Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 11 hours ago
We looked at radio convertibles in another video--radios that docked to a matching, larger speaker for home use. Today I've found a whole new way to waste your time.
Yes, along similar lines as those radio convertibles are these: remote speakers. These weren't part of a set, like a convertible, mated to a particular radio. These were made for use with any radio. Some of these were made by companies that also produced transistor radios and some were made by opportunists just trying to get in on the action.
Bluetooth they are not. They are physically plugged in to your radio and your range is exactly the same as the length of your wire. Today's bluetooth speakers are indeed the descendents of these extension speakers and would call them grandpa if they ever came around to say hello or anything. Kids these days.
These kinds of extension speakers were just speakers, they didn't have amplfiers in them, and didn't plug in to house current or use batteries.
The folks at Zephyr gave us this one. Yes, it's THAT Zephyr from Eastern Associates in San Francisco. The folks who never wrote their logo the same way twice. It's a plastic box with one of those fiberboard backs on it. Is that right? Fiberboard? I've taken to rejecting the various euphemisms used to describe things of varying and indeterminate origin as... 'wicky-wacky.' The Zephyr speaker box contains a four-inch speaker, the typical speaker for a table radio in that day. 'That day' being the 1950s and '60s. This speaker box's day, to narrow things down, would have been 1960 or '61.
And here's another radio brand, Candle, and their little speaker box. It's a handsome plastic box with this sort of fluting on the side. The back is metal and has three holes near the top of it for hanging the speaker box on a wall. You could use the middle one, or the outer two. You didn't need all three--the thing's not that heavy. Tokyo Transistor Industry Co., Ltd. Those are the people who gave us the Candle radios of course and were an OEM for other brands, producing some Universal, Lloyds, Omegas, and Hilton radios.
Channel Master. Oh this one's nice. Sanyo was the maker of Channel Master radios in this era and this is almost certainly their work. It's a stylish thing, that's for sure. Not that the Channel Master people couldn't make stylish things themselves here in the US. Have a look at this indoor antenna of theirs from 1956, which they called the "Showman." Wow. Now that's some mid-century design. But back on our extension speaker--and I do mean 'back'--covering that back here we see more of that wicky-wacky. And inside there's a four-inch speaker.
Perhaps the most popular of these extension speakers is this tubular shaped model, which usually had a speaker on both ends of it. Nobody ever brought up what having the speakers facing opposite directions might mean for the phasing of the two speakers. There probably wasn't enough bass to worry about it. Who am I kidding? What bass? These tubular extention speakers were put out under several different brand names.
This Standard speaker box is made of wood and contains the 'standard' four-inch speaker. As we've noted elsewhere, Standard was a quality outfit. They made the tiny Micronic Ruby micro radios and in the 1960s and '70s Standard made the highly regarded Marantz stereo gear. So they knew what they were doing and always did it with class. This speaker box has a recessed, collapsible handle for portability on the go while retaining a sleek, finished look in the living room.
The Champtone "Hi-fi Loudspeaker" in this little box would of course be neither "hi" nor "fi".. nor probably even loud,.. but who's counting. It does have instructions for how to use its "Master Socket" to get a "Stereo Effect." This is the dime-store version of an extension speaker and is the cheapest of the lot we are looking at today. It says on the front, "Fits Every 6, 8, 10, 12 transistor radio." So apparently, that's only the even numbers. Don't come at this with a seven transistor. Inside, the speaker is not terribly bigger than the speaker in the radio you'd plug into it, but it's got a pretty hefty magnet for such a little thing and I suppose that helps.
You'll get "BIG HI-FI SOUND from your transistor radio" with this Wald "Tune-Toter Portable Hi Fi Speaker." Oh yes you will. "For big hi-fi sound at beaches, picnics, dances, etc." Inside is a high fidelity 10 watt speaker, or so says the box. This 10 watts business sounds impressive but it's a pretty meaningless number when using it with a transistor radio which can only put out a small fraction of that.
The extension speaker was a great first project for the budding electronics experimenter. Here's mine, built when I was 9 or 10 years old. That's it, in the back and to the left on my little desk. As we've seen with these boxes, it's just a speaker in there. I remember it was pretty easy in those days to get a nice four-incher for free out of an old table radio. You had...
