Clocks & Music
1937 Sparton 628 Tombstone Walnut Tube Radio, Restored with Bluetooth
1937 Sparton 628 Tombstone Walnut Tube Radio with VisoGlo Tuning Eye, Restored with Bluetooth
This 1937 Sparton Model 628 is a striking tombstone-style tube radio from the Sparks-Withington Company, its walnut cabinet framed by tall black wood pillars flanking three vertical panels of woven grille cloth. Below the grille, Sparton's signature "VisoGlo" tuning eye glows above a large brass-bezeled dial with a rounded, almost shield-like shape, its gold face marked with dual frequency and megacycle scales for Broadcast, Shortwave, and Police bands, four Bakelite knobs lined up along the bottom of the cabinet.
The 628 is a six-tube AC superheterodyne set with a 456 kHz IF and two audio stages, built around a 6A8G, 6K7G, 6Q7G, 6F6G, 6E5 tuning eye tube, and 5Y3G rectifier, driven through an electromagnetic dynamic speaker behind the cabinet's three grille panels. Its VisoGlo tuning eye, a small glass tube that narrows into a thin green sliver as a station is tuned precisely, was one of Sparton's signature features of the period, giving the radio both a visual flourish and a genuinely useful tuning aid.
Sparton built a reputation in the 1930s for architectural, unconventional cabinet designs that stood apart from more conservative radio makers, and the 628's tombstone silhouette, with its bold black pillars and rounded brass dial bezel, is a strong example of that instinct. It represents one of the company's higher-end table radios of the era, built to be as much a design statement as a working set.
This example has been restored and equipped with Bluetooth through a 1/8 inch adapter, allowing a smartphone, tablet, computer, or record player to connect and play through the radio's original tube-driven sound. The result pairs modern convenience with the warm tone of a vintage Sparton set, housed in one of the more architecturally bold tombstone cabinets of the late Art Deco period.
