Do you still use your old radios

[Jeffhs]

Randy, I've been wondering for quite a while about the record changer in your Maggie Concert Grand system. You said you put in a newer Magnavox Micromatic changer for lower tracking force. What type of changer or turntable was in the Concert Grand orginally?

[Randy Bassham]

Jeff, It came with about the same changer as the later ones, the mounting holes lined up so I didn't have to do any cutting of the motorboard. The original changer used an Electro-Voice 26 ceramic cartridge which tracks at about 8-10 grams, it sounds good but it's murder on the vinyl. I dropped in a double idler Micro-Matic that uses the Astatic 195d and it tracks at 2 grams. Magnavox stuck with ceramic cartridges until almost the end of the era. I've got a '76 Magnavox Concert Grand that I bought new when I was working for a Magnavox Dealer and it uses the later Micro-matic with a single idler and the changer is driven from the center of the turntable instead of it's own idler direct to the motor, it also has a magnetic cartridge. I've seen a couple of the tubed sets on ebay in the last few years and I've also seen someone selling all the components out of one (shame). The fellow I bought the tubed set from gave me the original sales receipt dated 1961....$1500, that was a chunk-o-change 44 years ago....

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

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I have also read reports here on AK that Zenith's C-845 table model also has incredible sound quality for a table set. Several people here have these little sets and seem to like them a lot; I can understand why. These sets were made for high fidelity (that "high fidelity" script logotype on the front panel isn't just an advertising slogan--Zenith obviously meant it, in spades).

<snip>

I have one on my desk at work and use it regularly in the afternoon (usually from 4pm on, when enough people have left for the day that it won't disturb them). It does sound great, and has been reliable for almost three years of regular service. I have a Zenith AM/FM alarm clock/radio at home that also gets used regularly (the clock part still keeps perfect time).

I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done to extend the life of the clock mechanism. As far as I can tell, there was no provision for lubrication as there would be for wind-up mechanical clocks. I guess that as long as it runs, I'll continue to enjoy it and wake up to genuine tube radio sound.




Joe

I always say that I will play these old radios I collect, but I seldom do. Every now and again I have a time warp experience with one - I listened to a baseball game on a Detrola recently.

I am hoping to drag a very nice sounding Zenith table model from 1959 to work and maybe listen in my office sometimes. It sounds sweet - has a little electrostatic tweeter - but it distorts quite a bit at anything over low volume (probably not due to malfunction but due to design). I wonder what the youngsters will make of that. To them streaming audio off the internet is hi-fi!

Originally Posted by Randy Bassham

Finally got a pix of the Concert Grand from the back....42 tubes in total. Each amp is Bi Amped using 6 6V6's to drive the Bass Woofers and 2 6V6's to drive the Horns. This is an example of what happens when the bean counters don't pay attention to what the engineers are doing....

Yeah the tubes are nice - but how many audiophiles recognize that sweet YORX 8track/Cassette receiver circa 1980 with the faux woodgrain sitting on top of it?

That baby was a Spiegel mail order item and has that spring loaded on/off switch on that stainless steel and chrome front. I haven't seen one in 25 years.

Who needs the Magnavox for fine listening when one has that?

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by schoolboy

I am hoping to drag a very nice sounding Zenith table model from 1959 to work and maybe listen in my office sometimes. It sounds sweet - has a little electrostatic tweeter - but it distorts quite a bit at anything over low volume (probably not due to malfunction but due to design). I wonder what the youngsters will make of that. To them streaming audio off the internet is hi-fi!

Which model Zenith is that? I have a K-731 with an electrostatic tweeter which sounds fairly good at the volume levels at which I use it (can't play it too loud because I live in an apartment building). Somehow I can't quite believe any of the older Zeniths distort as much as you say yours does, unless there is a problem somewhere, such as an electrolytic filter cap beginning to go sour. I certainly do not think Zenith actually designed any of its older radios to go into distortion at anything less than extremely loud volume (these sets were designed with quality in mind from the '20s through about the '80s, the latter being the last decade in which Zenith produced radios), but then again any radio of any make or vintage will distort badly if it is operated at such high volume. Keep in mind as well that an amplifier driven into distortion will oftentimes produce more power than that for which it was designed, which could damage the speaker(s).

