That's right everybody, with Circuit City closing all their stores, I predict the Zenith brand will be dead as well. :tears: Circuit City is the last retailer I know of to stock Zenith products. Back in the 80s and 90s, Circuit City sold more Zenith products than any other retailers. Best Buy does not accept the Zenith brand, but only LG.

The last Zenith brand product is a DVD recorder/VCR combo. Not sure if I should get one.

The last Zenith brand product is a DVD recorder/VCR combo. Not sure if I should get one.

Is it something other than BPC from China? Or (should I even dare think it) made in USA? :D

In my opinion, Zenith has been dead a long time.

That's right everybody, with Circuit City closing all their stores, I predict the Zenith brand will be dead as well. :tears: Circuit City is the last retailer I know of to stock Zenith products. Back in the 80s and 90s, Circuit City sold more Zenith products than any other retailers. Best Buy does not accept the Zenith brand, but only LG.

The last Zenith brand product is a DVD recorder/VCR combo. Not sure if I should get one.

If I were you, I'd save my money and seek out a REAL Zenith product from yesteryear. I think GoldSludge gained complete control of Zenith in '98 or '99 and they've had their hooks in Zenith since the mid-late '80's. And, that's when Zenith started taking a real nosedive. I also read somewhere that GS was making radios for Zenith as far back as the '70's.

Probably the reason BB and others will not accept the Zenith brand is because of the bad reputation Zenith had during the '90's bad CRT era.

Year before last my wife wanted a big screen plasma and we got a 50" Zenith from Circuit City for $999. (day after Thanksgiving and spur of the moment purchase) We looked up its' customer satisfaction record and it was terrible. We returned it 2 days later. They keep sending us offers for warranty extension and just received another 3 days ago!

Think of what the closing will mean to Onkyo sales here in the US as well. CC was undoubtedly the biggest retailer of Onk gear in the States for the past twenty years.

I also read somewhere that GS was making radios for Zenith as far back as the '70's.

I have two 1980-vintage Zenith radios that were actually manufactured by Zenith subsidiaries in Korea and Taiwan, and in 1982 I had a Zenith four-mode stereo system which was also made in Korea to the specifications of Zenith. I also had two Zenith 13" color TVs and a 12" solid-state portable that were made by Zenith Electronics Corp. of Missouri and by a Zenith subsidiary in Mexico, respectively. My Zenith Sentry 2 19" color TV, built in 1995 (smack dab in the middle of the time frame during which Zenith color sets were turning up in alarming numbers with bad CRTs) was also made by the Zenith Electronics Corp. of Glenview, Illinois, as attested to by a label on the back cover.

Zenith's last table radio was a small AM/FM set, marketed in 1982. I don't know if this set was built to Zenith's specs by a Korean or Taiwanese company, but it probably wasn't manufactured by Zenith itself as the company was pretty much out of the radio business by that time--the radios bearing its name being manufactured offshore. The radio, a table set in a wood (faux wood by then, no doubt) cabinet, was not much to speak of, despite the fact that it had slide controls for volume, bass and treble and a tuning meter. There was also a little gizmo on the back of the radio that Zenith called a "bass booster", although I think this may have been little more than an air chamber which had little or no real effect on the sound. I don't know how well this radio worked, how it sounded or even how many of them were sold, but I do know they show up on eBay every once in a great while....and I mean great while, as in every few months if you're lucky. I guess it either wasn't that great a radio when it was new, or else Zenith didn't sell very many, putting it in the "sleeper" category along with their MJ1035 11-tube AM/stereo FM table radio.

I have two 1980-vintage Zenith radios that were actually manufactured by Zenith subsidiaries in Korea and Taiwan, and in 1982 I had a Zenith four-mode stereo system which was also made in Korea to the specifications of Zenith. I also had two Zenith 13" color TVs and a 12" solid-state portable that were made by Zenith Electronics Corp. of Missouri and by a Zenith subsidiary in Mexico, respectively. My Zenith Sentry 2 19" color TV, built in 1995 (smack dab in the middle of the time frame during which Zenith color sets were turning up in alarming numbers with bad CRTs) was also made by the Zenith Electronics Corp. of Glenview, Illinois, as attested to by a label on the back cover.

