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Topic: The Schaub & Lorenz paradox

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-21-2011
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I kind of not looker but rather listener and when I do something I prefer to have a radio than TV. When I was hunting for my house I among other thing was looking to have a layout of the rooms what sound of my playback was well heard in my kitchen. Since I hate stairs and I ended up with a ranch- style home that has, as I thought, a perfect kitchen arrangement. My kitchen is in little middle of the house, surrounded with rooms from all sides and wide-opened to my listening room. That was perfect.

I said “was” perfect as I a bit changed my opinion on the subject. The kitchen in my home has become a main living location as it located at the middle of everything and has very comfortable permanent fixed-in table. Most of my time I spend at home I spend in kitchen, not necessary cooking but do everything, staring from working and ending writing this post, in other words my kitchen feels more like a social place. What I discovered with time is that to run my main playback what I am busy in my social kitchen is not always a good idea. My playback is in a way demanding, it is too large to be as background and I feel that for my social kitchen I would like to have some local chamber- type, small sound.

So, what a big deal, set up any mini hi-fi at the kitchen and shut up, what to write about it? Well, I think it is time to tell about another long-standing well dream. I always was thinking to myself that what I get my larger permanent place I will build my midbass horn. Ming another wet dream was in larger place to bring back from my childhood the sound of large radios from 50s.

In beginning of my teens, when I was 11-12 years old I used my reel-to-reel mono machine and I used the old radios as active speakers. Then in the begin of 80 people begin to trash the old radios from 50s and I was pulping them from trash, removed the drivers and made from those drivers my first two stand alone loudspeakers, 6 driver per speakers. I have absolutely no idea what I was doing at that time and I “invented” my own rules. I for instance thought the change in sound when I was connecting drivers parallel vs. in series was my very personal secretive discovery…

Anyhow, I was very friendly with old radio in my past and I have an idea to put one of them in my kitchen. I love how some of the radios from 50s looks like and I love their sound. This is a pure fetish thing but I literally feel horny when I switch from FM to AM with piano button and hear the mechanical springs resonances in a wonderful wooden box. Some of those radios in fact sounded very well, at least for what they meant to do at that time.

So, I kind of slowly look through the park of German early FM radio from 50s. I want one that looks very nice, in mint cosmetic condition, mono, with all original circuit, fully aligned, that will do up to 100mHz and with multiple speakers, preferably multi-amped intently. I do not expect this radio to beat my top end tuners but it will be very different objective. What could be more wonderful then listening on those wonderful old radios some Die Fledermaus tunes while baking portabella mushrooms in garlic?

Saba_Radio.jpg

Anyhow, I would like to make this gift to myself; I do not know what more in this: nostalgia, stupidity of celebration on whatever I like. There are an army of Schaub-Lorenzes , Blaupunkts, Telefunkens, Loewe-Optas, Grundigs, Nordmendes, Sabas, Graetzs, Wegas, Siemenses and many others. There are some wonderful French and Dutch radios. I do not need to know them all but I need one, sexy looking, with good reception and kindly sounding. If somebody has any experience with old radios then tell me what model is look for.

Rgs, Romy the Cat

Posted by zako on 01-24-2011
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A stromberg Carlson 1936 unit with a LABRITH horn design,,,Its a full rich sounding radio and a well balanced sound..   No you cant have it,,Go find your own,,,

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-24-2011
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 zako wrote:
A stromberg Carlson 1936 unit with a LABRITH horn design,,,Its a full rich sounding radio and a well balanced sound..   No you cant have it,,Go find your own,,,
Thanks, zako.

I would like to have a radio that do FM. In 1936 Fm was not produced commercially in US. I will be getting it not for collection purpose but I am actually planning to listen it and I do not have anything I am interested in AM or SW. BTW, I have a few Telefunkens radios from 1936-39. It is not to mention that in 30 they did not do radios as good as they did in 50s.

