COPPER

A PS Audio Publication

Issue 55 • Free Online Magazine

Issue 55 VINTAGE WHINE

Vintage Voltage: A Photo Feature

Vintage Voltage: A Photo Feature

Researching and writing theoretical and historical pieces is a lot of work, and can get a little dry. As a change of pace, I present pics from Vintage Voltage, a local meet held Sunday, March 18,  which included the annual show of the Colorado Radio Collectors Club, and then branched off into guitars, hi-fi, records, test gear, and more. I’ve skipped the record vendors, as they basically all looked alike; I also skipped the guitars for the most part, as to my uneducated eye, it looked like pretty mundane stuff—apologies if it wasn’t, but how many Strats can you look at without lapsing into geeky fervor over minutiae?

My apologies for some of the pics: apparently I still had some shaky hands left over from my recent marathon cold. And now….

View from above---this section was the show of the Colorado Radio Collectors Club.
Plastic clock radios don't do anything for me, but I guess some folks like them.
The second room contained vintage hi-fi, records, guitars, and whatever.
That dark thing under the cassettes is an Apple Hi-Fi. Oddly rare.
Ho-hum, old McIntosh gear was everywhere. ;->

I'm a sucker for big German tabletop radios like this Grundig.

The label says "Vietnam era field switchboard, complete." Huh.

Carver Amazing Loudspeakers behind some homebuilt line arrays. Seller wanted to explain to me what a line array was. I said, "Thanks. I'm familiar with the concept."
Hi, there! There were quite a few women in attendance---most looked rather bored.
Yep, more Mac gear, a bunch of Chinese tube amps, and a nice Tandberg receiver--the only piece I coveted at the show.
Longtime area dealer Gold Sound was there in force.
There was a fair amount of Crown at the show, including this pair from Gold Sound.
I lied. I coveted this Nak 550 portable, also. For no rational reason.

A pretty Thorens TD-150 in front of a B&O-esque desktop system.

I should've looked at the Ampex speakers beneath the Mitsubishi vertical turntable. They usually had good JBL drivers.
"That's not a tube. THIS is a tube."
A variety of test gear.
A pretty TEAC r-to-r in back of a recent Numark table.
A rare M&K sub w/ intact driver next to a rare Phase Linear 400 that hadn't burst into flames. ;->

Spica TC-50s and a big Yamaha receiver.

Daulquist DQ-10s in the rarely-seen white grillecloth. Meh.
Huh: a rare Phase Linear 700 that hadn't burst into flames!

Radios from the '20s to the '50s.

Testing a Crown amp. Hmmm---filter caps bad, maybe?

The once-ubiquitous Zenith 500 portable, with all original packaging. Wow.

A little bit of everything.
They don't make test gear like that any more. Look at the oak case!
This 1930 Emerson had beautiful casework.
Old TVs! And they worked! Not sure what the signal feed was.

Don't ask me. Not sure what this thing was.
What do you call a little cathedral? A parish church?
A trio of console radios...
...and this rather mundane-looking one is an EH Scott. Too bad we can't see the chromed chassis.
Documentation on the Scott. Check out the chassis pics on the left.
A pretty deco-ish Zenith chairside radio. Note the top controls.

This little "Reynrad" was made in Colorado, back at the dawn of time.
A battery-powered Atwater-Kent with accessory speaker.
A Zenith Transoceanic in truly spectacular condition.
Finally, an early Atwater-Kent.

