1972 Philips Radio Cassette Stereo De Luxe RN22712
The Philips RN22712, produced between 1971 and 1973, was the best car radio/cassette combination produced by Philips at the time. It has a Stereo FM (104MHz) radio with Mono AM (MW/LW), six pre-sets using the wonderful TURNOLOCK mechanism (3 x FM, 2 X MW & 1 X LW) and a stereo cassette player.
However, what really sets this unit apart is the Mono recording feature that will allow the user to record from the radio or make voice memo’s using the microphone. Very cool indeed back in the early ’70’s.
Finished in black crackle paint and with lovely chromed plastic volume and tuning knobs, this unit is very smart indeed. Even the speaker connectors are marked up Left and Right.
This example was sourced by Agenta Audio for a customer to fit in his concours 1971 Lotus Elite.
The RN22712 was fully repaired, serviced and restored before being shipped to the Lotus Specialist for fitting. The system was finished off with a pair of Audison PRIMA APX4 4″ full range co-axial speakers and by all accounts it sounds superb!
The image above is from an early ’70’s car magazine advert for the Philips RN22712. We’ve added it here, not only because it shows how good the radio looks in the dash, but also to show the Microphone fitted in its special bracket bottom left in the picture.
We’re looking forward to pictures of our unit fitted in the dash and we’ll post them here when they arrive.
The Philips RN22712 is a very rare radio and difficult to find. Unfortunately, the Microphone and fitting bracket are usually missing. The example we were able to source did have the microphone, but not the bracket, so a fitting was fabricated by the Lotus specialist installation engineer.
It would be a shame to have this unit installed in the car and not be able to show off by making voice memo’s on cassette tape, so the tape drive was removed and fully serviced while it was in our workshop to make sure it all worked properly.
All the rubber components were replaced and as the original drive belt had turned into black super sticky goo (hard to believe just how sticky this stuff is), a lot of time and care was taken with cleaning it off the mechanism.
It’s great to be able to rescue one of these iconic and super rare radios and get it back into the cockpit of an iconic Lotus where it belongs.
If you need a particular model of period correct classic radio or audio technology to complete your restoration, please do get in touch with us here at Agenta Audio. We’re happy to source and restore on request.