

That is an impressive tuner. I had no idea Admiral ever chrome plated their chassis. Somebody on this forum should probably own that tuner......

[William]

I did a little research on the tuner model number and this is what I found from ARF:

https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewto ... 6&t=191778

It kind of sounds like Admiral outsourced the guts for their TOTL unit back in the 50's. This baby had to have been very expensive.

Bill

[electra225]

Admiral possibly sourcing this tuner from Radio Craftsman might explain the chrome-plated chassis. Too bad the power supply and amp aren't with it.

[TC Chris]

That is very impressive, down to the riveted-on metal labels and the detector-out jack. The tuner has its own power supply (note the power transformer rectifier on board) so the missing one is for the power amp. Altogether very cool, but a bit pricey.

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

It does look like Radio Craftsman, virtually identical to a RC model 800. The title says stereo, but it's not. I see that a lot in ads.

[Dr. Radio]

I carefully looked at the auction pictures. I paid close attention to the component date codes on the capacitors and IF transformers. This Admiral was built in 1953.

[William]

That makes it almost as old as I am.

Bill

[electra225]

Upon looking at this tuner a bit closer, I see it works similarly to a Magnavox tuner. The tone controls are in the tuner, the tuner has the pre-amp stages, but no power amp. So, am I right in thinking that this tuner is essentialy worthless without its matching power amplifier and it's power supply chassis. The tuner has its own rectifier and power transformer, so there is that. I also see the guys on ARF are telling the owner of the instrument they talk about in the link above that he needs to put in diodes to protect the rectifier. I don't see the benefit to that. If that was a better setup, looks like Radio Craftsman would have built it that way.......

[William]

I do see the similarities as far as controls and needing a separate amp. I'm also guessing that any power amp would work?? From the link that I provided, and to keep it original, it would need the power supply as well as the power amp in order for it to work. I would love to have heard this thing when it was new.

Bill

[TC Chris]

Bill is right--any power amp will do. Tuner/preamp combos were popular for a time. Pilot made them,for example.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I'm not so sure about that. Why the tone and volume controls on that tuner if you can use any amp you want? There are no controls on the original amp. The tuner having its own power supply is much like Magnavox did theirs in the Concert Grand, although it used a separate chassis for the tuner power supply. Most stand-alone tuners didn't have volume and tone controls. Just line-level output. No doubt that was the equivalent of the Concert Grand to Admiral. Bill, I bet it would have sounded really good. There are two audio amps in that tuner, along with a 12AX7 cathode follower stage. I would think this setup might overload an amp not designed to work with that tuner.

[TC Chris]

I'm not so sure about that. Why the tone and volume controls on that tuner if you can use any amp you want? There are no controls on the original amp.

You can use any power amp--they don't have controls and depend on the controls on the preamp. For example, I have a Fisher 20A power amp that would be a great partner. Or you could run it into the line-level inputs (aux.) on an integrated amp and use the vol./tone controls on either one.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

I'll admit to being a tad daft here, but.....

How is that going to work in the line input (aux) on an integrated amp? How do you bypass the volume and tone controls in the tuner? I can see it working with a strictly power amp, but I don't have one of those. I was thinking something like an SCA-35 or something like that, I guess, an integrated amplifier. Plus, with two pre-amp stages and a cathode follower in the tuner, how will that not overload such an amplifier? Then how do you choose which tone controls to use? I'm just not understanding this at all.......

[TC Chris]

Just plug it into the aux. input and find a suitable setting for the amp's volume control. The leave the amp alone and do your controlling from the tuner/preamp. The output of that will be comparable to a tape deck or other source device that you would plug into the aux. input. That input is designed for higher-level signals (as opposed to the mag phono or tape head inputs).

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

That is now understandable, but I don't know why you would do it. That setup would be about the same as using a graphic equalizer in the aux. input as far as the signal strength is concerned. If you get carried away with cranking up the equalizer, you can overdrive the amp. Got it. Thanks, Chris......