More from Issue 55

View All Articles in Issue 55

Search Copper Magazine

#234 A Life in High-End Audio: The Roy Hall Interview, Part One by Frank Doris Sep 07, 2026 #234 Jason Greenlaw Offers His Personal Perspective on Jazz Guitar in Vantage Point by Frank Doris Sep 07, 2026 #234 Transcendent Phoenix: Lucina Yue Brings the Ancient Konghou Into Modern Times by Frank Doris Sep 07, 2026 #234 We Must All Follow Our Bliss by B. Jan Montana Sep 07, 2026 #234 How to Play in a Rock Band, 27: Leveling Up by Frank Doris Sep 07, 2026 #234 Ross Valory: Traveling Into New Musical Territory With All of the Above by Ray Chelstowski Sep 07, 2026 #234 Singer/Songwriter John David Schrader: On the Need to Create by Joe Caplan Sep 07, 2026 #234 The People Who Make Audio Happen: More From T.H.E. Show SoCal 2026 by Harris Fogel Sep 07, 2026 #234 The Vinyl Beat Digs Into the Gadget Box by Rudy Radelic Sep 07, 2026 #234 The Rolling Stones: Foreign Tongues Spoken Loud by Wayne Robins Sep 07, 2026 #234 Musical Moments by Rich Isaacs Sep 07, 2026 #234 Rags for Solo Piano and a Dog: David Chesky's Ragtime Music for the Modern Age by Frankly Speaking Sep 07, 2026 #234 HIGH END 2026, Vienna: Here to Stay by Carsten Barnbeck Sep 07, 2026 #234 From The Audiophile’s Guide: The Two Main Types of Loudpeakers – Box and Panel by Paul McGowan Sep 07, 2026 #234 Letting it Slide by Frank Doris Sep 07, 2026 #234 PS Audio in the News by PS Audio Staff Sep 07, 2026 #234 Long Playing by Peter Xeni Sep 07, 2026 #234 La Mer by B. Jan Montana Sep 07, 2026 #233 A Report From The Total Hi-Fi Experience Show SoCal 2026 by B. Jan Montana Aug 03, 2026 #233 Bluegrass Meets Country, Folk, Jazz and More in All That We Carried by The Squid City Slingers by Frank Doris Aug 03, 2026 #233 Corey Glover and One Tribe Nation: A Variegated Musical Collective by Ray Chelstowski Aug 03, 2026 #233 Excursions with Clive: The Late Clive Davis, A Personal History by Wayne Robins Aug 03, 2026 #233 AI, Art, and Music: A Conversation With Synthography Art by Joe Caplan Aug 03, 2026 #233 New American Symphonies: A Rediscovered Gem and a Vital Contemporary Work by Frank Doris Aug 03, 2026 #233 The Vinyl Beat: Genesis, the Dave Clark Five, Antonio Carlos Jobim and More by Rudy Radelic Aug 03, 2026 #233 How to Play in a Rock Band, 26: When It's Time to Record Your Music by Frank Doris Aug 03, 2026 #233 More From T.H.E. Show 2026, and the People Who Made it Happen by Harris Fogel Aug 03, 2026 #233 Underappreciated Artists, Part Three: Icehouse by Rich Isaacs Aug 03, 2026 #233 The Surprisingly Rich and Varied Music of Somalia by Steve Kindig Aug 03, 2026 #233 A Remarkable Discographic Legacy: The LP Recordings of the Basel Symphony Orchestra by Stephan Haberthür Aug 03, 2026 #233 From The Audiophile’s Guide: The Importance of Loudspeakers by Paul McGowan Aug 03, 2026 #233 From Swimming Pool to New Listening Room: A Conversation with Norman Varney of AV RoomService by Gilles Laferrière Aug 03, 2026 #233 PS Audio in the News by PS Audio Staff Aug 03, 2026 #233 Audio Jewelry by Peter Xeni Aug 03, 2026 #233 Enrich Your Life by Frank Doris Aug 03, 2026 #233 The Searcher by James Schrimpf Aug 03, 2026 #232 What came first: Art or Music? A Conversation With Artist Jose Acosta by Joe Caplan Jul 06, 2026 #232 Blow By Blow: The Jeff Beck Story: An Insightful Book About a Guitar Icon by Ray Chelstowski Jul 06, 2026 #232 Creed Over Camaraderie? by B. Jan Montana Jul 06, 2026 #232 Chronicles of a Sound Pilgrim at the 2026 Montreal Audiofest by Hugues Morin Jul 06, 2026 #232 The Vinyl Beat: Summer Grooves by Rudy Radelic Jul 06, 2026 #232 Hibbing Hillbilly Dylan's Acoustic Rock by Wayne Robins Jul 06, 2026 #232 Quad Quads and Plasmatronics Tweeters: An Extraordinary System Comes to Life by Frank Doris Jul 06, 2026 #232 In Praise of Live Music, Once Again by Ted Shafran Jul 06, 2026 #232 Allnic Audio’s L-9000 Preamplifier: Design and Engineering Innovation by Howard Kneller Jul 06, 2026 #232 “Best Of” Lists and Rage Bait: Enough Already by Frank Doris Jul 06, 2026 #232 Quick Takes: Bud Shank, Paulo Almeida, Jakob Dreyer, Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine by Frank Doris Jul 06, 2026