Zenith's last table radio was a small AM/FM set, marketed in 1982. I don't know if this set was built to Zenith's specs by a Korean or Taiwanese company, but it probably wasn't manufactured by Zenith itself as the company was pretty much out of the radio business by that time--the radios bearing its name being manufactured offshore. The radio, a table set in a wood (faux wood by then, no doubt) cabinet, was not much to speak of, despite the fact that it had slide controls for volume, bass and treble and a tuning meter. There was also a little gizmo on the back of the radio that Zenith called a "bass booster", although I think this may have been little more than an air chamber which had little or no real effect on the sound. I don't know how well this radio worked, how it sounded or even how many of them were sold, but I do know they show up on eBay every once in a great while....and I mean great while, as in every few months if you're lucky. I guess it either wasn't that great a radio when it was new, or else Zenith didn't sell very many, putting it in the "sleeper" category along with their MJ1035 11-tube AM/stereo FM table radio.

I've seen a few of those early to mid '70's 12" Zenith hybrid B&W's that were made in Taiwan. And, I've had a couple Zenith "all-in-one" stereo systems from the late '70's to early '80's that were Korean built. They were still a decent all-in-one system when compared to the Soundesign, Yorx, Electrophonic, etc. systems that were available at the same time. I've got a little wooden AM/FM Zenith solid state AC table radio from around '68 that I inherited from my uncle when he passed away. IIRC, it was made in the USA. It's a decent performer; but, is built on a PC chassis and is certainly not as well built as their tube models from a few years earlier. My '78 19" Chromacolor II is Mexican; but, my '76 and '77 models are USA built.

As far as my interest in Zenith, it pretty much ends when they discontinued the Chromacolor II's. I might show some interest in the early System 3's depending on the exact model and provided they are clean and the CRT is good. And, I'm sure most will agree that the CCII chassis was easier to troubleshoot than the System 3 chassis. I really don't think Zenith intended for the System 3 chassis to be repaired at the component level. They expected the entire board to be changed. That's all fine and good; but, those System 3 boards were quite expensive.

OK, I'm done for now.

The latest piece of Zenith equipment I own is a 1981 integrated stereo (IS 4031), an AM/FM cassette with a BSR changer. Probably the last gasp of the big wide combo units. It states on the back "Mfd. in Korea to the standards and specifications of the Zenith Radio Corp., Chicago, USA." Can't see anything on the inside with a mention of Zenith - did see a resistor lying loose in the back corner though! I'd imagine that, "specifications of Zenith aside," it was a badge-engineered stereo - I've seen Soundesign units from that era that have similar control setups and faceplates.

We had a Zenith System 3 19" color set from the late 80's through around '94 - no remote, had ten number buttons across the top with a green digital tuning indicator - can't remember for sure if it was cable ready (my gut tells me no.) Mom discarded it after the power switch, which was a pushbutton mechanical switch, blew up and shot fire at her one evening :nono:

In my opinion, Zenith has been dead a long time.

I agree.

The latest piece of Zenith equipment I own is a 1981 integrated stereo (IS 4031), an AM/FM cassette with a BSR changer. Probably the last gasp of the big wide combo units. It states on the back "Mfd. in Korea to the standards and specifications of the Zenith Radio Corp., Chicago, USA." Can't see anything on the inside with a mention of Zenith - did see a resistor lying loose in the back corner though! I'd imagine that, "specifications of Zenith aside," it was a badge-engineered stereo - I've seen Soundesign units from that era that have similar control setups and faceplates.

