1975-1977 Sony TFM-9440

It's a Sony!

The Sony TFM-9440 and TFM-9450 models from 1975 to 1977 were some of the most dependable radios you can buy back in its time! Excellent performer and affordable.

This design and others like it are the culmination representing five decades of radio receiver engineering, manufacturing and marketing know-how. In a nutshell, AM and FM, rectangular brown wood cabinet, lighted dial, large speaker, and inexpensive.

(Left) TFM-9450 (Right) TFM-9440

 

Everything consumer wants and nothing they don't. Pure evolution.

Both TFM-9440 and TFM9450 were tabletop AM and FM radios housed in a particle board wood cabinet and covered in a wood grain patterned vinyl covering. It featured a durable quality brown grill fabric. The controls panel was black acrylic panel with chrome silver accent knobs and trim.

Sony TFM-9450 control panel

The audio quality was excellent in richness and tone. Frequency sensitivity and selectivity is one of the best. Even after all these years surviving examples can be serviced to be as-good or better sounding than newer equivalents.

Sony TFM-9450 control panel

The TFM-9440 and TFM-9450 has basic controls for volume, tone, and tuning. There is also loudness Automatic Volume Control (AVC) setting, to even out disparity in volume levels between strong and weak stations.

TFM-9440 control panel

 

Inside, the circuit was a 12 watt receiver with 11 discrete solid state transistors mounted on resin circuit board. No integrated circuits or digital technology. The power output output of the isolation transformer was 12V. Sound was driven through a 4" speaker.

Sony made boatloads of these radios so they're still relatively easy to find. Typical issues found with these surviving examples are ripped or torn vinyl covering. The grill cloth is sometimes punctured, stained or ripped.

Dirty volume and tone potentiometers are common. Dirty AM FM and AVC or loudness switches also. The speaker is normally functional and produces surprisingly good audio quality. The unit is not usually prone to capacitor failure, mis-alignment, or pervasively out-of-tolerance with respect to factory specifications.

It is a relatively straight forward design to service. The whole chassis comes out in one piece with wires connecting to the speaker and transformer only. The dial string and winding configuration is stable and tensioned sufficiently to minimize slip.