crosley: Regular; Super Trirdyn, Reflex ?

8
ID: 195028
crosley: Regular; Super Trirdyn, Reflex ? 
19.Jul.09 15:55
0

Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014 (D)
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Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014

The inside escutcheon says "Three tubes do the work of five", but there is only one reflexed stage: the first tube is on double duty, while the second is an audion detector and the third one is the output tube...

Strange, isn't it ?

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 2
? Specmanship? 
19.Jul.09 16:52

Roy Johnson (GB)
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Yes very!

Their contemporary advertisement even reads:-

" ... the incoming signal ... passes through two of the three tubes several times, each time building up its strength and adding to its volume."

Perhaps they regarded the regenerative feedback on the second tube as an extra stage or was it just specmanship against the multi-tubed superhets and redundantly tubed sets with which they were increasingly in competition?

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 3
Reflex 
19.Jul.09 18:25
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Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014 (D)
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Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014

Perhaps they considered the reaction as multiple use of the audion...
Here is an illustration:

The original schematic is taken from H.Haases contribution.

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 4
Tube count 
19.Jul.09 23:20

Michele Denber (USA)
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Michele Denber

That's an excellent illustration.  Thanks for posting that, Konrad.  I have one of these radios in my queue awaiting restoration.  This will definitely help.

I'm sure that Crosley's claims were their shot in the "tube count wars".  The same thing happened in the 60's with transistor radios.  Some manufacturers even soldered transistors to their PC boards that weren't even connected to anything just so they could claim their radio had "more transistors" than the competition.

We see the same thing today with televisions.  The latest thing is for everyone to claim the highest refresh rate.  First it was 120 Hz., then 240, now I see ads for sets with a 600 Hz. refresh!  Since there are only 30 frames per second in the image, it's not quite clear why one needs a 600 Hz. refresh rate.

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 5
boasting 
20.Jul.09 08:22

Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014 (D)
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Konrad Birkner † 12.08.2014

Dear Michele, Dear Roy,

it was certainly based on the excellent salesmanship of Crosley, since in 1925 the only competition may have been by the three-dialers.  Affordable Superhets came 5 years later. And the tube count scandal started 10 years later.

I guess it was full-bodied marketing at its best...

 

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