We had a Zenith System 3 19" color set from the late 80's through around '94 - no remote, had ten number buttons across the top with a green digital tuning indicator - can't remember for sure if it was cable ready (my gut tells me no.) Mom discarded it after the power switch, which was a pushbutton mechanical switch, blew up and shot fire at her one evening :nono:

I also had a Zenith stereo like yours in the early '80s. It served me well and worked well for about 17 years; I'd still have it today, but I moved to a very small apartment nine years ago and was forced to downsize, so I left the Zenith at my former home and bought an Aiwa bookshelf system. (Just as well. It was time to upgrade to a CD system by then anyway.)

As to those IS- series Zenith integrated systems such as yours and mine, you may be right--they could well have been re-badged systems actually manufactured by Soundesign, et al., with the manufacturer using the Zenith name under license.

I don't know about yours, but the speakers on my Zenith IS-4041 had a nameplate at the lower right corner of the grille cloth that stated "Allegro 100 by Zenith." (Zenith made several integrated systems in the late '70s-early '80s, all of which had this nameplate on the speakers; the next model up from mine had speakers with the nameplate reading "Allegro 300 by Zenith." Perhaps the "Allegro 300" speakers were capable of handling more power than the 100 series? :scratch2:) The rest of my system had, as I mentioned in my post, been made in Korea. The only ties to Zenith I could see were the "Zenith" nameplate on the front of the unit (they had done away with their trademark "crest" emblem by about the mid-'80s) and the notice on the back of the system stating that it had been manufactured in Korea to the specifications and standards of the Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago.

IIRC, the word "Zenith", with the company's trademark lightning bolt forming the letter Z, was also near that notice. My Zenith Sentry 2 19" color set also has the same signage on the control panel, above the power switch and the IR remote sensor.

I've seen advertisements in my Sunday paper from time to time (I haven't seen them lately) for bookshelf stereo systems bearing the Zenith brand. I'm almost certain this is a rebadged offshore make, such as Soundesign, again with that firm using the Zenith name under license from whatever is left (if there is anything left, which I seriously doubt) of the original Zenith Radio Corporation. I don't know for certain. Perhaps by now, with the original Zenith being history, their name and logos might well be in the public domain. I notice LG (Lucky Goldstar) no longer uses the lightning-bolt Z logo on its televisions, so I think LG has completely severed whatever ties they may have had with the former Zenith Corporation, however shaky they may have been (and probably were) by the time the latter left Chicago.


BTW: Wow! That must have been some huge short in your family's 19" Zenith System 3 TV if the pushbutton power switch "blew up" and shot sparks. (I hope your mother was and is OK, that she wasn't shocked or injured.) Those switches don't normally handle very much current (the power switch probably only energizes a relay and the degaussing coil, as is common in most TVs made in the last 15 years or so), which is why I suspect some large component must have shorted the power supply or the HV supply directly to ground. Whatever it was, as I said, it must have been a huge short drawing a tremendous amount of current (I'm surprised the fuse didn't blow) if the power switch was destroyed and there was a large amount of sparking.

That System 3 TV you describe sounds to me (from your description) like a large-screen set Zenith marketed in the '70s or early '80s, in a large box-shaped cabinet, similar to the design of RCA's ColorTrak 2000 sets of the same era. The latter also had the channel selector buttons in a row across the top of the TV (and the green LCD channel indicator), above the CRT. If it looks like I think it does (with a door the full width of the cabinet over the control panel, Space Phone and Color Sentry), I used to see advertisements for this model of System 3 TV in National Geographic magazines of the early 1980s that stated, "It's time you knew the difference between a television and the Zenith System 3." At the time, Zenith was heavily advertising its System 3 line of televisions, which were the successor to the Chromacolor II sets of the 1970s.

Late '80s to 1994 sounds to me like an awfully short life span for your family's Zenith TV. I have a Sentry 2 that's nearly 14 years old and still works almost as well as when it was new (it still has its original CRT as well).