I wouldn't sell Internet streaming audio short if I were you; some of it sounds fairly good. I run the output of my computer's sound card through my Aiwa 200-total-watt bookshelf stereo and get good sound from Radio365 and RealOldies1690.com, the latter being the Internet webcast of an oldies radio station near Chicago, the former being a streaming Internet radio station with several different music formats available. In fact, I don't use the speakers that came with my computer at all anymore. I think the reason streaming Internet audio sounds so poor is that most of the time people listen to it through their computer's own tiny speakers, which were never designed for high fidelity. Kids today may think this is "hi-fi" because they may never have heard a real high-fidelity music system in operation; keep in mind as well that, by their mid-teens of even younger (!), many youngsters have ruined their hearing forever and for good by listening to loud rock bands at concerts or at high volume through headphones or speakers over their own stereo systems. Listening at very high volume through headphones is particularly damaging to human hearing, since the transducers are right next to the listener's eardrums. The small stereo headphones furnished with personal stereo units often come with warnings against listening at high volume levels for any length of time, for just those reasons. I have a small FM scanning radio with headphones that can probably blow your head off (it distorts like heck long before the volume control gets anywhere near maximum, though) if the volume is turned up all the way; my late-'80s GE boom box is like that as well. Both sets are capable of more than enough volume to damage one's hearing forever; fortunately, I don't care for really loud music anyway (anymore; I am almost 49 years old), so have never run either radio (and certainly not my stereo system or any other radio I own) that loud. Thinking about loud music and teenagers reminds me of a song by the '60s West Coast surf rock group The Beach Boys; the song is titled "Dance, Dance, Dance" and begins, " After six hours of school I've had enough for the day/I hit the radio dial and trurn it up all the way" I bet that kid's hearing was ruined long before he reached the age of 18.

BTW, I notice you are near Cleveland, Ohio. Are you right in the city or in a suburb? I ask because I grew up in the Cleveland suburb of Wickliffe and recently (as in just over five years ago) moved to Fairport Harbor, in east-central Lake County. I don't want to go into details, but the basic reason I moved to where I live now was to get away from the suburbs (Fairport Harbor is located just about ten miles east of the last true suburb of Cleveland).

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by TryHiFi

Yeah the tubes are nice - but how many audiophiles recognize that sweet YORX 8track/Cassette receiver circa 1980 with the faux woodgrain sitting on top of it?

That baby was a Spiegel mail order item and has that spring loaded on/off switch on that stainless steel and chrome front. I haven't seen one in 25 years.

Who needs the Magnavox for fine listening when one has that?

I wondered myself what make that 8-track system was atop the Concert Grand unit. I thought at first it was an external cassette deck (didn't notice it was an eight-track player).

[Telecolor 3007]

@Randy Bassham: how many tubes gots your beauty. I encouterted 17! How I wish me to have souch big beauty.

[rca2000]

I have to include this litle gem. It is a Sylvania 1968 model, solid state, W/a PAIR of push-pull TO-3 outputs, to drive a 4" long-throw speaker. (I have a picture of it on the "ever hear of sylvania speakers" thread)The speaker is sealed in the enclosure, with foam behind the speaker, and heavy wood all around. It probably produces 5 or more watts, (it draws 25 watts from the line, is transformer powered, with 2-watt emitter resistors in the output ckt.)and has better bass than ANY table radio I have seen. It appears to have been made to compete with the KLH radios of the day.

The model # is rm-90-k there is one with a slightly different cabinet on the 'bay, right now.

[Randy Bassham]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

@Randy Bassham: how many tubes gots your beauty. I encouterted 17! How I wish me to have souch big beauty.

The total tube count is 42, each amplifier chassis has 12 tubes (8-6V6's, 2-5U4's, and 2 12AX7's). The rest of the tubes are on the AM-FM tuner and remote control receiver. I'am about to up the tube count to 45 when I put in the optional FM multiplex adapter that I got on ebay....

[Randy Bassham]

Originally Posted by TryHiFi

Yeah the tubes are nice - but how many audiophiles recognize that sweet YORX 8track/Cassette receiver circa 1980 with the faux woodgrain sitting on top of it?

That baby was a Spiegel mail order item and has that spring loaded on/off switch on that stainless steel and chrome front. I haven't seen one in 25 years.

Who needs the Magnavox for fine listening when one has that?

It was quite a thrill to actually have that unit in my own hands when I lifted it off the Magnavox at the owners home. I may never own one but I can always remember the time I came so close to true quality......

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by Randy Bassham

The rest of the tubes are on the AM-FM tuner and remote control receiver.

THat Magnavox has a remote?????

[Randy Bassham]

Originally Posted by Charlie

THat Magnavox has a remote?????

Yep....It's an RF remote that will turn it on and off, run the volume up and down , start the search tuning, and reject the records. The remote receiver is that vertical chassis between the two amps. I'm still looking for a hand unit for it, something tells me it may be a long wait...

[jt1stcav]

Every antique tube radio I own has been restored, but the majority are located throughout the house for display use only since there are no nearby outlets to plug them in. I have 3 that are constantly used, so from time to time I'll rotate the unused radios from the 3 usable locations I have. Wish I had a humungous in-wall shelving system to display them all and select any one to listen to...I need a bigger house!

As I mentioned my personal reply, Jeffhs, I'll have to check that model on the Zenith. I'll have it with me at work soon! I hope it receives something in this big building (I have a lot of windows so maybe I'll be OK).