1970's Fugly!!!

[jstout66]

Thought I'd post pix of my 1979 JC Penney Home Entertainment System that I found as a curbside find awhile back.
Almost allll plastic. The set is a Wells Gardner. I fired up briefly and got arching from the tripler, so it hasn't been on since.
It's also FREE to anyone who wants it.... LOL! I'll try to post all pix in this thread. If I'm unable to do so, I'll post one titled "doors open" in the next.
Does anyone remember these? I never paid attention to JCP stuff in the 70's.

[MRX37]

Holy hell that's an odd duck!

It's like a Curtis Mathes, only vertical.

[DaveWM]

def frugly.


There is one like that locally that the guy want 150 for, I offerd him 30 bux (parts) but no joy. He has been trying to sell if for at least 6 months.

[truetone36]

My '74 Philco combo looks almost like that one.

[Whirled One]

Wow, that really is an *ugly* TV/stereo combo..! Wow. Looks like some sort of cheapo imitation of one of those Mangavox vertical combos.

I'm kinda surprised that it's a Wells Gardner though. It seems like most JC Penny color portables and table models starting in the late 70's were rebadged GE or RCA sets depending on model. Perhaps they still used Wells Gardner for their consoles at that time?

[amptramp]

This design reminds me of the combination washer / dryers that are sold for apartment use where stacking the components vertically (dryer above washer) may have an appeal for floor-space challenged homes. I find it more bizarre than fugly - I have seen similar styles laid out side-by-side in the more normal layout and they look more normal but just as fugly. It appears to be camouflaged to look like an armoire, so maybe it was intended for bedrooms. As the childrens ads used to say, "Be the first on your block..." etc.

[kx250rider]

It reminds me of a cheapie TV rental company set.

Charles

[Whirled One]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

It reminds me of a cheapie TV rental company set.

That's what I was thinking too..! I once saw a mid-1980's Colortime 19" color TV/stereo combo console at a yard sale. What a cheezy piece of rent-to-own-junk! Imagine a cheap 19" color portable TV bolted into a really cheap particleboard entertainment/shelf unit (even the plastic back of the TV was left intact!) along with a cheap compact stereo that might make Yorx and GPX audio products look good. Don't forget the cheap little speakers in oversized cabinets! They're bolted into the shelf unit too. I shudder to think what the total rent-to-own price of that thing was.

By comparison, this JC Penny set is truly a luxury item..!

[Findm-Keepm]

I'd like to add the pressboard cheapie Morse/Electrophonic stereos to the list of ugly and cheap. 1 watt germanium outputs, 2x2x2" power transformers, and 10" speakers with 6 ounce magnets. I saw a lot of those at yard sales as a kid in the late 70's. I guess one of the discount stores around here sold them cheap. Sams published a photofact for some, but man, what a waste.

Cheers,

[compucat]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

I'd like to add the pressboard cheapie Morse/Electrophonic stereos to the list of ugly and cheap. 1 watt germanium outputs, 2x2x2" power transformers, and 10" speakers with 6 ounce magnets. I saw a lot of those at yard sales as a kid in the late 70's. I guess one of the discount stores around here sold them cheap. Sams published a photofact for some, but man, what a waste.

Cheers,

I worked on one of those Morse Electrophonic console stereos at a TV shop called All Brands Electronics in 1988. It had two 4" speakers like the kind you would find in 1960s tube radios mounted in a console cabinet, really cheap junk.

[jstout66]

I remember all the cheap junk that came thru our shop. I forgot about Morse! UGH!
For TV's don't forget how horrid "Midland" sets were.
I wish this set worked tho.... the Wells Gardner stuff surprisingly wasn't that bad. The set is the solid state version that has EVERYTHING on Modules, even the tripler/flyback. I remember the tube versions of this chassis. Always thought it was cool that the modules were shipped with the tubes intact.

[jstout66]

oh ya.. the tv is built like a tank, but the stereo part is cheaper than cheap. TINY speakers.

[Reece]

Nothing to love.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jstout66

oh ya.. the tv is built like a tank, but the stereo part is cheaper than cheap. TINY speakers.

In the early '80s I had a Zenith integrated stereo system that was built much better than the stereo in your console; the speakers in my system were in real wood cabinets and sounded great. My stereo lasted 17 years and was still working when I gave it away ten years ago, due to moving into a small apartment. I replaced the Zenith stereo with an Aiwa all-in-one bookshelf system; the cassette decks in the latter failed after about seven years (cheap plastic parts, no doubt), but the rest of the unit still works.

If the television in your console is built "like a tank" as you put it, rather than getting rid of it, why don't you just replace the arcing tripler and enjoy the set? If the stereo does not work or the sound is not to your liking, I'd just take it out and use the space for storage--unless the TV feeds its audio output through the stereo system's amplifiers; in that case I'd try to find better speakers. Of course, if the tripler is NLA (no longer available) or finding a replacement is for any other reason next to impossible, the only cost-effective alternative would be to junk the set or sell it cheaply for parts.

I hope by "tiny" speakers you don't mean, Heaven forbid, 3"-4" diameter transistor-radio speakers. From your description, however, it seems all too likely that the speakers in your unit are not much better than those found in large transistor radios.

My best guess is that your console was built cheaply to sell cheaply -- a trend that started in the mid-1960s with shirt-pocket transistor radios and continues to this day. What puzzles me, however, is why the television was built so much better than the stereo. One would think that if the TV were good quality, the quality of the stereo components should have been just as good, if not better.

I wouldn't be surprised if this console sold for $200 or less when it was new; after all, except for the TV, it seems like cheap offshore-manufactured junk, meant to be discarded at the first sign of trouble--after the warranty expires, of course.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by compucat

I worked on one of those Morse Electrophonic console stereos at a TV shop called All Brands Electronics in 1988. It had two 4" speakers like the kind you would find in 1960s tube radios mounted in a console cabinet, really cheap junk.

About three or four years ago, I saw a Morse Electrophonic console stereo on a treelawn not far from my apartment; it probably had dinky little 4" speakers as well. The stereo was in a very large and heavy console cabinet and was sitting next to another console, RCA, IIRC. The Morse-Electrophonic system, again IIRC, had an 8-track player so it must have been mid-'60s-'70s vintage.

BTW, why on earth did manufacturers the likes of Morse-Electrophonic do things like this? It makes no sense to put literally tiny speakers in a console cabinet that almost certainly outweighs the rest of the system at least a couple of times over.

The sound quality probably wasn't much better, either, than that from a large transistor radio. This type of stereo was obviously designed for people who don't care beans about sound quality, as long as the system will play so loud it rattles the walls; of course, with only 4" speakers (which have very small magnets and voice coils), five minutes at full volume will ruin them. An amplifier will often put out more power, when driven into distortion, than that for which it was designed. If the speakers are not designed to handle that much power (very cheap ones aren't, and even quality speakers, for example Cerwin-Vega's, will be damaged or destroyed if played at much more than normal listening volume), they will fail in very short order.