Vintage Voltage: A Photo Feature

Vintage Voltage: A Photo Feature

Researching and writing theoretical and historical pieces is a lot of work, and can get a little dry. As a change of pace, I present pics from Vintage Voltage, a local meet held Sunday, March 18,  which included the annual show of the Colorado Radio Collectors Club, and then branched off into guitars, hi-fi, records, test gear, and more. I’ve skipped the record vendors, as they basically all looked alike; I also skipped the guitars for the most part, as to my uneducated eye, it looked like pretty mundane stuff—apologies if it wasn’t, but how many Strats can you look at without lapsing into geeky fervor over minutiae?

My apologies for some of the pics: apparently I still had some shaky hands left over from my recent marathon cold. And now….

View from above---this section was the show of the Colorado Radio Collectors Club.
Plastic clock radios don't do anything for me, but I guess some folks like them.
The second room contained vintage hi-fi, records, guitars, and whatever.
That dark thing under the cassettes is an Apple Hi-Fi. Oddly rare.
Ho-hum, old McIntosh gear was everywhere. ;->

I'm a sucker for big German tabletop radios like this Grundig.

The label says "Vietnam era field switchboard, complete." Huh.

Carver Amazing Loudspeakers behind some homebuilt line arrays. Seller wanted to explain to me what a line array was. I said, "Thanks. I'm familiar with the concept."
Hi, there! There were quite a few women in attendance---most looked rather bored.
Yep, more Mac gear, a bunch of Chinese tube amps, and a nice Tandberg receiver--the only piece I coveted at the show.
Longtime area dealer Gold Sound was there in force.
There was a fair amount of Crown at the show, including this pair from Gold Sound.
I lied. I coveted this Nak 550 portable, also. For no rational reason.

A pretty Thorens TD-150 in front of a B&O-esque desktop system.

I should've looked at the Ampex speakers beneath the Mitsubishi vertical turntable. They usually had good JBL drivers.
"That's not a tube. THIS is a tube."
A variety of test gear.
A pretty TEAC r-to-r in back of a recent Numark table.
A rare M&K sub w/ intact driver next to a rare Phase Linear 400 that hadn't burst into flames. ;->

Spica TC-50s and a big Yamaha receiver.

Daulquist DQ-10s in the rarely-seen white grillecloth. Meh.
Huh: a rare Phase Linear 700 that hadn't burst into flames!

Radios from the '20s to the '50s.

Testing a Crown amp. Hmmm---filter caps bad, maybe?

The once-ubiquitous Zenith 500 portable, with all original packaging. Wow.

A little bit of everything.
They don't make test gear like that any more. Look at the oak case!
This 1930 Emerson had beautiful casework.
Old TVs! And they worked! Not sure what the signal feed was.

Don't ask me. Not sure what this thing was.
What do you call a little cathedral? A parish church?
A trio of console radios...
...and this rather mundane-looking one is an EH Scott. Too bad we can't see the chromed chassis.
Documentation on the Scott. Check out the chassis pics on the left.
A pretty deco-ish Zenith chairside radio. Note the top controls.

This little "Reynrad" was made in Colorado, back at the dawn of time.
A battery-powered Atwater-Kent with accessory speaker.
A Zenith Transoceanic in truly spectacular condition.
Finally, an early Atwater-Kent.

0 comments

Leave a comment

0 Comments

Your avatar

Loading comments...

🗑️ Delete Comment

Enter moderator password to delete this comment:

✏️ Edit Comment

Enter your email to verify ownership: