Mysterious Jensen speaker

[williamh]

I just found a very old jensen speaker in an antique radio. I have searched online for info but I haven't find anything. What do you think? Is it worth anything?

 

[KEW]

I doubt the speaker has any sound quality virtues, but that is a cool cabinet!
I'd probably give at least some consideration to finding a decent bluetooth speaker to flush mount behind the grill and stream Pandora through it in my kitchen!

 

[tyhjaarpa]

If the radio is working then it is cool thing to have but I doubt the speaker itself is not so good.

 

[Pogre]

I doubt the speaker has any sound quality virtues, but that is a cool cabinet!
I'd probably give at least some consideration to finding a decent bluetooth speaker to flush mount behind the grill and stream Pandora through it in my kitchen!

Modern tech in a retro package? I like it! From what we can see in the pic it looks to be in decent shape cosmetically. Could be a fun project.

 

[highfigh]

I just found a very old jensen speaker in an antique radio. I have searched online for info but I haven't find anything. What do you think? Is it worth anything? View attachment 21839
View attachment 21840

Nice radio!

Leave it intact- the radio isn't worth as much without the speaker and the speaker isn't valuable without the radio. That said, do a search to determine the radio's value- Facebook has several antique radio groups and they can tell you about the radio just by looking at it.

That speaker probably won't work on a modern system- it's called a 'field coil speaker' because it has a coil around the voice coil to provide the magnetic field that causes the cone to move. The field coil would eventually be replaced by permanent magnets when the technology allowed. It also has an output transformer, which is needed to provide a usable load for the amp.

Look for a single RCA jack on the rear- many old radios had an input for a turntable you can buy a summing adapter if you want to use this with a smart phone or BT receiver. Just make sure to service it before using if the electrolytic capacitors haven't been replaced. Also, some of these don't have a power transformer and they're not the safest things on the planet. Look for an antique radio group for info and they can get you going, safely.

Also, look for a six digit code on the speaker frame- this is a date code with the first three characters showing who made it. 220 is Jensen's EIA code, the next two are for the week of manufacture and the last digit shows the year. If the speaker, caps and/or controls are original, you can determine when the radio was made- if the controls have 137 as the first three digits, they were made by CTS and if they have 304, they were made by Stackpole. The last digits show the week and year.

The EIA codes were used to provide manufacturer info after the start of WWII, so the military could keep track of their inventory and gather other info WRT reliability, inventory age, etc.

 

[highfigh]

I posted the photo with an info request on Facebook a few minutes ago-

RCA A24 1941 / 42, Canadian model

From the same person- " Plenty of books , also a full serie on RCA Canadian service manual & data book, Canadian Radio College".

 

[highfigh]

If the radio is working then it is cool thing to have but I doubt the speaker itself is not so good.

The speaker in this photo is on a lap steel guitar amp, made around 1937 (this is when the 6L6G tube became available) and it works very well. The speaker in this radio looks like it's almost new, so I doubt it has been damaged. The output is usually about 5W in these radios.

The good news- they tend to work for a very long time. The bad news- the speakers were assembled using hide glue, so hot/dry or hot/humid environment can cause the glue to fail.

 

[Bucknekked]

The speaker in this photo is on a lap steel guitar amp, made around 1937 (this is when the 6L6G tube became available) and it works very well. The speaker in this radio looks like it's almost new, so I doubt it has been damaged. The output is usually about 5W in these radios.

The good news- they tend to work for a very long time. The bad news- the speakers were assembled using hide glue, so hot/dry or hot/humid environment can cause the glue to fail.

Highfigh
When I saw the picture and the original question, I thought this was going to be a short and boring thread.
Your responses really made it worthwhile to read. That's some good information in your posts.
The antique radio community is slowly dying off, but there are a lot of passionate folks out there with lots of experience.

 

[highfigh]

Highfigh
When I saw the picture and the original question, I thought this was going to be a short and boring thread.
Your responses really made it worthwhile to read. That's some good information in your posts.
The antique radio community is slowly dying off, but there are a lot of passionate folks out there with lots of experience.

"The antique radio community is slowly dying off"

I'm not sure about that- the old guys are losing interest, dying, etc, but there's a good amount of new blood getting into it. The restorations that are being done are pretty impressive- I have seen radios that sat in barns and were covered with dust (and other stuff), had been rained on and the steel chassis were badly rusted, the dial glass was broken, hazy, missing knobs and decals and other parts- the parts for a lot of old radios are available in OEM from collectors and dealers of old parts and also from companies like AES (Antique Electronic Supply), Radio Daze and others. Grill cloth, small parts and paint/dye/toner is available from Monarch and the colors are authentic.

Some of the people who get into old radios started by working on old guitar amps, collecting old lamps, or other things that were old and becoming less common. Some have five or ten old radios, some literally have hundreds. They have swap meets all over the country and many cities have an antique radio society.