BLAUPUNKT Derby Radio from 1972/74 | A Luxury Classic Radio Built to Exceptionally High Standards
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- While transistorised radios were already the norm, high-end brands like BLAUPUNKT, Nordmende, Philips, Grundig, Braun and others wanted to offer luxurious options to the market. The BLAUPUNKT Derby Radio is a perfect example of this. This radio was built to exceptionally high standards and has stood the test of time, looking as modern on any desk today as it did 50 years ago.
In this video, I will give you a closer look at this classic radio and showcase its features and functionalities. It has a few shortcomings, but those are overshadowed by its shear elegance. A valuable addition to any collection.
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I once owned a Derby Deluxe from the late 1960's. I tried very hard to get it working, but the more I tried, the worse things got. To me, it felt "fragile" compared to some of the other European radios that I had worked on. And the wires were as thin as they could possibly be.
The early 1970's Derby radio in the video was built during a time of cost cutting and transformation in the radio industry. It is still repairable and not a "throw away" radio like those made in later years. But little things like the double sided tape indicate that service accessibility was no longer a primary concern.
The earlier Derbys had partial metal frames. They also had separate bass and treble controls, a dial light and a very tiny tuning meter. They were also designed for car bracket use. By the time the radio in the video was made, there were cost pressures and many of the deluxe features had disappeared, as had the market for dual use car/home portable radios.
I think the Blaupunkt Supernova and Riviera Omnimat radios are better made than the Derby radios but of course, they were more expensive.
Long ago, I had a Derby 660 from the mid 1960's. Except for the battery door, which had a broken hook that had been repaired, that radio seemed to be of very high quality and felt well made. It was one of those radios that I sold but should have kept.
I agree that the cost cutting really messed up the quality that was normal on the market.
It’s unfortunate, but apparent in all areas of tech.
I was shouting "TAPE SWITCH " so hard to the screen I got strange looks. Had the same problem with mine. Great job once more. And don't change the colour. Maybe add bluetooth on the tape in
I should have listened 😊 I’m not changing the colour. I really like it as it is.
Another vote here for Bluetooth
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A Derby!! Eh up duck! (As they say in Derby - where I live). 😀🦆🦆🦆 Really stylish radio, it would fit anywhere, timeless. Taking the dial off was a bit like taking the screen off a mobile phone by the look of things.
😊 I was lucky it didn’t crack or get scratched.
Hi Manuel, very nice "design" radio ! For pulling knobs safely, I use a rope, the kind that was once used for post envelopes. I let it behind the stubborn knob, a sharp pull, and it's out.
Great idea! My wife wants the spoons back :)
Hi Manuel! I remember vividly we had the Blaupunkt Derby de Luxe back in '71 or '72. I was in love with it at the time because the FM reception was so good and there were a couple of songs I liked and played at high volume levels every time. We also had a special sled built into the car where we could slide in the radio so we had a massive under dashboard car radio. Antenna and speakers were connected via this sled of course for enhanced reception and sound quality. I think it's the only radio my dad owned that I can remember. I have no clue as to where it went but I wish I had it today. Good luck with your Derby!
👍 Thanks
I was lucky enough to have found and make play again a cheap B&O Beolit 700, about of the same period, exactly same architecture. Plastic internal frame, metal shell. The PCBs design of that time was imitating a flowing fluid, with shapes like water drops, instead of straight rails as we see them today. Each of those radios teaches us a lesson in history of design. Thanks, Manuel!
Yes, the PCBs were quite different then. I guess one can ice up a lot of experience working on then, even if it results in some damage at first.
Blaupunkt made a lot of "derby" radios. The version you have is actually one of the entry level ones. I recommend trying to get the Derby 660 one (older, mid 60s but it has an RF amplifier transistor for AM, excellent reception there, and also has one of the most ingenious dial lights, you just have to press harder on whatever wave length button you pushed) or the Derby de luxe (it has separate bass and treble adjustments and dial light pushbutton, plus, if you are lucky, you can get an US export version, with FM 88-108, min has even the 1960s civil defense marks on it), the Derby Commander, with a 13 cm speaker (all others had 10 cm ones) or, finally, the mega deluxe, Blaupunkt Supernova, a wannabe grundig satellit. That one has fm presets and a special shortwave fine tuning system. (mine works okay but it is kinda beaten up, oh well, couldn't pss the opportunity for such a rare piece). It was also sold under some Siemens name, since in those days Siemens acquired Blaupunkt and sold Blaupunkt products under their name.
This one has peaked my curiosity for other Blaupunkt models, so I may delve into that rabbit-hole 😊
Blaupunkt had such a well respected name back in the days, anything with Blaupunkt on it was just accepted as being top of the class. Nice radio indeed! And you're right, it will fit into any household, still modern looking!
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Did have respected name is right, even in the eighties their in car stuff was top of the range, but now, in the UK at least, the brand has been hugely devalued and can be found on all sorts of generic imported crap from China and sold through discount retailers. Such a shame.
