Zenith Royal 500 transistor radios @collectornet

Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago

$Before Bluetooth We looked at radio convertibles in another video radios that docked to a matching, larger speaker for home use. Today Ive found a whole new way to waste your time. Yes, along similar lines as those radio convertibles are these: remote speakers. These werent 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. Todays 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 didnt have amplfiers in them, and didnt plug in to house current or use batteries. The folks at Zephyr gave us this one. Yes, its THAT Zephyr from Eastern Associates in San Francisco. The folks who never wrote their logo the same way twice. Its a plastic box with one of those fiberboard backs on it. Is that right? Fiberboard? Ive 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 boxs day, to narrow things down, would have been 1960 or 61. And heres another radio brand, Candle, and their little speaker box. Its 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 didnt need all three the things 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 ones nice. Sanyo was the maker of Channel Master radios in this era and this is almost certainly their work. Its a stylish thing, thats for sure. Not that the Channel Master people couldnt 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 thats 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 theres 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 wasnt 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 weve 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 whos 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, thats only the even numbers. Dont come at this with a seven transistor. Inside, the speaker is not terribly bigger than the speaker in the radio youd plug into it, but its got a pretty hefty magnet for such a little thing and I suppose that helps. Youll 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 its 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. Heres mine, built when I was 9 or 10 years old. Thats it, in the back and to the left on my little desk. As weve seen with these boxes, its 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...$

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