Capehart/ Jensen PANAMUSE AMPLIFIER WITH JENSEN 12" FIELD COIL SPEAKERS Ca 1936

Some of the rarest in the earliest days of hi-fi, were the nearly impossibly elitist early Capehart sound systems of the late 20s to early 40s. These units were so far ahead, so forward looking, that the technology of the media they played had literally years to catch up with it!

One of the more iconic of these was the capehart panamuse! While trying to make this a slightly more affordable version, costing a mere $600 to $750 in the 1936 to 38 era, over the $5,000 eye popping central sound installation, the more elitist conveniences such as the record flipping automatic changer, and wired remotes in every room were left out.

These did come with a wired remote but only one, and that was an optional item.

However, they did not skimp on the sound system on these classics. The panamuse was among the first sound systems sold for home use that featured both full range and bass speakers with separate amplification.

I'm thinking that these Jensen's were probably the base level speakers as they are very capable full range transducers, it makes sense as Jensen was making 15 inch and 18 inch woofers, which would have had a very striking effect in hearing deep bass tones. After the Advent of electronic recording in the late 1920s, the Improvement of bass response would have been the most immediate, and striking improvement, with high frequency still having decades to go.

Now I didn't guess the age of these speakers when I first got them, but for the lack of dust covers are dust caps on the front. This is typical of 30s era loud speakers, the wonderful Lansing iconic speakers from the 30s, had a strikingly similar looking woofer in the bottom of their monitor cabinets that were all field coil driven.

But the part that got me, was the speaker cones were so supple, flexible, not a tear or perforation amongst the two of them! PART of that would owe to being in a sealed cabinet most of their life... not hermetically sealed mind you, but enough to keep sunlight off of it. But if you've seen as many as I have, they never look like this! Even when sealed in a cabinet.

It took a while for me to figure out why they were so perfect and still in such flexible, resonant condition, I have only to believe that they predated the 1930s controlled substance acts, and therefore probably used HEMP paper, as it was THE ONLY OPTION used at this time!

The greatly more expensive wood pulp paper was basically forced on people after these laws were passed, thanks to good old Payola from the DuPont company, with an extra push with the yellow journalism from the Hearst newspaper dynasties, everybody was suddenly forced to buy inferior paper at Superior prices! Know your history and your speakers! If this isn't the biggest indictment of sulfuric acid process wooden pulp paper, I don't know what is! The fact that these things are in such perfect condition after all these years, and would beat the pants off of any 20 year old speakers I have, it just tells you, things were messed up in the old days, too! LOL

After intense scrutiny, this amplifier and this pair of speakers do appear to be a 1936 to 38 combo of both the original field coil Jensen the c12r, field coil speakers, with the capehart label on the back, as found in Jensen speaker catalog listings in 1936 and dissapearing before the 40s started.

With the pan amuse matching amplifier with two rectifiers in the power supply, very adequate filtration... an all-around amazingly well-made amp that sounds whisper quiet with only a few tweaks and repairs. The schematics bear this out, as the build is a unique one. There are two schematics of this amp, one with two 5y3 rectifiers, and the other having one. The single rectifier model seems to be the one with bass channel, with this version, having a more full range, certainly not lacking, with two awesome Jensen 12" electrodynamic drivers.

It's also been stated that the ttansformers in these feature some of the first made from the company that would be known as McIntosh, if indeed it wasn't already at this time.

After studying the rare schematic for a few days and making sure every connection/component was original spec and working, replacing some capacitors, tubes, (which were actually in the wrong sockets when I got it), wiring the speakers with the correct Molex connector and tests for all the various parts before they were hooked up, and finally the shorting plug, part of the original remote control or wired remote that was optional, but necessary to make it actually turn on!

My patience was rewarded two days ago when I heard these make their first sounds in over 60 years! The video is down below, and forgive me I'm playing guitar through them. It was the easiest test at the time, and it puts out a very loud, solid 15 watts at least!

And it sounds great! I'm putting this up for sale briefly, as I will likely put these to use if no one else has a need to put them in an original Capehart system... they will become another amazing amp with amazing story, and totally unique tonal signature!

I mean how many of you out there can say you have a 90-year-old Hi-Fi amplifier? Show offs! Lol

Needless to say these are sold as is, as described, but you have the benefit of seeing these things perform in an actual video and I would pack these things as anybody would such Precious Cargo! And Thanks for looking!