Stromberg_Carlson_Acoustic_Labyrinth.jpg

There is another thing – I do not like American radios. I admit that that there is a fraction of fetish in this project of mine and I have pleasure from this fetish. My fetish comes from my feeling that some (not all) of old European radios are made very aesthetically pleasurable, at least to me.  I have seen many US made old radios. A year or so ego I attended an estate sale (I have mentioned it somewhere at my site) with literally hundreds vintage US radios – the guy who pass away was collected and repaired them for 60 years. I literally did not find anything that I liked. The American Art Deco stylization is something he I not wild about…

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-17-2011
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After much research I found the radio that I like. The decision was base mostly on the esthetic: size, color etc, sure I was conserving the circuit but only up to point.  The choose when for German Schaub & Lorenz Goldsuper W42. It is 1957 radio with FM unto 100Meg and electrostatic tweeter.

I might talk a lot about this radio, if you are interested then read yourself:

http://www.tubesound.it/Schaub_goldsuper_W42.htm

http://www.tubesound.it/Schaub_goldklang_58.htm

What it end up to be is that I have a space at my kitchen and this sexy looking old radio is a good feel in the space I designate to it. The radio is much smaller than most of the full-sixe vintage radios of the period – that was what I lookd for.
 
I got my Goldsuper today, it is in very fine condition and fully serviced. I very much like it and the mechanical fine tuning and with all those calibrator and etc works as good as it was 50 years back. Sonically it is OK, however, not as great as I accustomed to get from my other tuners via my big system. I was even partially a bit disappointed as in my memories from childhood I remember great sound from old radios. Well, the sound if fine from the Schaub but nowhere near to my usual FM. Via the main system I accustom to very different noise, dynamic and tonal balance.  The Schaub nowhere near to that level.  It is listenable however and it is locally in my kitchen, right next to the table where I cooking, that is what counts.

I would question if I get the contemporary good table radio of let say $300 level then I might have much better result but it was the call from childhood esthetic, so let do not bitch. The Schaub & Lorenz looks sexier, even if not sound better. I might change some tubes in the Schaub, or do something else but as now it does what I want – an attractively looking wooden box that plays my NPR…

Schaub_Lorenz_Goldsuper_W42_1.JPG

Schaub_Lorenz_Goldsuper_W42_2.JPG

Rgs, Romy the Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-17-2011
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It is very interesting as my new Schaub & Lorenz radio is a phenomenal illustration of bad sound. It has “large” and “full sound” with very impressive “bass size” but sat the same time this sound is absolutely dead. In fact audio people might learn on the sound of my Schaub what does it mean “dead sound in audio”. For whatever reason the Schaub’s Sound is very strongly homogenized. It homogenized so hard that any elements of diction, intonation or any event’s discrimination got absolutely blended into one generic indifferent substance. It is interesting to learn what it happen in Schaub. We presume that RF part in there is fine as there is no ”sound” before the detector. So, I wonder what in the Schaub killed the sound?

The Cat

Posted by zako on 02-18-2011
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That radio can be modified,,, to sound better,,Putting it under the kitchin cabinet is the wrong place,,

Posted by Paul S on 02-19-2011
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Romy, this is a classic case of our "memories" telling us something that our ears refute.  Here, you are working against not only the initial limitiations of the design but also the effects of age on everything that did not get replaced during the refurbishment.  It might take a while to re-condition the speakers through use, and it might take a while to learn how to listen to this thing.

As for the more modern table radios, I wish you good luck.  The most "determined" models seem to be the Boze Waveguide and the like, and of course they are all very bad, indeed.  The rest are pretty much random assemblages, as far as I can tell.  I wound up getting a tiny Kaito 1107, and I mostly use truly crappy headphones.  I may try a friend's M-50s, now that he only uses one pair and is selling his leftovers; but I think I would go for a more modern receiver with little BBC  or Jap "monitors", or something like that, before I went for an admittedly-beautiful old console, despite the fond memories of the great old operas on shortwave.