I'm just curious--what finally killed your family's TV? As I said, with all the sparking from the AC switch, some large component must have failed and knocked a short directly across the power supply, the HV supply, or the AC line itself. :scratch2:

I'm not surprised to have heard yesterday that Circuit City is done for. I said & wrote that about 2 years ago. It confirmed the time line when they filed BK last year, it was only a smokescreen that they "were going to restructure". Nobody in the investment community has thought any of these end-user type TV-Video-Stereo superstores could make it in the face of the success of Fry's, Costco and Walmart. The department stores saw the writing on the wall years (decades) ago, and stopped selling consumer electronics. The only reason (in my opinion) that Best Buy hasn't YET failed, is that they're a factory-authorized Apple reseller. You can bookmark this post and refer back to it later: Best Buy will file BK some time before the end of this year, and will not survive the next Christmas season. It will pretend it's OK for now, but it's not possible for them to keep afloat with their present business plan, assets and debt.

For the record, here's the rest of my "2009 business doom list"

Macy's

Chrysler (will be absorbed by another company, perhaps Mitsubishi)

Bloomingdale's (probably will survive, but will close >50% of stores

Marathon Oil Co. and Valero Oil Co. These will falter but not file BK, and will be bought out by other oil companies at a loss to shareholders.

Now are you sitting down? My grand finale' is AMGEN. One of the largest employers in Southern California. They're so badly overextended that no matter how well they do, their real estate bungles in Ventura County, CA will cause them unrest, and at best, they'll have to downsize dramatically and may cede to Lily or Pfizer. Amgen bought 100s or even 1000s of acres of land in prime areas, developed it, and now occupies most of it. As they downsize, they can't sell or lease out any of this vacant space. Investors don't like vacant buildings with a $100s of millions annually in tax and exposure liability. And with government spending waning, there aren't so many opportunities for research firms like Amgen to get funding for new products. Patents are nearing expiration, and the pink slips are flying out like angry bees from a disturbed hive.


And here's one that looks bad right now, but will shine and survive the whole economic disaster, despite the Steve Jobs health concerns: APPLE. eBay will also shine and THRIVE.

Charles

*I'm not offering ANY advice on investing or selling any interest in these companies! Just my personal opinions.....

Commander Eugene F. McDonald, Jr., is spinning in his grave...Or maybe not. He might be happy to see the travesty that his beloved "Zenith" has become, to die...

I don't know about yours, but the speakers on my Zenith IS-4041 had a nameplate at the lower right corner of the grille cloth that stated "Allegro 100 by Zenith."

Mine didn't have the speakers when I bought it second-hand, but I know it came with Allegro speakers from either a newspaper ad or a photofact I once saw.


BTW: Wow! That must have been some huge short in your family's 19" Zenith System 3 TV if the pushbutton power switch "blew up" and shot sparks. (I hope your mother was and is OK, that she wasn't shocked or injured.) Those switches don't normally handle very much current (the power switch probably only energizes a relay and the degaussing coil, as is common in most TVs made in the last 15 years or so), which is why I suspect some large component must have shorted the power supply or the HV supply directly to ground. Whatever it was, as I said, it must have been a huge short drawing a tremendous amount of current (I'm surprised the fuse didn't blow) if the power switch was destroyed and there was a large amount of sparking.


Thankfully, no one was hurt, and from what I remember we put the set out on the following garbage day. I was around 18-19 when it happened and immersed in fixing up cars. I can tell you this - mom used to have TVs repaired, we had a CTC-40 for almost 20 years with little service needed. The set that replaced it was another RCA, purchased in 1987, a 25" color set with a remote - it had 5 or 6 thin silver buttons on the lower right of the cabinet lip that pushed straight down. That set gave us a lot of trouble (it would turn itself on at full volume in the middle of the night, often picking up trucks' CB radios) and was discarded about a year before the Zenith. When the Zenith "blew up," I don't think she felt like spending any more money trying to fix "these new TVs."


That System 3 TV you describe sounds to me (from your description) like a large-screen set Zenith marketed in the '70s or early '80s...


