By chance I got a Freed-Eisemann Tuner/Preamp from the 50ies, which was NOS in it's original box! It was build in 1955, and it seems it is very rare.

It works brilliant and is doing the tuner job in my audio equipment. I've managed yet to get the FE photofact folder with the schematic.

Freed-Eisemann 717, 750 schematic in .gif-format (164 KByte)

The Freed-Eisemann model 750 supports AM and FM and is mono. It looks like it was thought to being build in a music cabinet which was common in the 50ies. It is intended to operate with 117V AC, so I'm using a step-down transfomer on the European 230V AC plug.

Due to the fact it is an American radio it has the complete FM band from 88 to 110 MHz, which is different from the European radios of this era.

Rectification is done by a 5Y3GT. The tuner has 7 tubes in the radio/preamp circuit:

1 * 6CB6 = RF amplifier

2 * 6U8 = oscillator/mixer and 1st AM FM IF amplifier AFC

2 * 6AU6 = 2nd FM amplifier and phono preamp

1 * 6T8 = discriminator AM and detector AVC and 1st AF amplifier

1 * 12AX7 = 2nd AF amplifier

A magic eye tube type 6U5 is the tuning indicator.

The FE 750 was also build as a receiver with an integrated power amp, consisting of a push-pull 6V6GT stage. Main transformer and rectifier tube are strong enough to feed also the 2 power tubes.

Knowing the 6U5 magic eye tube is real issue in terms of life time and costs I got actually some good used ones through ebay. Prices for those used ones were between $8 and $11 compared to $25 and more for NOS tubes.

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Last update: 11/November/2001