1962 Philco Stereophonic Console

[DavGoodlin]

After major letdown at an estate sale for a TV shop, I checked out a HiFi listed on craigslist on the way home. No use wasting a trip an hour south.

The owner had it listed for a few months at $150, that was down to $55 by the time I saw the ad. After seeing the unit in never-moved, great condition , I dint mind giving asking price. It was only used during holidays, yet the VM record changer still worked fairly well with some help.
I even saw the furniture store (the name changed once in 50 years!) at which it was bought on the way home.

Opening it up, it was inhabited by a family of dust bunnies, covering up a schematic on the bottom inside. All the tubes are original, testing good emission with only the 6BJ7 triple diode having heater-cathode leakage. Covered in Sams 589, I realized this unit was the same as in a combo unit having a 21" "cool chassis" BW set my great uncle had given me 30 some years ago.

What I do remember from that combo is the bummer when I realized the FM lacks a multiplex decoder, having only output and input jacks. This unit is no different, except for speakers. What it does have is a center-channel for the single 12" woofer.
There is a pair of 4" tweets and 8" mids, each driven by single-ended 6BQ5's.
The center channel is a third output transformer that seems to be connected to both SE output tube plates. Quite a step down from the Motorolas from the same era.

I have the caps ordered but meanwhile, the record changer's on the bench and it plays good enough after the usual cleaning and re-lube. The odd thing is the small, cylindrical cartrige, which should have a new stylus. This may be a ceramic cartrige because there is only one 12AX7 for the stereo pre-amplification stage.

Photos coming...

[radiotvnut]

Sounds like a nice unit and I'm interested in seeing the pictures. I've got a '63-'64 Philco with the center channel and a VM changer with a floating head cartridge. I think I have the chassis out an older 3-channel Philco that may be like yours. I think this one had a sliding top and a smaller VM changer with a plug-in cartridge/needle unit.

[DavGoodlin]

Here is the control panel and record changer

The cabinet is very modest like so many of this period

The Speakers, with the low frequency driver creatively connected

The chassis appears to be missing a tube socket on the PCB, possibly the Multiplex 19KC amp 6BN6?

The record changer's stylus looks odd to me but many of these VM changers accomodated very custom cartridges

The speed changer on this unit moves the motor up and down, lending a solid mechanical feel when switching the selector.
Pointing at a smaller wheel that contacts the platter, in fine shape and not typical


Still waiting on capacitors......

[Electronic M]

That looks electronically very similar to a presumably older FM MPX equipped Philco console I Have. Mine is in a french provincial cabinet BTW.

[orthophonic]

Very nice. The cartridge appears to be an Electro-Voice Power Point 107,
very similar(and slightly superior) to the Astatic Sound-Flo 13t and 89t that everyone calls a power
point.

[dieseljeep]

The center channel output transformer is a push-pull type, connected as such.
Probably not as good as the Motorola design, but seems to be an original approach.
I see the bass and the mid-range speakers are made by Quam. Philco seemed to use a better grade of speakers in their products.
BTW, I scrapped a higher-end Magnavox console, that had Quam bass speakers. It seemed a bit strange, as Magnavox made their own high quality speakers.

[DavGoodlin]

Powered it up last night after putting the Changer back in.
It sounded like a Huge german table radio, very nice with adequate bass and overall volume. Still waiting for caps...

BTW Dave, I used 6 x 9 Mag speakers from a 1966 color console in my first car a '73 Fury, when I noticed a cut-out on metal stamping under the package shelf they seemed made to fit.
When I could afford the popular upgrade to Jensen Tri-axials, the Mags sounded just about as good on my Pioneer Super Tuner...8-track version.

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by DavGoodlin

Powered it up last night after putting the Changer back in.
It sounded like a Huge german table radio, very nice with adequate bass and overall volume. Still waiting for caps...

BTW Dave, I used 6 x 9 Mag speakers from a 1966 color console in my first car a '73 Fury, when I noticed a cut-out on metal stamping under the package shelf they seemed made to fit.
When I could afford the popular upgrade to Jensen Tri-axials, the Mags sounded just about as good on my Pioneer Super Tuner...8-track version.

Drifting slightly out of thread, Magnavox also made their own electrolytic capacitors. They had the 232 EIA number on them, as well as their name.
IIRC, they quit making them, some time in the 60's.

[DavGoodlin]

Feeling like a heatwave, it finally got up to 30 degrees in the garage saturday and I plugged in the recapped chassis.
The FM sounds great even with the built-in twin lead dipole antenna, though this unit lacks a multiplex adapter.
I would have to agree that this amp is not a house-rocking design like Motorola's, but interesting and will be fun to compare to a 1963 Admiral I just picked up,
also with single-ended 6BQ5's.

The AM barely works at all, so ill need to investigate once I get the right sams, 589-3A. definetly not tubes, tried that.

