Gold speaker cloth suppliers - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

stevehertz · 18th Jul 2023, 1:04 pm

Googling 'gold indian fabric' you arrive at a mass of gold fabrics, many of them suitable for replacing speaker fabric on vintage radios. If you then click on various ones you will find a whole lot more, different ones.

Here's some examples:

https://www.google.com/search?q=gold...aluIKpGgLXJfoM

https://www.terrysfabrics.co.uk/prod...in-fabric-gold

Some of them are already being sold on Ebay as 'speaker fabric' but at higher prices per area unit measurement.

You get similar results albeit not quite so useable if you use 'grey' or 'silver' in the search.

Nickthedentist · 18th Jul 2023, 1:59 pm

Wow, that is useful, Steve. Thank you.

David G4EBT · 19th Jul 2023, 2:52 pm

I guess like most of us, whenever I'm in a store, I'm forever looking for material that can be pressed into service, from dress fabric to table-mats, charity shop 'T' shirts or whatever, usually to no avail.

For anyone who wants genuine acoustically transparent reproduction speaker cloth, Gary Tempest tipped me off that there is an American supplier, Michael Katz, from whom he has bought fabric, which isn't expensive, is the 'real deal' and Michael is happy to supply to the UK with low postage costs.

Michael is a vintage radio restorer of many years standing, who noticed there was no satisfactory reproduction radio grille cloth being manufactured – anywhere. Hence, he enlisted a mill to make a reproduction radio grille cloth that was historically accurate. He has been marketing grille cloth on and off for the past 30 years, and in 2021 he formalised his business and launched 'Radio Grille Cloth', along with a website for collectors to order a wide variety of speaker fabric.

Though primarily for American Radios such as Zenith and Philco, looking at the wide range, it seems to me that many would be eminently suitable for UK radios, such as round Ekcos:

https://www.radiogrillecloth.com/about

If you check out his prices, even with postage to the UK, it might in fact work out cheaper than to use material not actually intended for the purpose.

https://www.radiogrillecloth.com/products

Hope that might be of interest.

18th Jul 2023, 1:04 pm	#1
stevehertz Dekatron Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Rugeley, Staffordshire, UK. Posts: 8,839	Gold speaker cloth suppliers Googling 'gold indian fabric' you arrive at a mass of gold fabrics, many of them suitable for replacing speaker fabric on vintage radios. If you then click on various ones you will find a whole lot more, different ones. Here's some examples: https://www.google.com/search?q=gold...aluIKpGgLXJfoM https://www.terrysfabrics.co.uk/prod...in-fabric-gold Some of them are already being sold on Ebay as 'speaker fabric' but at higher prices per area unit measurement. You get similar results albeit not quite so useable if you use 'grey' or 'silver' in the search. __________________ A digital radio is the latest thing, but a vintage wireless is forever..

18th Jul 2023, 1:59 pm	#2
Nickthedentist Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oxford, UK. Posts: 17,872	Re: Gold speaker cloth suppliers Wow, that is useful, Steve. Thank you.

19th Jul 2023, 2:52 pm	#3
David G4EBT Dekatron Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Cottingham, East Yorkshire, UK. Posts: 5,770	Re: Gold speaker cloth suppliers I guess like most of us, whenever I'm in a store, I'm forever looking for material that can be pressed into service, from dress fabric to table-mats, charity shop 'T' shirts or whatever, usually to no avail. For anyone who wants genuine acoustically transparent reproduction speaker cloth, Gary Tempest tipped me off that there is an American supplier, Michael Katz, from whom he has bought fabric, which isn't expensive, is the 'real deal' and Michael is happy to supply to the UK with low postage costs. Michael is a vintage radio restorer of many years standing, who noticed there was no satisfactory reproduction radio grille cloth being manufactured – anywhere. Hence, he enlisted a mill to make a reproduction radio grille cloth that was historically accurate. He has been marketing grille cloth on and off for the past 30 years, and in 2021 he formalised his business and launched 'Radio Grille Cloth', along with a website for collectors to order a wide variety of speaker fabric. Though primarily for American Radios such as Zenith and Philco, looking at the wide range, it seems to me that many would be eminently suitable for UK radios, such as round Ekcos: https://www.radiogrillecloth.com/about If you check out his prices, even with postage to the UK, it might in fact work out cheaper than to use material not actually intended for the purpose. https://www.radiogrillecloth.com/products Hope that might be of interest. __________________ David. BVWS Member. G-QRP Club member 1339.