Here is the mystery set still in the box unopened.

I bought this on Saturday from a dealer that had it in the front of a horse trailer. Completly unopened. Still stapled shut.

There is a cut in the box that allows you to look in a bit. All I can see is a fake mahogany finish on some material. Not real wood.

I have no idea what is inside other than it is small console size. You can see the model number in the photos. It is still unopened until you chime in.

I want to hear what you think I should do with it. I am inclined to open it and do the variac test. It is not anything historic...check back 20 years for now for that. And if anyone knows what it looks like, post it here.

Dave a

I'd open it, but keep all the packing materials and manuals. Who knows--you might even grow to like it?

It's always exciting to hear about a new in the box find. I couldn't make out the model numbers in the picture. But here's a picture of my Emerson (1957), which probably isn't it because its wood, but they also made a metal cabinet version of it with legs.

Umm Dave, it says Emerson on the box :D
Whatever it is it's extremely cool!

I vote to open it too, I'm dying to see what's in there.

Take lots of pictures of the process for your friends here at AK, video would be nice too = :banana:

I stand corrected. Just cutting and pasting from the earlier posts. It is an Emerson as Eric noted. I will edit the original to correct my hasty error. Eric, can you correct the main page title? Don't know how to do that.

And where could I post video? Sounds like a server donation and link.

Perhaps a whole new area for video on AK somewhere. A clip of working sets would be fun to watch. Including my Col-R-Tel that is about to get a new CRT for the host set.

Dave A

Hi Dave, I can't edit the title, drh4683 moderates this forum so maybe Doug can fix it.

If you make some videos I would be glad to host them on my site and post the link here.

Arrrrgh! Open it, open it! How can you stand just letting it sit???

veg (you should see me on Christmas...)

Sitting here miles away, I say leave it closed. Someday it will be worth a fortune. But if I owned it I don't think I could stand it!

A few years ago I bought a copy of the local paper, a special edition from the town's hundreth anniversary. The paper was still rolled up and sealed, plus tied with twine. Dated mid 60s. I couldn't stand it, I ruined it, I opened it, I admit it. And I would probably do it again!

Here we go with the sealed set. Bryan, neither one of us will live long enough to make this a priceless set down the road. Eric, thanks for the offer, but the camcorder is on assignment at the ballpark. I may save that offer for the Col-R-Tel pictures.

Now for the grand opening. I snipped the staples on the bottom and opened it. The box said to flip it and pull the box up. The legs looked to fragile for that move, so I slid it out on it's back. A flat back made that a good move. It arrived in this world almost unscathed. I found a small scratch on the side where the peephole cut was. It is a mahogany photo finish over Masonite as shiny as I have ever seen. A little red and black Sharpie action covered the scratch nicely. You can also see the rear stain overspray shot right on the chassis table, but not on the chassis installed later.

It is Emerson's model 1478-434N. Year unknown. VHF only. UHF does show on the tube chart, but not here.

It has two 8" or so speakers and two circuit boards. The PS is on the bottom and the rest is on the side. The main board is a full PC board under the sheet metal support. It is a 21" tube. Only one hang tag on the front for tuning instructions and one for the wonders of Emerson's "Full-power transformer" which begs the question of a less-than-full-power-transformer.

This is a very economy set, but very well built compared to the Scott in my other thread.

The variac test got a pic, but shrunken on the right and the usual hot can. Not bad for 45+ years in a box. For now, it goes in line for repair.

Now on to the Panasonic CTJ-1000 I just found at the Goodwill with the perfect color picture and cabinet. A cute little set for $4.99. Stop me before I buy again!

Dave A

:yikes: NRFB until now? that looks incredible! Very cool to see what they looked like new.

Very nice time capsule there Dave !!!
Thanks for sharing the pic's... :thmbsp:

It arrived in this world almost unscathed. Great pictures. i can almost smell the new!

That's really cool! I hope you can keep the box/materials.
Could you tell us the story on the set? Where/who is it from and why did it never get opened?
Thanks!

The first three sets came from a dealer that bought them from a closed tv shop in Lancaster, PA. The round Motorola was in the dealers home in his bedroom. There was another early 60's Motorola I did not buy along with some not-so-good-looking wall mount sets. Quite beat up.

The NIB Emerson came from another dealer that bought the set from the same closed shop. He also had some NIB RCA extension speakers in cabinets. One was a smallish chairside, bookcase looking, solid mahogany cabinet with a very ordinary 10" speaker in it. He also had a wall mount slide-out phono/amp unit from the early 60's. Also NIB.

And a quick plug for my new digital camera. The Olympus 810. The most amazing camera I have ever seen. Takes pix in almost complete dark conditions up to ISO 3200 specs and has a great image stabilization to boot.

Dave A

Dave A

I was gonna comment about the quality of those outdoor screenshots. I have trouble getting them that good indoors!

Any readable date codes on the tubes?

