1930’s HMV coffee table radio [Model 655]

[MurphyNut]

Going back some years I helped a friend out with cabinet restorations and this interesting set came my way.
Clearly a mid to late 1930’s radio, very nicely made as a coffee table, I’ve never seen another one since.
I remember it being in fairly good condition so it didn’t require too much work, though the top was quite badly marked. I only took this one picture, I wish I had taken more.
Is this a known model or would have it been a one off?
It would be interesting if anyone could tell me more about it.

[Paul_RK]

That'll be Model 655, released in September 1937 at £37. 16s. An elaborate chassis with 9 valves plus rectifier and tuning indicator, output from push-pull KT63s. The chassis was used in table models, a more conventional console and a pair of radiograms too: the 650 table set and 660 radiogram from HMV, and the 561 table set, 564 console and 563 radiogram from Marconiphone. By repute it's a fine performer when restored, but the only example I have is a Marconi 563 still waiting for attention: most expensive of all the models back in the day, as while the HMV radiogram was of typical construction for the time the Marconi's massive cabinet is a period-influenced design raised on massive Queen Anne legs.

Paul

[unitaudio]

I imagine that would sound good with that nice big box making the most of the speaker.

Regards,
Paul

[stevehertz]

Jesus what a handsome set. I want one.

[ukcol]

As Paul says its an HMV 655. There was one for sale at a Harpenden event some time ago but the nearest I have got to owning an HMV 655 is owning a manual for it.

A very nice bit of kit indeed.

[Lloyd 1985]

Looks like another radio added to my wish list!

Regards,
Lloyd

[Herald1360]

Find a reasonable old coffee table and a half decent old radiogram chassis!

[turretslug]

Oooh, such a shame the original chassis, etc, is missing, it'd still be a consummate performer on what's left of AM radio. Lovely piece of furniture, though.

[MurphyNut]

I have to put your mind at rest and tell you the set is complete, the chassis was removed to be serviced by my friend and the cabinet passed on to me to be restored.
It was all put back-together and the lucky owner now has a very nice working and looking set.

BTW many thanks to Paul RK for the information.

[turretslug]

Aha, I didn't read between the lines of the first post sufficiently! I do like these big sturdy sophisticated late 'thirties sets where the art of both valves and the AM superhet were really maturing. Tuning around on a fancy all-world set then must have been quite a thing, though obviously not many would have been able to afford to do so on something like this. Glad to hear this one's still going, I think they're something of a cultural as well as purely technical marker. Post-war, a few comprehensive loctal/B8a sets appeared but they seemed to wane by the mid-'fifties. Having said that, the Chapman S6BS here sort of continues the tradition but I'd really need to clothe it in half a hundredweight of polished hardwood and a KT66/13" x 8" speaker or the like for a proper job.

I've toyed with the idea of getting a laminated glass top cut for the (comparatively modest) Marconi 559 here with some felt pads, so it can fulfill the occasional table dual-use criteria. That 655 cabinet really does shout "coffee table"!,

Colin

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Jesus what a handsome set. I want one.

That's just what I was thinking

If anyone tried to put their hot coffee cup anywhere near it though, there'd be trouble though The general shape reminds me more of those revolving bookcases.

N.

[David G4EBT]

I understand from a chum that when he visited Brian C a little while ago, Brian had one of these that he was considering selling. (It had bookshelves in the back!).

Maybe that was the one that sold at Harpenden, or maybe he still has it?

(£37.16s in 1937 = £2,400 today).

[skodajag]

"I imagine that would sound good with that nice big box making the most of the speaker"

They have two speakers, both elliptical and do sound good. Incidentally it has always intrigued me that HMV and Marconi used modest sized ellitical speakers in their high end sets, whereas others, especially in the USA, went for huge diameter speakers - up to 18 ins in the case of McMurdo Silver.

[Edward Huggins]

Many of the American consoles (Magnavox, Philco et al) used 15" and 18" speakers. It was their way of achieving what they sometimes called the "West Coast Sound". HMV/EMI used ellipticals to their very end and there are a number of learned papers justifying this.

[stevehertz]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

Many of the American consoles (Magnavox, Philco et al) used 15" and 18" speakers. It was their way of achieving what they sometimes called the "West Coast Sound". HMV/EMI used ellipticals to their very end and there are a number of learned papers justifying this.

Ed, the West Coast sound is something 'the seeds of which' were sown in the 50s and grew and flourished in the 60s and 70s to become 'The West Coast Sound' as we now know it, a style of (mellow) music. So, not sure what era consoles you're referring to, but if they're the same as the set under discussion, then the West Coast Sound came much later, and at that, it's more a style of music than the sound of a piece of equipment. But of course, a mellow sounding system with a smooth deep bass could perhaps be described as having a 'West Coast sound', but it was not a phrase that was used in the 30s.

[gary_crutchley]

This looks like the same radio. It currently resides at Sudbury Hall, a National Trust property at Sudbury, Derbyshire.

[MurphyNut]

Same model but I'm sure it isn't the actual radio I restored. I'm convinced mine would have looked in considerably better condition than this one pictured from Sudbury Hall. Interesting though!

[skodajag]

BTW, there are quite a few of these sets surviving - I've had three through my hands in recent years, and still own two. The glass top makes it a practical table, and the book space in the rear is useful too. I gave the third one to a friend who lives in the south of France. He used to regularly listen to BBC radio 4 on it from there, until installing an expensive modern lighting system which generated so much interference on AM as to render the set useless.

Generally speaking "we" didn't go for chairside sets like this one as enthusiastically as those in the US; while proximity is obviously convenient control-wise, equally obviously it isn't the best listening position. HMV had an interesting solution to this problem, positioning the speakers at a 90 degree angle to each other: one faces the chair, the other outwards into the room.

[Edward Huggins]

Originally Posted by stevehertz

Ed, the West Coast sound is something 'the seeds of which' were sown in the 50s and grew and flourished in the 60s and 70s to become 'The West Coast Sound' as we now know it, a style of (mellow) music. So, not sure what era consoles you're referring to, but if they're the same as the set under discussion, then the West Coast Sound came much later, and at that, it's more a style of music than the sound of a piece of equipment. But of course, a mellow sounding system with a smooth deep bass could perhaps be described as having a 'West Coast sound', but it was not a phrase that was used in the 30s.

Yes, everything you say here is correct and is not attributable to the 1930s, but Philco used this phrase quite a lot in the mid/late 1950s. This is because many of their units, including portable record players, were designed with Loudness and Bass boost features.

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by Edward Huggins

Many of the American consoles (Magnavox, Philco et al) used 15" and 18" speakers. It was their way of achieving what they sometimes called the "West Coast Sound". HMV/EMI used ellipticals to their very end and there are a number of learned papers justifying this.

That's interesting. If such a large driver were pistonic then it would become hugely directional above a few hundred Hz, so off-axis listening would be muffled or reliant on quite a lively room acoustic (bathroom, perhaps!). The same idea goes for a vertically-mounted elliptical driver - like a mini-column source, with wider horizontal directivity (for multiple listeners) and tighter vertical directivity (so as to lessen the excitation of the reverberant field in the listening room, by lessening floor and ceiling reflections).

But these large flappy paper cones are used full-range with no tweeter and they'll only be pistonic up to a few hundred Hz at best. Above that some of the cone is moving forwards whilst other bits are moving backwards, and the directivity picture gets very messy. Hey, someone could patent that and call it a Distributed Mode Loudspeaker