Help ID flea market speakers w. Tube amps inside!

[Fast79]

Hey guys... picked up these cool little speakers that have tone/volume controls on the front and individual tube amps inside. Seems like it could be a fun restoration, but I have never worked on tube amps and have no clue who might have produced these. All they say on the front is “stereo- hifi” and there is no other marking. The front screens seem professional but the tube amp has no board and is just wires running from place to place (the four wires coming out of that waxy cap caught my eye first). Speakers are mismatched as well (one has a green basket). Any info you could provide on what these might be and whether they are worth the restoration would be appreciated!

Ed

 

[Tom Bavis]

I think I see the name "Fanon" on the 12AX7 tube, and I've seen a powered speaker by that brand. The larger transformer looks like it's wired to the power cord, so it provides isolation (otherwise, this amp would be running directly from the power line, which would create multiple safety issues).

The big firecracker and the smaller caps should be replaced. Adding a fuse would be a good move too.

 

[hnash53]

Those are cool !!

 

[Fast79]

Thanks guys. I’m def struggling to find out anything on the internets. One tube does say fanon and the others say tele-tone. The only speakers I’ve been able to find that resemble these are silvertones. Noticed as well there is a bulb inside that is glued to a clear rubber bit on the speaker grill so they will glow when powered on. Also a bit perplexed by the lack of inputs; both have wires but one has been cut, the other terminated in a male rca style plug. Maybe they originally came with a turntable that had female outputs?

I dig them too... just don’t know much about tube amps so hard for me to tell much. Def planning on recapping if I restore... hopeful the red/black leads going into the cap signify polarity and aren’t just random! Someone has already been in these before (green basket speaker is newer, and leads to the speaker were cut and labeled)... hoping as well that they didn’t give up because it wasn’t worth the effort!

 

[FlaCharlie]

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Hey guys... picked up these cool little speakers that have tone/volume controls on the front and individual tube amps inside. Seems like it could be a fun restoration, but I have never worked on tube amps and have no clue who might have produced these. All they say on the front is “stereo- hifi” and there is no other marking. The front screens seem professional but the tube amp has no board and is just wires running from place to place (the four wires coming out of that waxy cap caught my eye first). Speakers are mismatched as well (one has a green basket). Any info you could provide on what these might be and whether they are worth the restoration would be appreciated!

Ed

Found the page below with a pic that includes Fanon nameplate with a model number which is too fuzzy for me to read. The writer misspelled the name of the amp (Fanton?) and doesn't mention the model number. No pics of the original guts. He replaced all the circuitry and turned it into a low power (1w) guitar amp using the original cabinet and speaker only.

http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Amps/Fanton.html

He claims the amp was wired directly to AC and the pics of yours show the power tubes as 50C5 which are typical of such designs. However it looks like yours does have an isolation transformer which would make it safe, as Tom pointed out.

Further searching reveals that Fanon seems to have been associated with Masco. That led me to this, which looks like your amps since yours seem to have four tubes: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/fanon_fanfare_st_5.html

There is also the ST-4, with three tubes: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/fanon_fanfare_st_4.html

I think I see the name "Fanon" on the 12AX7 tube, and I've seen a powered speaker by that brand. The larger transformer looks like it's wired to the power cord, so it provides isolation (otherwise, this amp would be running directly from the power line, which would create multiple safety issues).

The big firecracker and the smaller caps should be replaced. Adding a fuse would be a good move too.

It lists the Sams Photofact schematic as 441-3. Perhaps Tom has a copy?

There is also a similar model, the ST-4, with three tubes: https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/fanon_fanfare_st_4.html

 

[Fast79]

Wow! That is extremely helpful... thank you! Great googling btw. This is certainly from that line, though I’m unsure of the specific model. I haven’t worked on a tube amp before so I’m sure I’ll be digging quite a bit when I get down to it... this will be a big help.

 

[Retrovert]

Fanon and Masco made AC intercoms. Could those powered speakers actually be extension speakers for an intercom?

Many of those intercoms were sold under other names, so you might be able to find information from one of the resellers.

 

[Fast79]

Yes I have seen those, but I don’t think so. These are much nicer (gilded, lighted, etc) and the chrome decal reads “stereo hifi”. If there hadn’t been two of them, I would have assumed it was a guitar amp (flacharlie’s link above had someone using it for just that).

 

[gadget73]

I wonder if there is a missing RF receiver here. GE made something called the Porta-Fi years ago. Basically it was a short range radio transmitter in the console and you had a remote speaker with the receiver in it. Same functional concept as modern Bluetooth, but using 1950s tech.

 

[century tek]

IMHO, it looks like you got a hold of two identical companion speakers probably from two different (same brand) radio/record player units like some of those old Packard-Bell stereo's.

Or it could be the complete stereo amps for a missing turntable or something.

 

[Tom Bavis]

The Sams folder is on radiomuseum.org, non-members can download three pages a day (actually they are emailed to you)