crosley radios

[Forgotten Man]

That looks swell! Hope it brings you a lot of pleasure.

Any pictures of the inside?

Thanks! And no I haven't taken any photos of the inside as of yet, I will take a photo or two when I'm ready to take out the chassis to replace the power cord.

Love the "lightning bolt" speaker scrollwork on the console!! Great radio.

Yes, that was the selling point for me... Looking at some of the other sets Crosley offered in '29 makes me believe that they were really putting forth a modern image. In some 1930 sales ads I've seen, they became more classically styled, the lightning bolts went bye, bye.

 

[Forgotten Man]

IT CAME!

Just received the 1929 Crosley radio ad in the mail on Friday! I took a good look at it and found out some interesting things.

My model is the model 82! It was the top of the line model that year! Originally cost $150. for the set WITHOUT TUBES! lol The price of the set with tubes, was $160.

I will see about posting some images of the ad this evening. It really is quite a special radio!

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I am bumping this thread because I recieved my Crosley CR 21 radio for christmas.

http://www.crosleyradio.com/Product.aspx?pid=1646

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Its a great little Radio I Channel old Radio Shows to it thru my ITRIP

 

[p71towny]

Bleh, all the repro stuff I've had is crap IMHO. Like others said, you could get a couple years of poor quality IF you're lucky. I'll stick with fixing up the real deal. Oh, some of it is neat to look at for sure, but if you've had that stuff apart it is of poor workmanship.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Its a great little Radio I Channel old Radio Shows to it thru my ITRIP

I just bought an iTrip last night. Should be here shortly after the first.

 

[kpreed]

Bleh, all the repro stuff I've had is crap IMHO. Like others said, you could get a couple years of poor quality IF you're lucky. I'll stick with fixing up the real deal. Oh, some of it is neat to look at for sure, but if you've had that stuff apart it is of poor workmanship.

+1
My retro-looking Crosley Radio (cost $$$) died after 1½ years and it cost more bucks to fix then just buying a new one. My radio now is a 1941 G.E.(cost $30) and has worked every day for 3 years now. Stuff is junk today I have found!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

I have a total of four crosleys the oldest is twenty years old and I have never had a problem with it

 

[Blackjack]

I have two Crosleys, never had a problem with either but this year I think I'm going to invest in one of these!!!!!

 

[Stan]

Crosley?

Hi,

The main issue with all these old (pre 1930) radios is they hadn't yet figured out the dynamics of an electrical loudspeaker. That didn't happen until someone figured out you need a *big* magnet and coil to drive the air driver (cone).

I think the first model to do that was the RCA Radiola 80 around 1933, where they used a new audio driver tube in push-pull and ran the power supply to the tubes through a large coil that was also the driving coil for the magnetic speaker cone.

I have a complete set of Ryder manuals for all those old radios and it's interesting to see the progression of designs over the first couple of decades. Ryder even published a handbook for radio designers, which I have a copy of (being a radio designer myself such things hold a lot of interest).

For those that don't know, Ryder was a radio serviceman's best friend in those days, publishing service manuals for everything. Much like the later Howard W. Sams was with the Photofact series (something else I have a fairly complete set of).

Later!

Stan

 

[kpreed]

Never Again!

I am really glad that some folks here are getting good results from their Crosley's. All I know is I did not.I think the point is not everyone is happy. The lights on the dial went out the first month and as they only made me only mildly upset, buy after a year it began having sound issues, then after another six months was un-usable. Maybe mine was a lemon, but I feel, why spend hundreds for junk, when a better working real thing can cost under half? (not so with the rarer models always)

 

[conrad5157]

I have the CR19CD which I guess is no longer available.

It looks pretty authentic but I've considered maybe stripping and re-staining the wood.

The sound is pretty decent, kind of bassy, which is nice if like me, you leave your radio on all night.

Never had any trouble with the radio or CD player. It actually says "Antique Compact Disk Player" under the hood.

However, like kpreed, the lights failed but it took a couple of years. It doesn't look like an easy fix.

 

[Argee]

I considered getting a Crosley when I was looking for a retro inspired radio, but the widespread quality issues convinced me not to. I ended up going with the TEAC SL-D88. They don't make them anymore but that's what ebay is for.

 

[FStephenMasek]

When discussing Crosley when Mr. Crosley was involved, his monster transmitter at WLW is an important and fun topic:

http://hawkins.pair.com/wlw.shtml

http://www.ominous-valve.com/wlw.html