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Radio Craftsmen C500a

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Radio Craftsmen C500a

Radio Craftsman founded by John Cashman in 1947. John Cashman worked in Hallicrafters Radio Company before he founded Radio Craftsman. Radio Craftsman was mainly focusing on development of home audio and television from late 40 to late 50's.

Ed Miller and Sid Smith were two major engineers to work for Radio Craftsman during early 40's - mid 50's. Actually, Ed Miller is the founder of Sherwood and who leave Radio Craftsman before 1953 (This year he founded Sherwood and mainly focused on integrate amp and receiver). Sid Smith later left Radio Craftsman and joined Marantz as chief engineer in 1954.

The major audio products from Radio Craftsman actually was not completely developed by Radio Craftsman, but mainly licensed by RCA and Western Electric!

Most of the Radio Craftsman gear sound fast, clear and very transparent with fine body (thin but not thick and mellow body).No question that the most popular Radio Craftsman amp in the family must be the C500 series.

The first two generations of C500 was mostly worked by Sid Smith and licensed by Western Electric. The first generation C500 was introduced in 1951, it comes with a smooth corner Stancor output transformer. In 1952, smooth corner version replaced by the sharp corner version output. Radio Craftsman C500 is based on Williamson design which operated with 2 x KT66 output tube in triode but pure class A operation with 10 watt output. It has very natural sweet, clear and transparent tone. However, it has very clear, natural, realistic and transparent tone than many vintage and modern hi-fi amp.

The Radio Craftsman C500 was replaced by C500A in 1953 and the same years Sid Smith left Radio Craftsman. I believe the Radio C500A is the final work of Sid Smith. The different between Radio Craftsman C500A is it has much higher plate voltage in triode class AB and the output increase to 15 watts per channel. It also has much large size choke than C500, it also licensed by Western Electric as well. The rectifier tube also changed to 5U4G instead of 5V4G.

The final version is Radio Craftsman C550 and it replaced Radio Craftsman C500A in 1954. Honestly, the sound of Radio Craftsman C550 sounds slightly different than C500 and C550A, it has better body but not as transparent sweet and natural than C500 and C500A. The reason is simple, the C550 is operated in Ultra-linear instead of triode operation, the output also increase to 30 watt instead of 15 watts. The amplifier also used a B+ delayed turn-on via a slow warm-up, it required 60 seconds to preserve the cathodes on the KT-66s. FYI, Radio Craftsman C550 was not designed by Sid Smith, but actually designed by Bob Grodinski, this guy took over Sid smith work as Smith already left the company and joined Marantz in summer of 1954...!

Leak 12.1 together with Radio Craftsmen C500a

Radio Craftsmen C500a with Fisher 400CX pre amplifier

Estimated price of the Radio Craftsmen HK$15,000-20,000

The suggested retail price of a Radio CraftsmenC500a in 1953 was US$99. Thus, to play it in stereo mode (those days mainly in mono mode), would have costs US$198 for a pair.

US$198 must be alot of money during the 1950s. The average wages in the 1950s were US$249. A pair of the Radio Craftsmen C500a would have costs almost a months salary of an average men!
Trying to understand my amplifiers better, I performed a A/B test between the 12.1 and the Radio Craftsmen C500a. The similarity between the two is its sweet vocal tone. the key differences are that the Leak TL12.1 has more open and wider and deeper soundstage. The Radio Craftsman 500a has a slightly narrower one but yet still managed to have fine details, and sweet tone.

Unless there is an immediate AB comparion, the differences may not be so clear. I would say that the Radio Craftsmen C500a sounded 90% close to the 12.1. When the 2 power amplifiers matched with the Marantz 7 and Fishers 400CX, it has different sound reproduction with the Marantz having more transparent and clear tone with emphasis on the mid; while the Fishers has a more muiscal tone and emphasis on the Mid and mid high!

The Radio Craftsmen was from the 1950s but its design (using the shining steel chassis) is so advant guarde that it is ahead of its times. It is a beauty to look at when listening. The Leak 12.1 , on the other hand, looks like a solid castle ..solid looking and under stated. The differences in looks clearly reflect the national charateristics between the American and the British!

RC500 has 10 watt output,
RC500A has 15 watts output and
RC550 has 30 watt output but operated in ultra-linear instead of triode
RC500 and RC500A was licence under Western Electric but RC550 was not..
RC500 and RC500A was designed by Sidney Smith, but RC550 was design by Bob Grodinski

From the "collector" point of view, the Radio craftmens is a good buy as it is relatively cheaper but rarer plus the fact that it is like a uncut diamonds waiting for further exploration by the audiophiles as it is currently only known to a few...