Sturdy case and impressive loudspeaker driver: it has to sound good! No cracked handle either! Isn't it disappointing when everything works this well? Now that you have secured a great specimen maybe you go after a cheap broken one next time. It's always easier to fix something when you already have a working example.
You're right in that an old car antenna used as an external antenna is a great idea - especially if do not have access to the roof. Nice job with the paint touch up too - that airbrush must be coming in very handy!
The external antenna socket is common on a lot of these, which also have a socket at the bottom that you would plug into a plug in your car. Nice idea at the time.
What a beautiful design! That thing will look modern for ever
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What a beautiful radio! I'm in love! Glad you didn't change the color. ☺
About the AM: put some batteries in it and take it outside. I bet you'll be amazed by the reception. This really could be a perfect picnic radio!
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That's really a cute unit!
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Love the radios displayed in the opening segment. I have a bit of a project to do in the shop and may have to listen while I work and go back and watch the entire video at my leisure.
Can't say I ever had a best quality world receiver. Perhaps using the language of marketing I had at least one "better" multi band receiver. Aside from looks the reception likely would have been identical, but like a finely crafted watch they sure are a wonder to look at.
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That's one nice radio.
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yes,mr .-this is elegance, i owned Blaupunkt derby commander,a step higher model
but beauty,with amazing sound
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A fine looking radio. Liked the use of the loop for LW and MW
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You certainly have good taste in radios Manuel. That’s a beauty and very well made. You could maybe convert the external aerial socket for use with the mini whip by adding an overwind to the ferrite rod. Painting the grille would be difficult as you said but I like the colour as it is. All the best Graham
I didn’t think of the overwind idea. Good one.
Nice looking radio :)
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Very stylish radio. I bet the FM sounds superb when it's in it's case!
It does. Really surprising
Excellent. And a very nice design of radio too.
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Nice radio, Manuel! The telescopic antenna works for FM and short wave only, on most radios. An external frame antenna for MW and LW (as you found out) works fine. I have made a tunable loop for this purpose out of an empty radio case (except for the loop antenna)
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A lot of newer radios are starting to use the Silicon Labs Radio chips that do everything in the digital domain using an on chip DSP core.
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Hi Manuel !
Really a nice old radio, I like it also. Very complicate to solder on this board, I know 😅 but You did it with bravery like always !👌 The frontpanel I would paint with a hard roller and less paint on it, so that no paint will trickle inside the wohles. I'm sure this will work fine ! Good luck !
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Thanks Manuel! I have followed your channel for a quite some time for the love of tube-radios and really like youre schematic tours, it gives some practice. But do you now that, besides me sits a Blaupunkt Derby junior, maybe -72 and when you find problem this the sound I just sad to myself, clean the buttons.... It is a great radio, in the summerhouse on Gotland (Sweden) it picks up FM-stations in Balticum and the sound is great, it just need some cleening...
👍 I should have immediately suspected the switches. Anyway, the caps needed changing too, do it all worked out fine in the end.
The carrying handle looks exactly the same as the Tandberg TP41 radio.
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I need to go through my Panasonic RF-1600. One of the best radios Matsushita/Panasonic ever made in my opinion.
I haven’t come across one of those yet. Really need to look at some of the Japanese models from this era.
Sorry if this was mentioned before, but you can paint the front with small hard paint roller without affecting the black grill, it is tedious but not sure if it needs it
That’s a great idea. Didn’t think of that. Thanks
For an external AM antenna coil, I have seen Paul Carlson in a video (can't find it) using a small coil, the same size as the ferrite coils, 20 turns or so, and close parallel to the ferrite rod. Your (large...) coil is perpendicular to the rod 🤔
This large coil works best perpendicular to the rod, but also is strong enough placed in just about any orientation, including under the radio.
@@electronicsoldandnew Have you tried that coil on other radio's too ? I am getting suspicious of a fault in the front end of the AM.
I have just tried it on the Saba stereo that I’m doing. Same result. Works great.
@@electronicsoldandnew 👍🏻
That is a very nice portable radio but not very maintenance friendly, specially the way the transparent top cover was glued. Did Blaupunkt have smart phone design engineers back then? It also reminds me a bit of a 1968 National portable radio I have. That works only on FM but I have not been able to get in to it, also for fear of breaking the brittle enclosure.
Yes, I think iPhone designed took a lesson from this one 😊
Looking at the battery compartment and the fact the door was stuck, I'd almost suggest this unit has never had batteries in it during its life
Probably not
great video! I love your approach and comments!
How would compare the build quality with the other brands like SABA, Grundig, .... what would be your brand ranking ?
Mine: Braun, B&O, SABA, Nordmende, Telefunken, Loewe, Grundig, Philips, ITT, Masters voice, ..... but depends a lot on the models too I guess...
The components in the Blaupunkt look quite cheap - like in the early cheap Japanese radios (like Standard radio - that became Marantz by the way 😀after they bought it).
