The Braun TS2 radio was a state-of-the art tube set in 1956. Today it still looks great, but unsurprisingly, the one that [Manuel Caldeier] has needed a little tender loving care. The table radio had a distinct style for its day and push-buttons. However, the dial glass and the speaker grill needed replacement. Even more interesting, the radio has a troublesome selenium rectifier, giving him the perfect chance to try out his new selenium rectifier solid-state replacement.
The radio is as good-looking inside as it is outside. You can tell that this isn’t his first restoration, as he has several tricks to test things at different stages of the project.
While the radio looked good, it smelled of smoke, which required a big effort to clean. The dial glass was intact enough for him to duplicate it in a graphic program and print it on a transparent adhesive sticker. With a deep breath, he removed the original markings from the glass so he could add the sticker to it. That didn’t work because the label needed cutouts. So now he is waiting for a piece of acrylic that will have the art UV printed on it.
We want to see the next part as we imagine the radio sounds as good as it looks when it is working. If you want to know more about the rectifier replacement, we covered that earlier. Even years later, Braun would have a clean aesthetic.
That earth contact at 10:38 💀💀💀 For personal user safety it should be at least crimped “eye” connector or better yet use a WAGO terminal.
ha. and that while the original radio did not have a ground lug at all in the first place. sockets with ground terminals in your hose came way later than this radio was made. normally the radio would be grounded via the AM antenna sockets. but that was not mandatory.
As a German, I’m also ashamed how bad our old power cords were in terms of safety. They’re not VDE compliant.
Normally, they should have Schuko plugs with protective earthing.
I mean, sure, these Braun radios did have bakelite chassis (plastic), but the internal metalframe was conductive.
They should have provided better power cords (3 wire, Schuko plug) even back in the 1960s.
Or alternatively, a safety transformer in an enclosed plastic emclosure should have been used.
So that merely the DC side (30-60v max) had been exposed to chassis ground.
The Weller TCP24 soldering station from the 70s did use this concept, the transformer was sealed away in a waterproof (?) plastic box.
The optional grounding on these radios that happened via screw was going to a water pipe or a gas pipe, which was earthed.
But that’s not a safety earth, really. The earthing here was primarily useful for better radio reception.
What’s also schameful, I think, was that it took so long until RCDs got standard in all houses here.
In my family, we had external RCDs early on that could be installed between power outlet and the appliance.
All this was needed because electric wiring in older houses was so horrible outdated.
Normally, all fuses boxes should have a main RCD, at least.
But you could find antique fuse boxes in the 90s, still, which didn’t have an RCD.
Considering how many electrician had done very bad jobs at electrical wiring (“Pfusch”), RCDs were no luxury but life savers.
You don’t need to be ashamed.
While most tube radios are not VDE compliant today, they were when they were built. Standards for double insulated class-II appliances were introduced mid 1960s, Schuko outlets became mandatory in new buildings somwhat later and GFCIs/RCDs are a thing of the 1970s.
Since these old radios will never meet class-II specs, it is alway a good idea to treat them as class-I. Replacing the power cord with an earthened one and fixing unsafe things doesn’t hurt, but a biting and burning radio certainly does. These devices had a design lifetime of 5 years, so you have to expect that everything is rotten after more than half of a century.
Here in the US the last generation that grew up with groundless plugs and so scoffs at the claim a ground is necessary, and likes to use those dumb 2 to 3 prong adapters or even break the ground prong off… they are finally passing beyond home ownership.
Meanwhile technology is changing such that almost everything is in a plastic box and most of it is powered via a USB wall wart.
“The Braun TS2 radio was a state-of-the art tube set in 1956.”
Not really, except for the somewhat unusual case design, the circuit is mostly 1950s standard stuff.
The Braun SK2 and its sisters were very compact, though.
So they were pushing tube technology a bit in terms of miniaturization, at least.
The receivers weren’t bad, at least. I remember my grandma’s SK2.
It wasn’t worse than my 80s era pocket radio, rather the contrary.
Both selectivity and sensitivity of the tube circuit was quite okay.