We looked at radio convertibles in another video--radios that docked to a matching, larger speaker for home use. Today I've found a whole new way to waste your time.
Yes, along similar lines as those radio convertibles are these: remote speakers. These weren't part of a set, like a convertible, mated to a particular radio. These were made for use with any radio. Some of these were made by companies that also produced transistor radios and some were made by opportunists just trying to get in on the action.
Bluetooth they are not. They are physically plugged in to your radio and your range is exactly the same as the length of your wire. Today's bluetooth speakers are indeed the descendents of these extension speakers and would call them grandpa if they ever came around to say hello or anything. Kids these days.
These kinds of extension speakers were just speakers, they didn't have amplfiers in them, and didn't plug in to house current or use batteries.
The folks at Zephyr gave us this one. Yes, it's THAT Zephyr from Eastern Associates in San Francisco. The folks who never wrote their logo the same way twice. It's a plastic box with one of those fiberboard backs on it. Is that right? Fiberboard? I've taken to rejecting the various euphemisms used to describe things of varying and indeterminate origin as... 'wicky-wacky.' The Zephyr speaker box contains a four-inch speaker, the typical speaker for a table radio in that day. 'That day' being the 1950s and '60s. This speaker box's day, to narrow things down, would have been 1960 or '61.
And here's another radio brand, Candle, and their little speaker box. It's a handsome plastic box with this sort of fluting on the side. The back is metal and has three holes near the top of it for hanging the speaker box on a wall. You could use the middle one, or the outer two. You didn't need all three--the thing's not that heavy. Tokyo Transistor Industry Co., Ltd. Those are the people who gave us the Candle radios of course and were an OEM for other brands, producing some Universal, Lloyds, Omegas, and Hilton radios.
Channel Master. Oh this one's nice. Sanyo was the maker of Channel Master radios in this era and this is almost certainly their work. It's a stylish thing, that's for sure. Not that the Channel Master people couldn't make stylish things themselves here in the US. Have a look at this indoor antenna of theirs from 1956, which they called the "Showman." Wow. Now that's some mid-century design. But back on our extension speaker--and I do mean 'back'--covering that back here we see more of that wicky-wacky. And inside there's a four-inch speaker.
Perhaps the most popular of these extension speakers is this tubular shaped model, which usually had a speaker on both ends of it. Nobody ever brought up what having the speakers facing opposite directions might mean for the phasing of the two speakers. There probably wasn't enough bass to worry about it. Who am I kidding? What bass? These tubular extention speakers were put out under several different brand names.
This Standard speaker box is made of wood and contains the 'standard' four-inch speaker. As we've noted elsewhere, Standard was a quality outfit. They made the tiny Micronic Ruby micro radios and in the 1960s and '70s Standard made the highly regarded Marantz stereo gear. So they knew what they were doing and always did it with class. This speaker box has a recessed, collapsible handle for portability on the go while retaining a sleek, finished look in the living room.
The Champtone "Hi-fi Loudspeaker" in this little box would of course be neither "hi" nor "fi".. nor probably even loud,.. but who's counting. It does have instructions for how to use its "Master Socket" to get a "Stereo Effect." This is the dime-store version of an extension speaker and is the cheapest of the lot we are looking at today. It says on the front, "Fits Every 6, 8, 10, 12 transistor radio." So apparently, that's only the even numbers. Don't come at this with a seven transistor. Inside, the speaker is not terribly bigger than the speaker in the radio you'd plug into it, but it's got a pretty hefty magnet for such a little thing and I suppose that helps.
You'll get "BIG HI-FI SOUND from your transistor radio" with this Wald "Tune-Toter Portable Hi Fi Speaker." Oh yes you will. "For big hi-fi sound at beaches, picnics, dances, etc." Inside is a high fidelity 10 watt speaker, or so says the box. This 10 watts business sounds impressive but it's a pretty meaningless number when using it with a transistor radio which can only put out a small fraction of that.
The extension speaker was a great first project for the budding electronics experimenter. Here's mine, built when I was 9 or 10 years old. That's it, in the back and to the left on my little desk. As we've seen with these boxes, it's just a speaker in there. I remember it was pretty easy in those days to get a nice four-incher for free out of an old table radio. You had...
