The Best vintage UK Radio ever made

[Bassette]

So adding my four pennyworth. I have a Bush VHF62 - shines like a shilling and plays like a warm valve radio should do. Not that I have any other radio to compare with
Once in love, so on goes the coloured glasses.

[wireful3]

Hi Crackle,
Ref A104, I was assuming the radio would be in restored condition and would need no further work. You are right about the restoring problems. In fact I might go so far as to think it was not designed to be mended. Just taking the back off so frequently has wrecked the SW bandspread knob.

The optical projection scale must have been quite intriguing to prospective buyers and gives an effective bandspread for SW listening. As you say the whole appearance was ahead of its time. On sound quality, I must say I have had no problems with this but then I usually have the volume only set at a modest level.

This raises in my mind questions about how to judge any radio for being the best ever made. Should we be critical for designers having the confidence to assume their set would never need mending? On the other hand is there virtue in being ahead of the times? We look at them historically and know they do break down. Also years after the production of a set visual tastes evolve, a futuristic design can now look old hat.

I still like my A104 but that is just me

[stitch1]

'I still like my A104 but that is just me'

Me too, its one of my favorites as restoring was a great challenge especially the SW projector and changing the drive cords! Sound quality fine no buzzing or rattles.

Apparently its wall mountable!

It is one of the most interesting radios but I doubt its the best Vintage UK radio ever made.

[Andrewausfa]

No issues with my A104 either. As Mr Stitch says, very interesting design-wise.

Andrew

[Chris Parry]

HMV 5101 is a good candidate. Complicated tea-planters set but this one has LW, and works better than the rest. KT66 audio. Chris.

[Focus Diode]

My all time favourite radio has to be the HMV 1131 (circ 1959) I had between 1975-1989. It was purchased by an uncle a few years before for five shillings (25 New Pence). What a superb radio this was. I still have some recordings made direct from it. The VHF performance was also very good, being able to receive LBC in Chippenham way before a hi-fi tuner could during a tropo lift.

During an Alverston Derbyshire event I attended with Colourstar a few years ago I was chuffed to find the Marconiphone equivalent.

This will be a restoration project for the new year.

Brian

[val33vo]

Got to be an Eddystone or Hacker

Regards

val33vo

[Brian R Pateman]

If it's tea-planters' sets you are after, how about the Pye PE80 which was the last of the big beasts.

Obviously designed as an export set with all those Short Wave bands. One of the best sounding sets of the era and the radiogram version was a thing of beauty and a joy to behold.

[Osiris69]

Hacker Mayflower for me, clear winner. Love it. Great sound quality and a "warming" sound. If it wasn't strictly a valve set question I would have gone for the Hacker Hunter, my favorite set by far.

[GJR 11L]

I'm surprised that I'm only the second member to mention the absolutely stunningly good Ekco C273.
It sounds awesome, looks are certainly striking but don't expect me to be borst enough to state whether I consider it a thing of beauty, that's far too subjective even when the set being described is the lovely Mayflower RV14.

[Mike Phelan]

Pye FenMan II or anything Hacker if we stick to British. Otherwise, Blaupunkt or Saba radiogram?

What's borst, John? At first I thought it was Russian soup, but realised the error of my ways.

[GJR 11L]

Ooh-er! Sorry Mike, I thought that I'd written "bold" in there. Must have been one of these all too frequent cases of starting to write one word, but finishing it as another following an interruption. I must henceforth take notice of these red lines that appear under some words in my posts.

Apologies to all for causing confusion and thanks, Mike, for picking that up.

[wireful3]

I rather liked borst somehow it seemed right !

[gungrdin]

Originally Posted by petertheorgan

I am more than happy to be shot down in flames but if I had to slim down my collection the last two radios to go would be my Hacker Mayflower Mark one and my Ekco A274, both mid 1950s VHF only sets and both sound superb

I agree, I have an A274 and it sounds fantastic. I even play cds through with the cd player connected to its pu input with superb results. Regards Rich.

[kestrelmusic]

Any of the big Pyes. For looks you can't beat the old "rising sun" wooden TRFs, though of course their performance is not as good as the later superhets.

I'm also working on a Bush SUG26 - 3 band AM with push-pull EL41s. Unfortunately one of them is gassy which has wrecked the output transformer...

Also for a little tabletop, the pre-war Pilot Little Maestro and for a big tabletop the pre-war Barker 88. The latter was, I think, a Plessey chassis with push-pull 6V6s. I've got on on top of my wardrobe...

[newlite4]

In my forty years of collecting sets, ever since I were a nipper, I have to say that my all time best is the Ekco A22. All those years ago I wanted one, now I have one I can see what all the fuss was about. As a superior AM radio with exceptional short wave capability, with the equivalent of a massive tuning scale, when connected to a decent aerial these sets are the business. I now know why these sets sell for so much, they are such good performers that everyone wants one.
Neil

[crackle]

Yep, although I have never heard or seen one in real life, for looks and a good big dial for easy tuning I would go along with that.

So is there a conclusion to this, could a poll be setup for a few of the more popular suggestions.

Mike