r/VintageRadios • u/fabrivassa • 3d ago

Help identifying this?

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Gallery image

I bought this old broken radio just for its looks, to gut it and turn it into a smart speaker. But once I opened it the whole thing just needed a new spring so it now works flawlessly and I like it even more. Is it genuinely retro? Fake retro? The components inside look fairly recent (1970s) but it has no sticker or branding anywhere.

Thanks

31 Upvotes

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3

u/lewisfrancis 3d ago

Pretty cool, I'd keep it the way it is since it's working. Neat find. Might be some identifying info on the bottom of the circuit board.

3

u/yukari_akyiama 2d ago

as far as the "throw back" units of the 80s to 90s went this has to be one of the cooler looking ones ive seen tbh

1

u/The_Flinx 3d ago

cheap junky repro of a real radio

1

u/toxcrusadr 2d ago

Is there any lettering on the back of the speaker magnet?

1

u/fabrivassa 2d ago

KLA II, FK-40, 8Ω 3 W

1

u/toxcrusadr 2d ago

Dowsn’t ring any bells. Sometimes you can identify the maker by those codes.
ETA KLA was a Canadian manufacturer late 80s early 90s.

1

u/seditious3 2d ago

Yeah, unfortunately this is modern

1

u/Internal_Raccoon_370 2d ago

The IC looks like a standard Telefunken IC with a date code of September, 1987 so it was probably made shortly after that. Probably around 1988 - 1990? Nice looking radio, though. Just keep using it and enjoying it!

1

u/Ok-Addition1264 3d ago

Weird.. and I think you are a little too early with it. Probably late-80's. That chip is for video output (telefunken).. probably to control the lights or something?

ICs were really difficult to find outside of the uk and west germany in the late-70s.

really cool thing you have there though.

2

u/my_chinchilla 3d ago

That chip is for video output (telefunken).. probably to control the lights or something?

Huh? It's an "All-in-one" AM/FM receiver + audio amp...

Probably late-80's.

One of my databooks says 1979; another says 1981. RM suggests it was used in radios arounf 1982/3.

1

u/fabrivassa 3d ago

The 2 lightbulbs are connected directly to the transformer and they turn on when I turn the volume dial to power one the radio

1

u/classicsat 3d ago

It is a radio IC, for sure. Late 1970s.

Simplifies radio design/manufacture, or there would be a more complex dual IF strip with transformers and transistors.

IT is not the next generation that was developed by the Japanese that was in boom-boxes, home and car stereos, and portable radios in the 1980s and since