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Widget Of The Week
Sony TR-1829 ‘The Tube’ AM Radio, 1968
‘Luxurious wood grain, reminiscent of a fine cigarette lighter,
inspired by executive desk accessories’. Hats off to to the Sony PR wonk who came up with that
one... As descriptions of small AM radios go, that one’s a corny classic.
It belongs to the Sony TR-1829, also variously known as the ‘Tube’, ‘Can’ and ‘Barrel’, for fairly obvious
reasons. And because it was made by Sony and with the help of some very clever
marketing and, it soon became something of a cult object.
All this happened in the late 1960s. In fact Sony started a bit of
a trend amongst Japanese manufacturers with wackily shaped radios. At around
the same time they launched the TR-1819 Cube shaped radio with the tag line
‘This cube is not for Squares’. Within a couple of years they were all at it.
Panasonic’s Toot-A-Loop and Panapet are good examples. But it was the 1819 and
1829 that set the ball rolling and thanks to Sony’s astute and agile designers
the 1829 was swiftly re-launched in a range of bright colours and special
editions, to appeal to a much younger audience and steer it away from the
original fusty ‘executive desk accessory’ image.
 Of course it is all mostly window dressing and inside the tubular
case there’s a fairly ordinary 6 transistor AM Medium wave only receiver. In
fairness the build quality of the circuit board and case is a cut above the
vast majority a small radios coming out of the Far East at that time. There are
a few very neat design touches, though. The most prominent one is the large
tuning dial on the top; a small window in the turned aluminium band shows the
frequency. It looks and feels like a class product. It’s all very smart but
where’s the speaker? This is another eye, or rather ear-catching feature. The
speaker is mounted in the base of the tube, effectively projecting the sound
downwards. This only makes sense when you see the radial vanes on the
underside, allowing the sound to escape in all directions.
 Power comes from three AA cells that clip into a holder; this fits
into the base of the tube and is held in place by a simple bayonet
twist-and-pull arrangement. The volume thumbwheel sits just below the tuning window and
that really is all there is to it. There are no earphone or external
power sockets, in fact nothing to spoil those sleek minimalist lines.
 This one has been in my collection for a year or so. It was a boot
sale find and as far as I can remember it cost me £3.00. It had been quite well
looked after though the fake ‘wood grain’ finish is a little faint in places,
especially around the area of the volume control and tuning window. Apart from
that it was in pretty good shape, though as the stallholder pointed out, it
didn’t work. I wasn’t too surprised as at the time as I spotted that one of the battery
contacts was a bit crusty and guessed it wouldn’t take long to fix. As it turned out
that wasn’t the only fault and it soon became clear that a previous owner
had been tinkering. I spotted the problem as I was about to
take it apart. The battery holder and
speaker module is connected to the PCB by three wires, red, black and white and
all of them were all soldered to contacts on the battery holder. Inside the
speaker compartment all was revealed and only wire was connected to it. Whoever
carried out the bodged repair must have seen the loose white wire and assumed
it was a battery connection. Luckily the mistake hadn't done any damage and
reattaching the wire to the other speaker terminal produced an instant hiss. A
quick twiddle of the tuning knob confirmed it was working properly.
The downward facing speaker has only a marginal effect on the volume,
there’s plenty to spare, but it doesn’t do much for sound quality, not that it
makes much difference on Medium Wave broadcasts. The volume knob was a bit
crackly but nothing a squirt of contact cleaner couldn’t sort out. Other than a
quick cleanup, inside and out it was good to go and now looks quite
presentable.
What Happened To It?
The TR-1829 was in production between 1968 and 1971 and by all
accounts sold very well. As we know Sony stayed the course and over the
years has crafted a more up-market image. The few battery-powered radios in its current range
are best described as worthy but dull little black boxes. Back in the day Sony
had its serious side, but there was a fun and funky element too,. These
days you would be hard pressed to find much evidence of it outside of the games
division.
Vintage Sony products can command a hefty premium, especially iconic
and cutting edge ones, like its first transistor radio, the TR55 launched in
1955, the Walkman in 1979, the Aibo robotic dog from 1988, the CM-H333 ‘Mars
Bar’ phone in 1993, to name just a few. The TRs 1819 and 1829 aren’t in
that league, at least not yet, but they are quite collectible and
steadily increasing in price. There’s often one or two on ebay priced at between £40 and
£50, though the cheaper ones they tend to be either in fairly poor condition or
sold as non-working, for spares and repairs. A pristine example with its
original box and paperwork can cost upwards of £80.00. Colour is also a factor; if you can find them a complete set of white, yellow, orange, wood grain and
the super-rare leather covered and brushed aluminium special edition versions could
be worth a very tidy sum.
DUSTY DATA
First Seen: 1968
Original Price: £20.00
Value Today: £45.00 (0720)
Features: Medium Wave receiver 6-transistor
superhetrodyne tuner, 55mm speaker, ferrite rod antenna
Power req. 3 x 1.5 volt AA cells
Dimensions: 125 x 78mm
Weight: 280g
Made (assembled) in: Japan
Hen's Teeth (10 rarest): 8
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