It was a 19" tabletop in a woodgrained plastic cabinet, non-remote, purchased originally for my little brother when we discarded the CTC-40 - this would have been between 1987 and 1989. The control panel was only about 1 inch high, right above the CRT, all the buttons were inline with each other. There was 1 through 0, enter, channel up & down and volume up & down - very small rectangular buttons (I think the number buttons were square.) The power button was the furthest to the right, rectangular but larger than the rest. There may have been a door at the bottom housing the color/crt controls, but I am not sure.


Late '80s to 1994 sounds to me like an awfully short life span for your family's Zenith TV. I have a Sentry 2 that's nearly 14 years old and still works almost as well as when it was new (it still has its original CRT as well).


Yeah, I think we just went through a bad streak. Mom used my 19" B&W '77 Zenith for a couple of years after that, then I gave her my '85 Magnavox 19" color (with digital tuning - not cable ready.) The Maggie developed a problem with the tuner in 2003, and my brother bought her a brand new set. I put the Magnavox on the curb in 2004 when I downsized my storage, and the looters after Katrina busted the CRT in my B&W Zenith :tears:

Hey Jeff, I have that same Zenith 19" set. I think it was the last one to have the controls alongside the screen instead of under. It was Christmas present from my mom back in '94. And the tube is still good!

Hey Jeff, I have that same Zenith 19" set. I think it was the last one to have the controls alongside the screen instead of under. It was Christmas present from my mom back in '94. And the tube is still good!

I don't think that layout was very common on the consumer sets of that time. I've seen several hospital TV's (all with bad CRT's) from that time period that was laid out like that and those, IIRC, still had a red LED channel display. I've still got a line isolation transformer laying around somewhere that came out of one of those hospital sets.

I've been wondering where new Zenith stuff was being sold-I haven't spotted any for several years now. I never go in CC-today my wife stopped in there and said it was packed. The girl who rang her up was peeved because they manually had to take the 10-20% discount off each item. The girl took her calculator and multiplied each item by, say, 20%, and then subtracted it. Kim tried to explain how it would be easier to multiply by 80% but this went way over the girl's head.

I suspect the Zenith name, were it to die, would resurface again. Probably on radios sold at Dollar General or something like that.

In my travels today I spotted something I haven't seen in awhile-a Chromacolor II. A 19" that was kinda beat up. Could have got it for $15 but I don't have the room to keep it, and none of you guys ever want to drive over here to nowhere and haul off this stuff I keep dragging home :)

I bought my Zenith SY2572DT 25 inch color set from American TV in 1997. It was a high end model CRT set at the time. The picture in picture option was useless since you needed a seperate tuner. I also bought a 25 inch RCA CRT set from Circuit City a year later. I still have both sets. The last item i bought from Circuit City was a Creative brand set of computer speakers with subwoofer. They work great. I once bought a set of Cyber Acoustic computer speakers from there that did not last 6 months. One thing that i liked about Circuit City is the DVD selection.

Since we were on the subject of Zenith products being manufactured at different places over the years, I thought I'd share this. It's a Korean built Zenith AM/FM clock radio model C462L. Judging by the "C" in the model number, I think it was built in '73. If I am wrong, please correct me. I found it at the SA and the boss just told me to take it when I discovered that it didn't work. I gave him $1 anyway, brought it home and cleaned the volume pot and band switch, and it now works about as well as any other cheap clock radio. I'll take one of the '60's Zeniths any day over this one.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0119zenith0001.jpg

Since we were on the subject of Zenith products being manufactured at different places over the years, I thought I'd share this. It's a Korean built Zenith AM/FM clock radio model C462L. ...it now works about as well as any other cheap clock radio. I'll take one of the '60's Zeniths any day over this one.


