Pretty nice looking television. I got there as they were about to close, so I didnt get much of a chance to check it out but seemed to be in pretty good condition. I did some searching last night and it seems that RCA colortrak series is pretty well regarded. However I was a little disappointed as it seems RCA used the name "colortrak 2000" on a wide variety of tv sets so I wasnt able to figure out which particular model the one I was looking at is. Lately my interest in obtaining a nice console TV has been growing, its quite obvious they will never make TV's like this again and most of them make for a nice handsome peice of equipment. After searching the internet I found an ad on ebay that features a pic of what I believe is the TV I saw (the one circled). Its quite small but if anyone may recognize it and knows something about it I would love some info. I may go back in a couple of weeks and check it out.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y229/jlindsey86/colortrakAD.jpg

Are all of these sets the same, just different cabinet housings?

It was I believe the same chassis in different cabinets. Depending on how much money you sunk on it, there was a nicer CRT with better phosphors and a finer dot pitch. You could also get a model with 3 A/V inputs and RGB color input.

Forgot what chassis they had (CTC-185?) but it was fairly reliable. My folks had one for years and it never let us down.

IIRC, in that era, it was RCA's top of the line set. The chassis in those are CTC-160 something. I bought one for a friend that wanted a console. However the one I got him has an intermittant power supply problem, and I guess these were known to have a bad cap in the power supply that should probably be replaced. On his, it will turn off and turn back on once in awhile. It may not do it for days, then decide to act up several times in one day. He said lately the picture seems to get really bright and than go back to normal, so I'm wondering if it's that cap? When working, his set has the best sound and picture I've seen on ANY set in quite awhile. His is the 27" "flat" screen model. RCA did have a near flat tube in the 80's!

those chassis were ctc121 if i am not wrong .the ctc 121 chassis were great performers. i sold quite a few of them they were quite expensive. and the warranty failer on them was almost at zero. and the picture tubes in them ran for years with a like new picture on them. it was a great set. steve

Maybe...

And Maybe--it is a CTC-131 chassis(the 1985-86 models). The 131 is a better chassis with a cold power supply, and seems to be more reliable (EXCEPT for the chopper transsitor and some other components in the power supply and the pin transistor). I do not think I have EVER seen a bad flyback in a 131 either.

Is yours a Dimensia set?? When the 131 was released in the fall of 1984, RCA brought out the Dimensia sets--these were VERY advanced for their time, with a powerful(for the period) computer in the set that interfaced with other RCA Dimensia components. This made "one touch" operation possible, so that if you wanted to watch a tape in the vcr, with the dimensia remote, you just selected vcr and then pushed play--everything else was taken care of automatically.

I have some of the Lyceum models of this set and have had to do some re-soldering in the tuner/control modules...had some problems with intermittent noise in the picture which would go away if the set were tapped on the side. Re-soldering fixed it. This is not the same as the CTC-177 solder problem where the tuner is on the circuitboard but the tuner and control modules are separate and mounted at the side of the chassis.

I'll try and take another look at it this week and see what the chassis number is.

i noticed you had a pair of jbl l36 decades i found a pair of these at a yard sale for $10.00 with the owners manuals warranty cards and the jbl hang tags. refoamed the woofers and they are one of the best sounding speakers i have heard. steve

those chassis were ctc121 if i am not wrong .the ctc 121 chassis were great performers. i sold quite a few of them they were quite expensive. and the warranty failer on them was almost at zero. and the picture tubes in them ran for years with a like new picture on them. it was a great set. steve

If you start seeing sound beats in saturated color areas of the picture in a CTC121, I found that adjusting IIRC the sound trap coil took care of that.

Parents had one. Good set, but it loved to turn on/off randomly, and ultimately had tiuer issues
was fixed years ago, was great until 2 or 3 years ago, then they got a Sony Wega. Hey, that's a nice set too!

Still have the RCA though. Thing weighs a freaking ton. Might fix it for myself some day, it still had a decent picture when we EOL'd it.

Oh yeah, the remoter on it was dead. It was the remote, not the set. Used that funky flat battery.

i noticed you had a pair of jbl l36 decades i found a pair of these at a yard sale for $10.00 with the owners manuals warranty cards and the jbl hang tags. refoamed the woofers and they are one of the best sounding speakers i have heard. steve

That was an awesome score, I almost did as well but not quite. I found mine at an estate sell for $45, though that did include a Pioneer SX-535, and PL-12D-II. All of which are in N/Mint shape. I was pretty lucky as it appears the recently deceased had them refomed somewhat recently. Congrats on getting the warranty cards and jbl tags. Makes for a nice touch. BTW, what color grills do you have?

Oh yeah, the remoter on it was dead. It was the remote, not the set. Used that funky flat battery.
I thought Zenith was the only one who used that battery. Think it's a J cell. Easy to find...got 'em at Wal*Mart, even.