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Murphy Radio 1939 Continued

Shown left is the most expensive chassis’s available in the 1939 range, that of the ’78 series. This model was the special short wave performance and special reproduction model. Unlike the other models in the 1939 range, the A78C was fitted with remote control as standard. The drum tuning principle is still utilised, together with a black glass escutcheon, which to my mind is not quite as impressive as the mirrored version seen on the A40C. The remote control has already been discussed having been fitted as an optional extra to the A76. Two large chassis’s are utilised in the A78C. The chassis at the base of the cabinet carries the power components and rectifier, together with a pair of PEN45’s in push-pull configuration. The PEN45’s in push-pull deliver the sound through a pair of loudspeakers on angled baffles, which radiate the sound into the listening room in two slightly differing planes thereby ensuring maximum penetration. There are no known surviving examples of the A78RG (unless you know different – in which case email me!). Although a very impressive receiver, the A78C is considered to sound inferior to the A40C from two years earlier.

At the other end of the Murphy range is the Battery receiver B69 shown below, which cost just one tenth of the price of the console described above. This battery receiver is housed in a cabinet similar to that of the lowest of the mains receiver range for 1939, the A70. However this cabinet is slightly smaller and does not incorporate the cut-out at the base seen on the A70 where the optional pushbutton unit or remote control would be located. At this time Murphy were providing tuning scales with black background and white text for the majority of receivers, however in the B69 the reverse is present as the scale markings are in black against a white background (see mid left picture below). This is because the scale is not backlit. A half-height card back was provided for the lower half of the receiver to protect the valves and chassis, the accumulator and H.T. battery was situated in the top half of the cabinet. To enable battery valves to be easily distinguished from mains valves the metallising (if provided) on Mazda valves was green. Valve line-up is TP25, VP23, HL23DD, PEN25.

Continue to 1939 Model Range Table