Ive just been given a piece of ancient technology, a Kriesler radiogram. Coming from an era when music came in tons not bytes, here's a picture of the beast for all the iPod generation out there:
Radiogram is a portmanteau word made from
radio and
phonograph (or phonogram) and they did two things, AM radio and playing vinyl records. This particular stereo would have rocked for its time, as it had a jack for a microphone (and the microphone for this one is missing) and one of those high tech tape recorder things as well. Generally that was a reel to reel 1/4" tape deck. And it had terminals on the back to add external speakers.
Most radiograms used valve technology, and even speakers back then were a bit different. It shows in the resulting sound, which makes valve amplifiers still sought after for audiophiles today. I'll be interested to see if I can get the turntable working well enough to play my mountain of old vinyl, maybe rip some of it to MP3 so I can listen to it in the car.
Anyhow - I'm refurbishing this particular one bit by bit, and will post pics to my
Flickr account as I do things. I'll try and keep up a few articles on the blog too, and when I get it going I think a few video/audio snippets will make their way online too.
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