View Full Version : '79 Zenith console


radiotvnut
04-28-2008, 04:56 PM
Today, I received a call from a lady who was responding to an ad I had in the paper 6 months ago looking for old TV's. She said it was a knob tuned Zenith console from around '78. Of course, I got all excited thinking it was a Chromacolor II. It's actually made in April, '79 and looks like a CCII; but, has the 9-160 style chassis in it. This set works; but, the CRT is about shot. Rejuvenation of the CRT made a watchable picture; but, it could be much better. This set will probably have to find a home as I am running out of space.

sampson159
04-28-2008, 07:17 PM
i have the same cabinet in my chromacolor 2.wish yours wasnt an inline-i have a good 25v if someone needs it.

drh4683
04-28-2008, 07:35 PM
Not a bad set. I pretty much have a total loss of interest in Zenith when they introduced the system 3. The quality of construction and the steel chassis is what made zenith the best. I know the pictures are still great on these when they are in good shape but they just really cheaped out after the chroma II.

I know how you feel though, thinking its a chroma II and then find out its a system 3 when you get a closer look at it.

radiotvnut
04-28-2008, 08:27 PM
A little OT, but does anyone remember the very first generation System 3's? It had a fero-resonant power transformer similar to the CCII's and the modules were 9-151,9-152,9-153 (HV/sweep), and 9-155. I've only seen three or four of these chassis over the years and they all had problems on the 9-153 HV module.

andy
04-28-2008, 08:55 PM
000

zenith2134
04-28-2008, 09:40 PM
the inside is identical to my '79 system 3 with zoom.

Luckily my crt is bright and still good. I hear the inline tri-focus tubes die early. It may be worth a tube swap if you have one available, nice set.

Chad Hauris
04-29-2008, 06:01 AM
A little OT, but does anyone remember the very first generation System 3's? It had a fero-resonant power transformer similar to the CCII's and the modules were 9-151,9-152,9-153 (HV/sweep), and 9-155. I've only seen three or four of these chassis over the years and they all had problems on the 9-153 HV module.

Yes, I had one with the ferroresonant transformer but the CRT was very weak. It looked a lot like the one here.