Wow, that's neat! You don't see something like that every day! Plus, that's actually a pretty nice looking set for an Emerson.

By the way, as for the horizontal nonlinearity, perhaps you can contact the current incarnation of Emerson Radio and get them to honor the warranty. :D

After all, it's brand new! It's only been out of the box a couple days! :yes:

Demand that Emerson stand behind their products! :)

Richard, great question. I forgot to look. All the tubes are Emerson badged. Only the small pins have codes I can decipher. All are in a range from 58-36 to 58-49. Late 1958 vintage. Large tube codes are more confusing than useful.

The more I look at it, it is a clever design with the two chassis. RF/IF/video/audio/sync on one universal chassis and a separate (sized to need) power supply for whatever set it goes in.

And for fun, I sent a note to the current Emerson Radio website asking about the warranty. I believe it is a Daewoo subsidiary now.

Stay tuned,

Dave A

And for fun, I sent a note to the current Emerson Radio website asking about the warranty. I believe it is a Daewoo subsidiary now.


I'm sure their response would be to just either laugh or say "Yeah, whatever... Go away", but y'know, if there were still manufacturers of TV sets in the USA, I bet there's a chance someone who approached one of their service centers with a story like that would actually get the warranty honored, just from the sheer *novelty* if nothing else.

Besides, it make for a goofy potential advertising stunt for just the cost of sending a service tech to go out and replace some capacitors.

Such as this ad copy I just drafted up... for some parallel universe where the real Emerson Radio and Television was still around and kicking out television sets in 2006... and with a fanciful-but-cute re-telling of the story.

woooOOOOooooOOOOoooooOOOOooooooOOOOOOoooooOOOOOooo oo...



Emerson Quality


(Insert: image of a smiling TV repairman wearing an Emerson Service uniform and proudly tipping his cap. He is leaning against Dave's new-old Emerson TV set. The TV is displaying a perfect B&W picture of some generic modern TV-typical scene)


We Stand Behind It.




An Emerson warranty service center received an unusual request the other day.

The customer had just unpacked his new Emerson TV and switched it on for the first time. As it started up, he found that the picture appeared distorted and 'squashed' on one side.

"No problem," we said. "We'll arrange to have it repaired for you."

A defect in a new Emerson TV is unusual, to be sure. But that was not the end of the story.

The service representative asked the customer for the model number of his TV and the name of the Emerson dealer.


"This TV is no longer in production," he said.

"No problem," we said.

"The Emerson dealer is no longer in business," he said.

"No problem," we said.


Indeed, his TV had been discontinued for quite some time. It had originally left our factory forty-seven years ago. This Emerson deluxe 21" black-and-white console TV had been shipped to a dealer, but had somehow remained unsold and was eventually forgotten.

Decades later, after the dealer had retired from his business, it was found in a storage area, still in its original unopened shipping container.

It was then discovered by someone who restores old TV sets. The customer who contacted us purchased this new-old TV, and proudly brought this set to the light of day for the first time.

He contacted our service center not expecting a serious response. He just wanted to see how we might react to such a story. He thought we'd laugh and then politely reject his claim. Or not even listen to the story of his 'new' TV.

However, we at Emerson take customer service seriously.

We listened to his story. The TV had indeed just been taken out of the box for the first time. And our warranty agreement on his set was for a full 90 days from the day of original installation.


"No problem," we said.


We sent an Emerson service technician to his home, and promptly repaired his TV at no charge.

Just as the 47-year old warranty card packed with the TV said we would do.




Emerson. Yesterday and today, still America's value leader in television.



Emerson Radio and Television / Jersey City, New Jersey

LOL, Technically it is a new TV by definetion as it was still in it's packing box & never installed or powered up until now that is.

http://www.sonigem.com/index/screen/home.html

This is what became of Emerson and several other brands.

Note that they consider their customers the stores that sell the stuff to the public, not the public itself... The Crazy Eddies and Circuit Cities and so on.

http://www.sonigem.com/index/screen/home.html

This is what became of Emerson and several other brands.

Beware, though, because at least two of the brands shown there would really be just third-party licencing agreements, and not an indicator of who actually owns the company/brand.

Sylvania is a bit complicated. The lamp division at least is owned by Osram and they still make light bulbs and stuff, but they've licenced the brand name to some other company(s), (perhaps it's these Sonigem guys) for boom boxes and radios and such that have the Sylvania name. In fact, I've got a box of Sylvania light bulbs right here and they're even made in the USA ("Proudly Made in St. Marys, Pennsylvania"). Also, Philips bought the Sylvania electronics division in 1981, which had previously been owned by GTE.

