Description
This article is from the Antique Radios
And Phonographs FAQ, by Hank van Cleef vancleef@netcom with
numerous contributions by others.
43 I have a console with 6L6's and a twelve-inch loudspeaker. Is this "high fidelity?"...
... Just what can I expect to hear from my old radio for
audio quality?
(9-95) A few readers have exercised your FAQ editor on the topic of
"high fidelity" in the AM band, generally citing the fact that
broadcast transmitters built after 1930 were capable of modulating at
frequencies above 10Khz. The evidence is clear that notwithstanding
transmitter capabilities, there were very few program sources available
to broadcasters that were capable of getting modulation above 5Khz to a
transmitter. Telephone lines used to transmit network programs had
this bandpass limit, as did standard home entertainment and jukebox
phonograph records. Transcription recordings were made at 33-1/3 rpm,
but were not the "microgroove" technology introduced in 1948.
The existence of "high fidelity" receivers in the thirties (either TRF
or using wide IF) is well-documented, but all evidence is that these
were sold for use with the experimental wide bandwidth stations,
particularly in the Northeast US. The vast majority of programming
matched the limited frequency response of most receivers.
The exception to this would be live music, played either in a studio or
in a local concert hall where a telephone link was not required, until
the advent of Armstrong's FM links between New York and New England in
1939.
Microgroove phonograph records with wide bandpass capability, and
magnetic recording, capable of operating beyond 20Khz, were introduced
in the late 1940's, allowing stations to use prepared program sources
that had a wider bandpass capability.
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