The other problem is the record changer, which I'd really like to fix first.
Im not sure if I bumped something when I cleaned and lubed it, but it will start off by dropping the record, then before the tonearm moves to the left enough to set on the lead-in groove, it moves back as if to reject the record and shuts off. It will not even allow manual operation.
I'm still pretty new to phono operation repairs.

[DavGoodlin]

I have a sams coming from Bob Galanter to copy. Just in time too, more problems.

This may be a low-hours, gently-used set but its making up for lost time in spades.
I was enjoying some blues it Saturday night while building a new (another) work bench and heard the unmistakable thunder of silver-mica disease.
It went away as soon as I got close.

At first thinking the reception was just multipath-flaking out using the built-in dipole in such an unfavorable spot, I threaded my rooftop FM antenna wire out of the shop and back through the garage to the tuner and hooked it up. What a difference that made, then the crackles started again. I pulled both IF tubes and determined it was the last IFT, which has three pf-range caps in it. Will need the schemo to get those values.

That wasn't the fun part, after a few minutes a loud pop and magic smoke rolls out from under the chassis. I suspect one of the new electrolytics, but why? Did I put it in reverse? Was it 250 volts when I needed 350?
Oh bother. Back to the bench with everything but the speakers.

[Electronic M]

IIRC if the electrolite in the electrolitic freezes bad things can happen.

[radiotvnut]

Often, they don't give the values of the internal capacitors in the IF cans; so, you may have to guess at it. If no values are given, you could try connecting variable trimmer capacitors across where the old capacitors went, adjust the trimmers for best results, remove and measure the capacitance of the trimmer, and replace with fixed capacitors close to the measured value of the trimmer capacitors.

I doubt you installed an electrolytic backwards. Had you done that, it would have likely blown up instantly. I suspect one of the new capacitors either blew up or something else smoked.

[DavGoodlin]

I pulled the chassis last night and saw nothing unusual. the 2-amp line fuse was not open, so I carefully switched it on looking for more smoke, got no smoke/sparks but there was now a moderate hum. All the while monitoring rising cathode voltage on the 6CA4 as heater warmed up.

The first electrolytic after the 6CA4 rectifier tube was the half-circle terminal on the 4-section lytic, which I had disconnected and installed a pricey, new 100 mf @ 250 volts, correct polarity. Im sure this is where the smoke came from, as it smelled like a "new" component fail.
My F***-up for not going with a 350 volt cap, since the 6CA4 cathode measured 280 volts, with a now-open filter. I guess 250 means 250 and NO more. i did not expect B+ over 250 in this set, but the existing 4-section is rated at 350. =( Of course its possible it froze, due to a few sub-zero nights in the shop.
Who knows what this would rise to with a good cap. The schematic inside the cabinet did not show any voltages! Once I see the sams, I may know what the correct voltages are.



Also replaced was about 9 wax-paper caps and a 1 mf/25 v cap at the ratio detector tube, 6BJ7. I did not hold back here except on the x-pensive caps.
I was sure that 100 mf was the source of smoke, since I left the box (40 mf) and triangle (30 mf) as the ESR was OK on those also. I normally replace the first electrolytic filter cap after the rectifier regardless of how it tests, just because 50 years is old enough.
I figure if the down stream filter caps suddenly short, a resistor will get smoked, not a tube and/or transformer.

I looked through the spare parts and had no 450 volt caps close to 100 mf, so I figure on placing 3 x 33mf @ 450 volts in parallel. That should get it.

In the meantime, I can try isolating the silver mica - diseased IF transformer (s), by shunting signal to ground with a .47 cap from grid-to-ground on each of teh 6BA6 IF tubes. This method worked well for me on a Zenith H845 am-fm table radio, kind of like the cylinder-kill switch on an engine analyzer to find an ignition miss.

Then surgery is performed on the IFT removing and repairing it, and likely re-aligning the stage as well.Sure don't want to open up all 5 of them, 2 AM, 3 FM, and a bad mica cap in the base of any one can cause the static on both AM and FM.

[DavGoodlin]

With the help of Don Lindsley, an ex-Philco VKer, I changed my discriminator transformer caps (again) to the values he noted and it sounds great, without the crackles.

Only issue remaining is the VM record changer, which plays quite well with a new cartridge but is acting strange as it cycles.
Before all this, I took the slider bar out, cleaned and "lubri-plated" just about anything that moves like any other V-M changer. Pretty routine but I may have missed something.
These changers are pretty complex in comparison to some others, namely RCA and Mags- Collaros.
Upon starting, the record drops and after the tonearm sits in the start groove, then the switch just clicks off. With the stack arm clicked to the right for continuous play, there is no cycling at the end of the record.

I may just have to sell it as-is, a great manual player, Im getting too many consoles and paying jobs in to keep tinkering on this one. Its good to go.