Best regards,
Paul S

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-19-2011
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 zako wrote:
That radio can be modified,,, to sound better,,Putting it under the kitchin cabinet is the wrong place,,

Sure, it might be modified and I am sure substantially improved but I have absolutely no interest or intention to do it. It is what it is, if I need better sound I have other radios. This one is just sexy looking piece of furniture sitting exactly where I want it to be.
 Paul S wrote:
Romy, this is a classic case of our "memories" telling us something that our ears refute.  Here, you are working against not only the initial limitiations of the design but also the effects of age on everything that did not get replaced during the refurbishment.  It might take a while to re-condition the speakers through use, and it might take a while to learn how to listen to this thing.

Actually there is not a lot of refurbishment in this radio – everything is more or less original. BTW, the radio has a “spectacular” rectifier – two pin EZ80 tube rectifier. The spectacular in it is that only heaters are connected to the circuit in order the tube lit, but the actual rectification is being done by a small SS rectifier on the another side of the tube socket. Someone did the clandestine modification…
 Paul S wrote:
As for the more modern table radios, I wish you good luck.  The most "determined" models seem to be the Boze Waveguide and the like, and of course they are all very bad, indeed.  The rest are pretty much random assemblages, as far as I can tell.  I wound up getting a tiny Kaito 1107, and I mostly use truly crappy headphones.  I may try a friend's M-50s, now that he only uses one pair and is selling his leftovers; but I think I would go for a more modern receiver with little BBC  or Jap "monitors", or something like that, before I went for an admittedly-beautiful old console, despite the fond memories of the great old operas on shortwave.

I do not know, there are plenty of good contemporary table radios without going to the Boze level…. Anyhow, I like your idea about the "memories" but not in the context how you used it.

The Cat

Posted by bernie_f on 02-19-2011
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...the TIVOLI MODEL ONE
its mono with a 5" widebander and a wooden cabinet. sounds superb with great tone. perfect for my kitchen now for 5 years. would recommend the walnut version
bernie

Posted by zako on 02-19-2011
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Romy....Everybody nows that a radio sounds best on top of the Refridgerater...Even my grandma new that..She had a radio simmiler to yours...It also kept my fingers off the dial.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-24-2011
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 Romy the Cat wrote:
Anyhow, I like your idea about the "memories" but not in the context how you used it.

I kind of semi-write about it in the thread about the “Remembering Sound”:

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?postID=3149

but in the even with my new old Schaub & Lorenz this subject have risen again. The subject is “how we remember sound”. it is very possible that my Schaub & Lorenz is juts shity radio or had some specific problem that nned to be addressed  making sound not as good as I remember. However, most likely the Schaub & Lorenz is fine and it is my memory that makes me to feel that 30 years a back what I heard from old table radio was more stimulating that it in fact was.

I was impressed with those old radios in my teens and I am critical about them in my 40s. Was it Sound that we are dealing with in this case or we are dealing with a mind returning back to own past and find super-positive sensation about own youth?  I sense the latter is more likely.

I feel that my mind over-values own sensations. I do not have another mind and I do not know how it works with other people. The Last year I had an interesting experience. When I was 18 years old I was in love. It was not the first woman in my life but it was the first high amplitude love, the love that I did not know how to manage at time, I am sure we all were there. Everything was over at my 19, what I went to Army for 2 year, then the lives when sot different directions… Last year she found me somehow via internet and we exchange emails and spoke. That was amassing experience for me. I expected from myself to enjoy my memories about her. I did enjoy but the amassing part was that in those memories I found pleasure about my own sensations about her and pretty much discarded her as the object of my sensations. That super egotistic memory of mine made me to think what nostalgia about anything, including Sound or first love, is not about longing for something or somebody in past but rather longing for own early life. Sure, I do not say it to her; I was so indifferent about her that I did not even felt pleasure to insult her with this revelation.

