Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Hi all
Need some advice on this Radiogram I won on an auction site. Works rather well for its age but I noticed the other morning looking at the speakers in natural daylight, that one of the grilles is green. My brother says he thinks it's sun bleached but I do not think so. (see image-left speaker) Anyone experienced this with these speakers? (LS3138) And can anyone advise how and where I can get suitable replacement cloth so they match?

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Oh that picture brings back memories.
Probably is the sun bleaching but always possible the cloth was from a different batch and as aged differently.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I agree, it's likely to have faded after prolonged UV exposure. It's not unusual for pairs of speakers to age differently like this.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Cheers Guys
Wow id never have thought sun bleaching?? I took grill off from speaker and note the wrapped round part of cloth on inside and not exposed to sun, is also green.
I did note that on the inside of the grill is written in white "334" I am at work at the moment so can't recall the number written on the actual speaker, but I know it is different. I will confirm tomorrow but could this be a clue? I was thinking one speaker may have had a tear at some point and wrong cloth fitted? maybe if only one speaker went in for replacement ? I know it was owned by older couple. The son auctioned it off as part of house clearance after the mother passed away. maybe there vision was a bit poor or lighting in room was a bit dim? I have to admit. I was playing records on it Fri eve and never noticed the difference in colour until next day in natural light.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I wonder if it's the other speaker cloth (non-green) which has faded? I have a pair of these speakers and both cloths are green.

Alan

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

These definately had a greenish/grey hue on the assembly line.
It will be a job to source a woven cloth match. Maybe try to turn over/reverse the bleached cloth and see how it looks?

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Alan that's a good point?
Edward the other side of the cloth looks totally different. definitely a good side and a rough side to the cloths. The other number I was talking about on the actual speaker says 203.
End of day I will get used to it I guess. don't really want to mess with the originality of the system.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Please don't call the HFC205 a 'Radiogram'. It's officially an 'Audio Separate'. Compared to most of its contemporary radiograms, it was really hi-fi. Sorry, I'm biased - I wrote the user instructions and service data at Dynatron in the 1970s. Our 'radiogramophones' used the same chassis and speaker drivers as the HFC units, installed in one big cabinet.
I believe the colour of that diamond-pattern cloth varied over the years. Early ones had a distinctly grey background, whereas some, like yours, were more green. I have some of the very late 70s speakers and the cloth is a brown background. I've just looked at the same pattern cloth on my 1974-ish CTV and it has a distinctly green background. Never noticed it before!

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

forgive me dalgwcobl
To be honest I did say to myself its not really a radiogram is it, if the speakers are separate? But then didn't give it much more thought. I used to work for a family company called Squire Of Ealing. they sold musical instruments, sheet music, classical records, pianos etc on one side of the double fronted shop and on the other side was radio and tv and hifi including Dynatron among other high end brands such as Roberts,Technics,B&O etc.
I also owned a Dynatron colour TV finished in same cabinet design as my "audio separate".
Not sure where the tie up was with Dynantron and Philips and Roberts? I was a TV engineer and used to repair this stuff. The guts for instance in my Dynatron TV was a Pye hybrid chassis, same chassis used in lots of standard Pye colour TV sets. They also populated their Cabs with Philips G8/9/11 chassis. I think I am right in saying that Dynatron Brand did not make any of the chassis in their cabinets? Was Dynatron, Philips, Roberts all part of the same company ? As a TV engineer at the time, it did make me chuckle at the people that owned Dynatron TV sets thought because they paid the extra, they were getting far better quality? Not true as far as I was concerned, the cabs were yes but the TV inside was no better than one fitted into an ordinary cabinet, rather like fitting a Ford Escort engine into a Rolls Royce. In my experience Dynatron TV sets failed just as often as a Philips or Pye set.
What does the "HFC" stand for ? I am guessing something like "Hi Fi Console" ??

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Ekco company bought Dynatron in circa 1954, Ekco merged with Pye circa 1960 and then became part of Philips in circa 1967.
The Hacker brothers who owned Dynatron went on to create the Hacker radio brand.

The merging of the Ekco/Pye and then Philips took a few years before everything was just rebadged Philips sets. As late as the early seventies Pye we’re still designing their own CTV’s

Roberts were still their own company but had no television designs, they were just rebadged.

That’s what I remember about the mergers, we were Ekco, Ferranti, Pye, Dynatron, Roberts and Hacker dealers.

