The Victor-Victrola Page   

RE-75

RARITY: ¤¤  VALUE:  ¤¤ 

When radio became the rage in 1924-1925, the Victor Talking Machine Company was caught totally unprepared, and sales of old-style phonographs tanked. So to get back into the consumer market, Victor relied on a licensing agreement with RCA to design and produce radios for their radio/phonograph combination models. This agreement lasted for nearly 5 years. But understandably, Victor did not want to depend on an outside supplier for a critical element of their products, so they designed and manufactured their own "Microsynchronous" radio, which proved to be one of the top-performing sets of 1929.
The RE-75 was a Microsynchronous radio-phonograph combination, and was one of the final products introduced by Victor in the spring of 1929, just prior to the time that the company was purchased by RCA.  It was functionally identical to Victor's less-expensive RE-45 model, which was launched just a few months earlier. With hinged doors on the front to hide the controls and a large, nicely-figured walnut cabinet (with space to store record albums), this machine provided remarkably good performance.
Approximately 13,500 RE-75 phonographs were produced. Production was discontinued toward the end of the year. The list price was set at $350.00, which equates to about $5,300.00 in today's money. Tubes were not included in this price. Most buyers chose the less-expensive RE-45, since the performance of these two sets was identical. Since the impact of The Depression was being strongly felt by the end of 1929, many of these models remained unsold by dealers, who continued to market them into the early 1930's at a significant discount. By 1931, the RE-75 could be purchased for about one-half the list price. The high cost of restoration of these early radios limits the interest of many collectors today, but many  enthusiasts like the audio quality provided by this set, with its characteristic "late 1920's" sound.

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