I had a digital Zenith "Circle Of Sound" clock radio - I'm pretty confident it was manufactured in Asia. Although the time was a tad inconvenient to set with just fast or slow forward buttons, it was a good performer with a decent tone. Gave it to my brother because he liked it so much. Sadly, he lost it in Katrina. I would buy another if I ran across one locally - they're always on eBay but I can't see paying over $20 plus shipping!

I really enjoyed reading all your posts on this thread about Zenith.
It's a shame indeed that they had troubles.... Being a Tv Service tech, I saw the first of those CRT problems in 1992... and it ran Zenith into bankruptcy with all the recalls, crying for Goldstar/LG to save it.

As for CC, they ran a shoddy business, good riddence to bad rubbish I say!
Lousy customer service, incompetent goofball salesmen... etc. Karma caught up to them. bleh.

This is what happens when a good American named company (Zenith) messes up, and starts off-shoring products. A few of their post import stuff was decent. The Allegro series always had reliability for the money.
Ok, I'm done... I'll post a pic of my radio collection..... can you find the American-Made Zenith's?

I had a digital Zenith "Circle Of Sound" clock radio - I'm pretty confident it was manufactured in Asia. Although the time was a tad inconvenient to set with just fast or slow forward buttons, it was a good performer with a decent tone. Gave it to my brother because he liked it so much. Sadly, he lost it in Katrina. I would buy another if I ran across one locally - they're always on eBay but I can't see paying over $20 plus shipping!

The radio on these were pretty good and these suckers had one heck of a clock alarm (not the radio alarm) on them. If you die when you sleep, this one will wake the dead. I had one and gave it to a co-worker who's girlfriend would always sleep through the alarm. I came over early the next day to pick him up for work and while he and I were sitting in the kitchen drinking our morning coffee like we usually do, the alarm went off and she let out a scream you only hear on horror movie's :) I said to him "I told ya!".
-Tony

Good story - the frequency of that alarm was certainly unique and effective!

I have one of those Circle of Sound alarm clocks; I also fixed one a couple years ago for a co-worker of my wife. It was something very minor, might have just been dirty controls. They were built by Gold Star.

The best clock radio I had was an Arvin-built Silvertone, solid state. Had a crappy but loud AM radio plus a buzzer taken right out of your old kitchen range.

Zenith needed new technology to save it. They tried, with stereo for example, and they came close to HDTV in the 80s I guess. When color tv sets became a commodity the big players had to move on; had flat-screen HDTV arrived 20 years ago Zenith may have survived and thrived. Instead they had to compete with increasingly cheap imports.

I've only been in Circuit City a few times and never found anything there to buy. I don't blame it so much on the company-there is very, very little new technology that interests me. In my area CC had been around for maybe 10 years when Best Buy came to town; just the fact that BB had the bigger, flashier store...and newer store...made CC look like yesterday's news. Appropriate that the local CC was next to Wal*Mart, while the BB is next to Target. The younger crowd wants a cool place to shop...

Hey Jeff, I have that same Zenith 19" set. I think it was the last one to have the controls alongside the screen instead of under. And the tube is still good!

That is exactly why I intend to keep my Sentry 2 as long as it works as well as it does; also, I'm keeping the set for sentimental reasons, as it was a present to me on my 39th birthday in 1995.

Your Sentry 2 and mine are probably among the few (very few) 1990s-vintage Zeniths that did not have CRT problems. I wonder how many other Sentry 2 sets are still in use today, and still have bright, sharp pictures like the day they were first taken out of the box. :scratch2: The only thing wrong with my set, after almost 14 years, is that the gray paint on the cabinet is flaking off in spots; I wonder if that set's cabinet was originally jet-black or was available in that color, as well as gray.

One of the sets my friend has at the TV shop is a Sentry 2 console with a production date in '93. Sitting next to it is another Zenith console dated '98. It occured to me that he has the whole series of bad perfomers sitting there! But he says they both work great.

--Probably the reason BB and others will not accept the Zenith brand is because of the bad reputation Zenith had during the '90's bad CRT era.