Not sure when Ekco took over Ferranti radio and TV, it would be the middle 1950’s.

Edit. From what I remember the customer wasn’t looking for better performance in the fancy Queen Anne style cabinets, it was the furniture that attracted them.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I think the sequence of events went something like this:

1. Ekco bought Dynatron in 1954

2. Ekco merged with Pye in 1960

3. Philips acquired Pye in 1967

4. Roberts bought Dynatron from Philips in 1981

Alan

PS Crossed with Frank's post.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I don’t remember Roberts buying Pye, I was out if the trade by them, another piece of information learned.

There was a B&O dealer in the same town, if someone wanted Scandinavian cabinet design they went there , more traditional they came to us.
The Dynatron range gave as good an account as the B&O, but each had their own followers.

OK on the Roberts Dynatron tie up, I didn’t know.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Sorry, Roberts bought the Dynatron (not Pye) brand in 1981. Original post corrected.

Alan

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

fabulous information guys. Many thanks

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

Dynatron audio was always its own design chassis and cabinets.
Music centres were designed and made at King's Lynn for Pye (1600, 1605,1606) and Philips (979/15 and export Philips brands). A version of that chassis, with magnetic pickup pre-amp, was the Dynatron SRX32.
The TVs were built in the Pye factory in Lowestoft, using Pye chassis. As well as the superior cabinets (contemporary as well as period) the Dynaton sets always had different audio stages high quality sound through larger speakers, plus all the extras such as remote control, audio tone controls and video tint, etc. The latest sets used Philips video chassis.
Robert had a tenuous link with Philips (they used a Philips chassis in their colour TVs) and, indeed, inherited the Dynatron brand when King' Lynn closed in 1980. However, post King's Lynn production, such as the SRX86 audio, were actually Loewe Opta chassis.
The Dynatron and Roberts brand names are now owned by the Glen-Dimplex group.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

HFC stood for High Fidelity Centre and applied to all table top and floor standing versions. I introduced the later model number system to cope with so many variants.
HFC was replaced by 'MC' for music centre, 'RG' for radiogram, etc with a four-digit numerical code which identified the chassis, followed by a two-digit finish code - e.g. 'CT' for Contemporary Teak, 'CW' for Contemporary Walnut, 'CR ' for Contemporary Rosewood, etc and 'PW' = Period Walnut', 'PM' = Period Mahogany or 'PK' = Period oaK. Loudspeaker enclosures were 'LS' followed by four digits, the first two were the model, the third the number of drivers and the fourth the impedance, so LS1428CT was a model 14, with two drivers, 8 ohm impedance and Contemporary Teak. Hope that will help someone trying to crack the codes. That took some remembering! I may still have the model number register from the factory somewhere.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I should have said that the Dynatron factory moved from St Peter's Road, Furze Platt, Maidenhead to King's Lynn in 1973.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

As someone who has scratched his head over the Dynatron numbering system on more than one occasion this is really informative. Any idea what SRX stood for? Forgive me if you've answered this question already and I've not spotted it.

Alan

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

I think SRX stood for stereo receiver, but don't recall any other reason. It was first used on the SRX24 chassis which was the first to have a stereo FM decoder built in. The SRX29/30 series became the 1275 and 1375 in 1975, when we changed over to the Garrard SP25 instead of the Goldring G101 which was not liked by dealers, although it had a much better rumble, wow and flutter performance. Apparently, customers complained it couldn't handle a dust bug as the extra drag slowed it down. We got Goldring to fit a bigger, flat drive belt in the G102, but that produce too much motor noise. We had to re-design the cabinets as the G101/102 had a different motor board shape to the Garrard. Ironically, most of the models had previously been fitted with auto-slim derived units like the SP25, so it was a back-spec exercise. There was also something to do with purchase tax, or somesuch, which meant we had to make the chassis sound new to enable us to change the price! That was in the thick of three-day weeks and all that.

Re: Dynatron HFC 205 Radiogram
 

By the way, The units like the HFC205 were available as a record player and chassis, or as a 'music centre' with cassette tape recorder, or a radiogram with built-in speakers, including the 'flapout ears' tweeters, but no tape unit.
Later music centres using the SRX20 chassis, with CD-780 Dolby tape deck, were also available with a pair of speakers in a shallow sedge-shaped box fitted underneath the cabinet. These were designated 'GC' for Gram Centre, such as GC1510PW. Isn't it amazing how all this comes back after 40-odd years, but don't ask me what I did yesterday!