Perhaps I am egotistic not only in audio or perhaps Russians are right when the say that one can’t walk into the same river twice…

So, I do not think it is the Schaub & Lorenz problem but rather my hyper-positive memories about what I sensed in my teens… I wish the change of a capacitor or a rectifier would be able to tweak it…. 

Rgs, Romy the Cat

Posted by Paul S on 02-24-2011
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It may be that the souind we want from the old radio is non-aggressive and capable of tenderly re-stirring the sense of things as they "were",  which is to say, as we "remember" them.  The radio is a tuner, an amp and a speaker or speakers, so it ought to be possible to manipulate the sound to find out what "works best" for the purpose.  I have been disappointed with the sound from the table radios I have heard, including all the "special" Crane, etc, numbers that people wax so lyrically about with their "recommendations".  For instance, I certainly "recommend" that one actually listen to the Tivoli, etc. before buying.  It does seem like we are asking rather less from a table radio; but still it has a "job" to do, and in the end it will be just as determined as any other vehicle we might enjoy, or expect to enjoy.  It might take a while to balance the "memories" with the expectations.  Basically, it is hard to systematically let go of - let alone erase - all subsequent experience, so there needs to be a meeting of the minds.

Best regards,
Paul S

Posted by Romy the Cat on 02-27-2011
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As I said I did not plan to modify my little sexy German radio in any way. No mater how pathetic it sounds I do like in my kitchen and I heavily use it – expertly as I expected. I however, did mean to change it cosmetically to replace the speaker’s cloth. I found a fabric that I like and replacement was very easy. It is darker color and it made my Schaub & Lorenz even better looking – love it!

The incredibly ironic thing is that to the grill’s fabric did change very positively the sound of the radio. It is not because the old Schaub fabric had 60 years old compressed dust but it has to do with the way how Schaub apply the fabric. This radio use in front 2 oval full-range drivers that are mounted on a wood board with oval holes. Above the holes, right under the fabric, on the box axis of each driver Schaub & Lorenz stretched a cross of 1.5” plastic-like material. I means that each driver had with a driver surface a non-transparent masking and this was in the very mid of the driver – where HF are coming out of the driver. The plastic-cross did form a skeleton that hold the fabric over the driver, preventing it from sagging. It also, subs a lot of HF transient response of the drivers and in the very middle of the driver they were covered with virtually brick walls.

Removing of the original grill fabric and the most important removing the under-fabric sound non-transparent plastic-like frame did yield a lot of more HF from the radio and made sound much more appreciative. I have no idea why Schaub & Lorenz did it. It looks like they had no ears to hear what they do.

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 03-16-2011
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A few weeks back as I got the Schaub & Lorenz I pulled the pubes out and measured them on my tester.  The tubes were very week and the output tubes were semi-dead. The Schaub uses a pair of ECL82 tube in output stage. The ECL82 are triode-pentode tube and the Schaub use it as driver and power scare, one per channel.  I think AN UK did the same in some of this devise but it is not important. So, the ECL82’s pentodes in my radio showed 60% of what consider acceptable and the triode section of ECL82 showed just 10% of norm. I frankly never had seen my tester to show so far from specification.

So, I ordered at that time a set of new tubes. I was shopping for better ECL82 but sine I do not know this tube at all then being a Frugal Jew I bought the cheapest tubes. For $18 I got a set of 4 Russian 6F3P - the Svetlana equivalent of ECL82. It took almost a month to get them and I toss then in the radio last night. You know, I ma going to tell it- it became VERY nice, I guess the dead tubes do count.

The tuner dropped noise hugely, the sound got energy and extension in both directions, the transients and articulation– everything got very much improved.  The bass this thing throws is truly unanticipated and this time it is not juts gray mass of genetic bass but it in fact very pleasant sound. Also, it has some very surprising lower bass that did not exist in this radio before. I wonder where it comes from… I kind of begin to like this radio.