I have a problem ranking them because I find some models that are amazing in a particular brand and then some that are bad. It’s not always consistent.
@@electronicsoldandnew Makes sense, then maybe what are your favorite brands 😀. kind of the same question but with an emotional dimension to it.
My favourites are actually all German 😊 Saba, telefunken, grundig, Braun … I guess I sort of answered your first question too 😊
@@electronicsoldandnew Yes it answers the question 😁
What surprises me with these brands is that they did not really compete with the likes of Marantz, Pioneer, Sansui, ... except maybe for B&O in its own universe. Philips tried but eventually lost.
Philips is a very curious brand.... led to the creation of the most incredible companies like NXP, AMSL, ASMI... but that is another story
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Where do you find these? That's an absolute beauty - so is the Braun.
But if you're into portables you should also track down the (valve) Rohde & Schwartz field meter - or it's transistor equivalent(s). More utilitarian in looks but quite a thing to behold.
9:00 That's a bit risky there. If you had scratched the back of the dacron/whatever plastic that is, you'd be gutted. I know I was and I was only using a cotton q-tip. You'd think it'd be safe to use but the back of the dacron just has an unprotected paint layer that is begging to flake off after 60 years of being stuck there!
I got this one on ebay … just got lucky.
Sometimes I see what I’ve done and what could have gone wrong, and I cringe 😊 I got lucky.
Amazing that shortwave is still alive and well over across the pond. I live in Utah in the states and can't even get anything on my Drake SW-8, which I know for a fact works perfectly. Just too much noise and static here. Plus western states are about as out of range of anything shortwave (except SSB ham of course) as you can get!!
SW bands are indeed full at this end. Most of the stations are of little interest, except to test a receiver, but I glad it’s not all gone yet.
Try WBCQ from Maine, it's all flat earth all the time, all over the globe.
😊
Nice job Manuel, Just think how much room you could save if you collected only transistor radios, but that wouldn't be as much fun.
P.S. How about presenting the radio on camera to your daughter.
I like the idea of keeping these little guys close due to their size, but tubes … oh, boy! I can’t get enough of them 😊 my daughter … she’s accepted making an appearance at 20k views, but it’s going to cost me a lot more than one radio. I’ve got to fly her back from mainland portugal where she’s studying, AND she’s also hinted at a new iPhone. See how common bribery is in Portugal? 😊
@@electronicsoldandnew I found first-class airfare all know you spoil your daughter, after all she's daddy's little girl.
She knows it 😊
BLAUPUNKT made some great radio,s as did grundig .
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Just a "dumb" idea: can you fill the holes with sand for example? Or other grained material before splaying?
That’s a possibility - blue tac would work - but I’ve decided to leave the colour as is.
Since middle of the nineteenth century europeans brought fine decorative craftsmanship to the industrial level affordably priced and of quality that even indian and chinese craftsmens' one off products could only dreamed for, but it doesn't mean that functional internals correspond to the exterior (modern chinese entrepreneurs are good at copying this, but so far nothing new came from there).
Would it worth replacing the unobtainable parts with a Silicon Labs Si4831/35-B30 and go with a more modern output stage Just wondering.
That would work, but I didn’t want to change anything that was working.
Oh my me I have one of these with a wood effect front, handle missing if i could only get the dial string not to slip, edit to add mine is older round bittons and no slider for volume also tuning is is different spot.
So mine is a derby h (yes in lower case. it does not have the fine tune for SW but it does have an external areal socket and tone control. no mains input socket but mains lead out of the bottom. inside open style tunning capacitor that was seized up when it arrived and had disconnected dial string. the case i think is almost the same. after freeing up the tuning cap and getting the dial string almost correct it has been working fine for over a year, i do plan to do some proper work on it and to get the dial string to stop slipping, it tunes around nice and easy but slips. i love the sound on it. oh BTW bbc radio 4 long wave does not have long to go on the air, i heard it is only got until all the last remaining UK economy 7 heating clients get changed to smart meters as a carrier tone is sent to switch them on for low cost tariff at night.
These are really worth working on, but a little tricky. Sad to hear about the BBC radio 4. I guess it’s the future.
Get the Derby Commander. It's much better, easy to access every corner, and easy to align- they all need it. They sell them in Germany for peanuts.
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Sex on a stick!! Such a pity that they only sold tiny quantities in Australia. The Japanese ruled the market by the early 70s.
True. The same applied in South Africa, where I grew up.
I'm sure a man of your calibre could repurpose the headphone socket to be an external antenna connection (with the additional ferrite coil idea already mentioned), though I would be worried if my daughter had a mini-whip in her bedroom, ho, ho. Horrible visions of you slipping paper between the front panel and black plastic and painting the same colour as the top of the on/off button.
I could use that socket, true. Also, I don’t even want to imagine a mini-whip in my daughters possession 😊
Too long.
Actually, I think it’s too short 😊 here’s a suggestion: set your TH-cam to show at 1.5x speed. I do that all the time, especially when I see my own videos back for reference.