This one I bought on ebay too, locally though more or less, south of Adelaide from a couple who were moving house. It belonged to the lady's mother and had spent a couple of decades stored in a shed and all of the power cord insulation had been eaten by mice. I replaced this and earthed the chassis, also cleaned the valves and gave her a thorough visual check over and polished the cabinet. When I hooked her up to the long wire aerial and plugged her in I got a station loud and clear as soon as she warmed up, however there is some evident hum proportional to the volume, but the radio is audible even with the volume all the way off! Too quiet for ordinary listening, but perfect for listening to in bed through the course of the night, so enjoys pride of place in our bedroom and we have her on to sleep to. The turntable works and at the correct speed, but when switched to phono, there is no sound but a harsh intermittent crackling, I'm not sure where the problem lies, whether it's a valve, capacitor or the phono cartridge, which although electronic, takes the same needles as a wind up gramophone, secured by a screw in the front of the tone arm cartridge. I guess it will be a matter of methodically replacing old caps first and going from there.

Airvoyce are not very common, a brand sold exclusively from Birks department store, Rundle St. Adelaide from the mid 30's until 1952, so she must be late 1940's, my best clue being the fact that it employs the smaller baseless type of valves.

This lovely piece is obviously in need of extensive renovation and I will accordingly give it my full attention once I have finished with my "Eclipse".

As you may notice, I am missing a bakelite knob and would like to find one the same or similar if anybody knows where I may be able to obtain one of these, I have seen them come up from time to time on ebay, so in the meantime will keep looking.
Also could anyone point me in the right direction concerning why I have no sound when using the turntable, given the radio works fine, should I assume therefore that the audio amplifier is thus ok and the problem lies with the phono cartridge? It is a very old cartridge, which takes gramophone needles, of the type normally used by wind up gramophones. I am supposing it would do no harm to remove the cartridge and tap a cd player or mp3 player headphone output to the wires from the cartridge to see what eventuates when I switch the knob to phono?
If anybody could shed a light on the year it was made and actual model, I would be very grateful as that would help immensely in tracking down parts etc. Cheers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK9kBTG8oUM

The above link is to an Airvoyce radiogram I found on Youtube, however it's much newer than mine, which only plays 78's and does not have a record changer at all, just the arm and spinning platter. Neither does mine have the record pouch in front of the radio, however the bakelite knobs, one of which I am seeking, look identical.

It sounds very much like it needs to be recapped. You also need to clean the valve sockets and all connections. That harsh intermittent crackling tells me there is a dirty connection somewhere just be patient and I believe that there should be a preamp for the phono which could be faulty.

Update: Phono is working well now! I found a wire from the pickup, detached from it's terminal on the amplifier, re-soldered it to where it was meant to connect and now it all works perfectly!

But did you recap it?

The turntable will likely need cleaning & lubricating, especially the motor. If it was producing Hum & its quite noticeable it likely needs an overhaul, & new caps.

We do not know its history, so it would be a salient point to photograph the inside of the pan so that we can get an idea of what (if anything) needs to go. Running it with severe hum only points to impending disaster.

Marc

Running it with severe hum only points to impending disaster.

Indeed.

Forgot: Despite having a HMV R53B here; fixing several issues. With yours, It may pay to remove the changer in toto (easier to service out anyway) That will allow you to lay it (with suitable protection) onto its face. & that will make a vertical mount chassis, easier to get out as it cannot fall, when unsecured.

Marc

I haven't re-capped it yet, although I am planning to to this fairly soon as it does hum a little, although hardly. Mine isn't a record changer, so to speak, just a single play turntable, which I have lubricated, but not the motor as it is currently running fine, however when I remove the chassis to replace caps, I'll remove it and lubricate the motor properly. Yes I usually lie the whole unit face-down on the bed when removing the chassis, I have some gluing and clamping to do also as some of the plywood has started to separate down around the base, fortunately it is very light and easy to work on.

When I pull the chassis out I will definitely post photo's of the pan, the way you guys sorted out what must go and what must stay with my console radio was just superb, I have save the photo and am waiting for a capacitor kit so that I can start on that one, the hum is only noticeable at low volume and is not at all severe, but the fact the radio is audible with the volume rolled all the way off apparently indicates capacitor leakage, so I have been told. Thank you all very much for your comments. Muchly appreciated! Cheers.