Roberts - which one to get next?

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by raditechman

Early UK VHF sets only went to 100Mhz as the frequencies above 100Mhz were used for communication,..

There were several exceptions, though, including the Dynatron Commodore (1961) and Atlantis (1966), Hacker RV14 Mayflower (1961) and Roberts R700 (1965). I don't know if there was ever any official discouragement from extending coverage above 100 MHz. Perhaps users just didn't welcome radios tunable over a band half of which was of no interest to them.

Paul

[paulsherwin]

Roberts were slow to extend FM coverage to 108 - I think the R800 was the first model to do so, apart from the slightly oddball R700 from 1966.

The R606 and R606MB are good performers and coverage can be tweaked up to 107 without losing R2 at the bottom end, though 107.9 will be a stretch. There are actually two completely different R606MBs. The early models are an R606 with a mains power unit added, while the later models are a different all silicon design. These radios can have problems with Lockfit transistors, but these are cheap and mostly easy to replace.

[ambit-r]

Originally Posted by Mike. Watterson

Roberts hasn't existed for ages. It's cheap Chinese OEM stuff (some no-name Chinese is better). It's merely a badge owned by Glen-Dimplex. I believe they kept the UK cabinet production for a while. Current models seem x8 over priced.

The most recent Roberts I have an experience with are the early R250 Revivals. The cabinets are decently built (could have been made in the UK) but the electronics is very Chinese. The sound quality is nowhere near R600. As a radio they are not much but the design is very appealing. My wife loves them.

Originally Posted by Mike. Watterson

Akai, Grundig, RCA, Bush, Murphy, Swan, Morphy Richards and others are really just badges.

Are there any modern radio sets that you would consider to be "Hacker quality" of these days?

I think there are none. All is cheaply made over prized far east made stuff that nobody will care about in next 5 years.

When I moved to Slovakia about 10 years ago I wanted to keep listening to Radio 4. LW reception is a hit and miss - well, mostly a miss. A frame antenna helps only a little. The obvious choice was an internet radio. I found two models that had the look and feel of a real radio set. Pure Evoke Flow and Roberts Revival iStream. The iStream was expensive, very expensive. And powered from 4x LR20 batteries. That was back in 2010 when most appliances had already been using lithium rechargeable batteries. So I went for Evoke Flow. Nice and modern looking radio with li-ion battery rechargeable in the radio. But that's all that was nice about it. The sound was rather poor (nicely put) and you could hear a digital hiss every now and then. Just when the warranty expired the OLED display went. I was quoted about 80% of the new radio costs for replacement plus shipping costs on top of that. I ditched the radio, bought couple of R600 and set-up a raspberry pi with a small FM transmitter to retransmit Radio 4. It has been working perfectly for over 6 years now.

There is no way for me to buy any modern radio set in the future. Even if the DAB completely replaces FM in the next decade or so.

[ambit-r]

Originally Posted by Paul_RK

There were several exceptions, though, including the Dynatron Commodore (1961) and Atlantis (1966), Hacker RV14 Mayflower (1961) and Roberts R700 (1965). I don't know if there was ever any official discouragement from extending coverage above 100 MHz. Perhaps users just didn't welcome radios tunable over a band half of which was of no interest to them.
Paul

Roberts R600 is also such exception.

[Viscount]

the 606 mb is a great set ,ive got 2 in my collection,nice sound for a small set ,ive also got an R800 amazing sound quality but they do suffer from dodgy on off switches

[Radiocruncher]

The R700 is a good choice. It’s very similar in looks to the R600 but with the addition of base and treble controls. There is a sort of module in it which contains AF117 transistors so if you buy one it will probably need work. I recently featured it in one of my YouTube live-streams at 1:05:00 here https://youtu.be/_Tb-VYafQDI. Great radios and well worth picking up.

Regards

Graham

[ambit-r]

That is an excellent video Graham. I have never seen R700 and R600 side by side. Thank you.

[Mike. Watterson]

I have an R600 and a R700. My Grandparents had one or the other, or maybe both at different times. The AM & FM IF Mullard module is a pig to work at on the R600. It's horrid how the bandswitches are wired. I gave up on the first example I got and repaired a second one. The R700 seems to be older and better!
I also have a Hacker RP18 which is a little larger than the R700 (which is larger than the R600).
I have a Hacker RP25A Sovereign II, which is larger still, and better. Both the Hackers only go up to about 101.5 or 102MHz. Both the Roberts do go to 108, but are otherwise inferior to the Hackers. My couple of old Asian sets are better than the Roberts and have more bands. The Koyo KTR-1661 is much the better than either of the Roberts. Mains, Battery, 3 x SW, 3 x VHF, LW & MW. Mains cable storage in the case. Even the HK Academy Compass (also sold branded as Binatone and others) is better than the Roberts models.
Very, very many German and Philips (continental sales) of the era are better. Roberts was well established and did better quality than many of cost reduced models of 1950s to mid 1960s. However beyond the speaker and the wooden box they appeared to give up Radio design and simply buy in Mullard / Philips OEM modules into increasingly poorly thought out chassis.

The R700 is a better choice than the R600 if you must have a Roberts.

I think many Models of that era need longer shaft 3.5mm headphone out or Tape/Gram 3.5mm plugs. The same era Japanese ones are standard 3.5mm. Though all are mono.