Koss is still alive and kicking in Milwaukee, WI, and they still make headphones. Er, sorry-- "Stereophones". :) Their higher-end (well, as "high-end" as Koss goes these days) models are still made here in the USA-- and even have a lifetime warranty these days. So don't knock Koss down for the count just yet. Now, those cheezy boomboxes and DVD players and such you see with the Koss name are a different story; those are licenced products and handled by another company entirely. The FAQ page on the Koss web site (www.koss.com) confirms this. ( Plug: If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive pair of lightweight 'phones, the Koss PortaPro is tough to beat for the cost, but beware that they make a few other models that have similar names but are not as nice (the SportaPro and the KTX-Pro, for example). Anyway, just my opinion. )

By the way, there are other examples of these sorts of "licensing" deals, such as Polaroid (the company that makes the instant film and such is still an American company, but they've licenced the name out to another company for various cheap A/V products.)

The whole thing is kinda sad, really...

Copied from their email;

No warranty.
Emerson has not manufactured that model in over 20 years.

Sincerely,
Emerson Radio Corp.
Consumer Affairs Dept.

If they bought the name, I doubt they bought the remaining obligations. I guess I get to fix it myself.

Would you really want Osram/Sylvania/Daewoo/Heier/Thomson/LG/Polaroid/Timex/RCA/Westinghouse/etc. to fix anything you own?

I saw a Westinghouse plasma set in Best Buys last week. The worst thing they had on display. So much for a great name. I'll stick with my cheap Emerson B&W.

Dave A

I like this part "They license the Koss name from Koss Corporation and Koss approves all of their product designs and performance specifications."

I'll never understand why a company trashes it's own brand by allowing someone to sell cheap crap with their brand on it. I certainly wouldn't trust a product from a compnay that "approves" all that junk.

If they bought the name, I doubt they bought the remaining obligations. I guess I get to fix it myself.

I saw a Westinghouse plasma set in Best Buys last week. The worst thing they had on display. So much for a great name. I'll stick with my cheap Emerson B&W.

Dave A

If they were nice, they would have offered to replace it with a new set.

People are actually taking those Westinghouse (and other off brand sets) sets seriously. Brand loyalty is a thing of the past.

I like this part "They license the Koss name from Koss Corporation and Koss approves all of their product designs and performance specifications."
I suspect it's done with about the same regard for quality as Krusty the Klown has with his "Krusty Brand Seal of Approval"... :) :no:

I'll never understand why a company trashes it's own brand by allowing someone to sell cheap crap with their brand on it. I certainly wouldn't trust a product from a compnay that "approves" all that junk.
Yeah, I don't understand that either. I think it not only reflects poorly on the brand, but dillutes the brand's identity.

Have you ever seen a brand-licenced product line of this sort that was actually good? Seems like it's always junk.

Thread title changed.

I have a Seiko Kinetic watch that I received as a gift when they first invented the mini dynamo and capacitor power system, at least 10 years ago. I only wore the watch a few times and put it away and forgot about it until a few months ago. It would run for only 5 minutes if I stopped moving it. I emailed Seiko not expecting much. The next day an overnight shipping box was delivered to my home with instructions to pack the watch in the box and call or drop it off at a FedEx office. 3 days later I received the watch back overnight from the service company for Seiko USA. The invoice read, install new capacitor, NC, clean and time movement, NC. overnight shipping NC, you get the idea. This was done without a receipt or any proof of purchase on a 10 year old model. Now THAT'S customer service.
Richard.

My understanding, from browsing the Emerson site a few years ago, was that it was still an American owned & operated company, but that it was nothing more than a sales company. From what I have gathered, in about 1970 Emerson/DuMont (National Union Electronics Corp.) shut down it's factory and had others make the sets for them. Now, I have the infamous NOS DuMont color set from 1969 and it is a genuine Emerson. Going by the pics in photofacts, somewhat later models look very similiar on the outside (same style control panel) but the chassis looks like an Admiral. Another little fact: after closing the factory doors they sued "Japan, Inc." for dumping electronics in America (selling stuff for less than it cost to produce) in order to dominate the market. This especially hurt a bottom feeder like Emerson. I don't know how the lawsuit came out; I do know that nearly all the tubes in the '69 DuMont (save the Sylvania sourced picture tube) are,ironically, made in Japan.

My understanding, from browsing the Emerson site a few years ago, was that it was still an American owned & operated company, but that it was nothing more than a sales company.

That's what I was thinking too, and I'm pretty sure it was true a few years ago, but I'm not sure if it's still true or not.

I do kinda wonder what happened to the DuMont brand, though. I got the impression that Emerson eventually sold it off. Didn't it re-surface briefly in the late 70's - 80's, under a company name like "DuMont Television Sales Co." or something? SAMS index shows some Photofacts in the 2000-2200 range under DUMONT A. Given how so many old American brand names have been "ressurrected" lately for inexpensive imports, I'm surprised nobody's taken the DuMont name/logo.

It's funny how that sometimes works though; there was a time when the Packard-Bell name might have been associated with radios and TV's sold on the west coast, but now when most people see that name I'm sure they just think of cheap-and-crappy personal computers from the 1990's.

In any case, I don't think Betty James is still making Emersons...