Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul_RK
I'm not sure what you can be thinking of as improvements, unless you just mean made to work again after they stop, or to work well again after their functionality deteriorates - which is a different matter from making them work "better" than their original design allowed. Not that that's wrong if anyone wants to do it, but as this thread shows there are quite a few of us to whom it doesn't appeal.
I've a few pre-war electric heaters in use, but in general I've changed nothing about them aside from replacing mains leads where necessary. On the radio side of things, valve sets did sometimes require service in the course of their intended working lives, but almost always the requirement was for like-for-like replacements - a valve or capacitor fitted say in 1940 to a 1932 radio would be doing the same job as the original, not doing it in a different way or to a higher standard. I can't think of many electronic items that tended at all to be "improved" from their original design by the people who kept them going, unless you count the many radiograms in which 78 rpm turntables were replaced by three- or four-speed decks to refresh their usefulness.
Paul
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According to"Old time radios", my go-to reference book, it was not unusual to replace EM speakers in 1930 sets with PM speakers. I'm sure this was probably driven by availability and cost of repairing like for like, but it's likely that a new "modern" PM speaker improved the sound quality somewhat and made for more enjoyable listening.
I would be tempted to do the same if I had a speaker with an OC field coil, unless the set is particularly rare or valuable