The Cat

Posted by JJ Triode on 03-16-2011
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The ECL82 = 6BM8 was used a lot in low-end amps, both push-pull and single-ended.  Actually, according to your radio's schematic to which you posted a link, they are not being used "one per channel," rather it is a mono radio (nothing wrong with that) and they are a push-pull pentode pair, class AB and good for around 8 watts.  One triode section is a gain stage and the other triode section provides phase inversion for one output pentode only, the other pentode being driven directly off the first triode; this is the so-called paraphase splitter topology.  Most PP people prefer the concertina, long-tailed-pair or transformer splitters (I recently converted a small EL84 amp from paraphase to concertina with good results) but in view of the somewhat collectible status of this unit I would not change it.  The same applies to the option of connecting the output sections in triode, which would reduce power by about a factor of 2 with little likely improvement to the sound.
Ironic that your radio came to you "fully serviced" but the audio output tubes were not checked!
Note the text on the Italian web site says it is a cathodyne phase splitter, but it is not.  Cathodyne = concertina, with one output section driven from the plate and the other from the cathode of the splitter section.  This one is definitely paraphase.  There is also global feedback around the power amp, I would say it is about 12 dB, which is reasonable.  There is a shared cathode resistor on the outputs, so matched pentodes would be preferable but I would say not critical.  The paraphase splitter has so-so phase balance anyway, as it depends on a voltage divider (I think it is resistors 88 and 89 on the schematic) to cancel the gain of the inverter triode, and this will never be exact without hand-trimming.

Posted by Romy the Cat on 03-16-2011
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Yes, you are right, I forgot that it is mono PP radio. I such case one ECL82 triode is driver stage and one is phase splitter. Here is a full cur cut of the radio. There is nothing special in it – a very typical circuit. 

http://www.goodsoundclub.com/PDF/GoldSuperW42.pdf

The sound is pleasant, although nothing dramatic but with new tubes it is very far from the initial revolting reaction I had. As now I love my old radio and I have no plans to do anything with it. I will keep it as it, perhaps only I will get the set of the new tubes for front end, IM stages, mixer and detector. I guess that if the output tubes were so dead then the front end would be from the same vintage…

Posted by Romy the Cat on 03-17-2011
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Schaub & Lorenz_NewGril.JPG


Posted by Romy the Cat on 04-05-2011
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I got this week the last new tube for my Schaub & Lorenz. Since I got wonderful result with change of the output tubes I decided to swallow the bullet and buy all new tubes for this radio. My presumption is that as bad my original output tubes were the rest of the tubes (if RF) side were of the same vintage.
 
The while set of the new tubes cost about $150, I got all Telefunkens. Today I put all new tubes in the Schaub and it sounded like completely another radio. There is no noise anymore, the selectivity got much better and it looks like the RF bandwidth got much wider. Not I can tune on the station using a full turn of dial in a contrary to before when I used a ½ or 1/4 of dial’s turn.

The radios sound now very nice, extremely peaceful.  The Schaub & Lorenz is here to live, not it is not only sexy but in fact does pleasant sound.

The Cat

Posted by Romy the Cat on 05-02-2012
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I can’t stress how much pleasure I get from my kitchen radio. It is not about brand of specific sound that the radio produces but rather the esthetics or it and the location. It happened that in my house a kitchen is a center of activities and traffic. I run my Schaub & Lorenz each day and it is pretty much my main non-musical radio entertaining recourse.  

I wonder why the industry does not do a contemporary version of the radios from 50s. Sure I have seen the Chinese crap for $50 that they sell as “vintage look”. I did not mean that but I mean a really pretty and solid furniture work with good contemporary consumer radio, some sort of high end Bose radio but on the attractive   expensive enclosure. I do not see that it will not have demands for let say $1K. I wish somebody would look into it.

The cAt.

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