While I can't argue with Zenith's "fall from grace", as it were, Best Buy is hardly a measure of quality, simply from a products standpoint. They are like any other retailer, and will carry only what they feel they can make an inordinate sum of money on. As it stands, now, Best Buy is not exactly clearing the gates without a scratch...I estimate they'll be in the same position as Circuit City in the next few years.

I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. I have two MC-7051 stereo receivers from circa 1980. One I bought new from Gimbels in NYC, and another I bought used.

Both sound great, weigh some 27.5 lbs, put out a real 40 wpc, and have the classic gold tone aluminum faces, wow!!

They're made in Korea with a lot of Samsung parts. Judging by the longevity of both receivers and the lack of issues, I would say they are very well put together units.

The sound quality is really very good. Crisp highs, mellow mids and decent bass. Stereo separation is way above average and imaging almost pin point.

It will really be a sad day for all.:tears:

"I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. "

Zentih has gone out and has been out. The Koreans just bought the name and that's all there is now and has been that way for some time. Zenith is not "Zenith" and neither is DuMont, HH Scott, Crosley, RCA, Admiral, Quasar and "Harley Davidson" in the stereo and TV line. I'm sure that there are some out there that bought say a original Crosley way back when and thought that was the best set they ever owned and don't know that what they are buying today is NOT the same thing!

Technology is pretty much the same nowadays but there is still "cheap", "cheaper" and "certainly not meant to be repaired cheap". Some warranty claims are give the customer a new unit and destroy the returned unit.

Retail outlets sell whatever they can and usually go for the high profit cheap items that are offered to them in any franchise. It used to be that retail outlets of name brand stores sold higher quality/priced items and remember the drug and jewelry stores (like Juliette) that sold the "no name" brands. The no names will take anyone who will buy their products. Today it is "factory direct" with no wholesalers in the middle and sell where ever they can.

I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. I have two MC-7051 stereo receivers from circa 1980. One I bought new from Gimbels in NYC, and another I bought used.

Both sound great, weigh some 27.5 lbs, put out a real 40 wpc, and have the classic gold tone aluminum faces, wow!!

They're made in Korea with a lot of Samsung parts. Judging by the longevity of both receivers and the lack of issues, I would say they are very well put together units.--

As julianburke pointed out, there's no real connection between those units you have, and the Zenith of today. Rest assured, however, that those at Zenith are as interested in the company's well-being as you are--perhaps more-so--and will definitely be looking for alternative venues to peddle their wares. If they are worthy of saving, it will mean they have competent, interested decision-makers in the appropriate positions to see that the company's interests are met, if not exceeded. If they are not worthy of being saved, well...it'll disappear, much like Circuit City.

Zentih has gone out and has been out. The Koreans just bought the name and that's all there is now and has been that way for some time. Zenith is not "Zenith" and neither is DuMont, HH Scott, Crosley, RCA, Admiral, Quasar and "Harley Davidson" in the stereo and TV line. I'm sure that there are some out there that bought say a original Crosley way back when and thought that was the best set they ever owned and don't know that what they are buying today is NOT the same thing!

I couldn't agree more. The entire reason most of us collect these older, less-advanced systems are due to our perceptions of the quality versus the reality. The reality being that not all newer systems are better-manufactured, designed, or perform. In many respects, the companies that built the units we've come to cherish doubtless have almost nothing in common, now, with the companies as they appear today.

The last Zenith brand product is a DVD recorder/VCR combo. Not sure if I should get one.
Apparently, I picked up the last Zenith DVD recorder/VCR combo there was at Circuit City since I'm going to miss Zenith. It's a very strange design internally, because I would grade LG-made DVD/VCR combo (including JVC) the most trouble-prone manufacturer. Everything it's run by using surface-mount caps entirely. There are very very few regular sized caps used. There is no cooling fan at all, making the unit run very hot than necessary. LG-made DVD/VCR combos get the most 1-star reviews on Amazon. They're a lot worse than Funai, and I don't recommend LG-made DVD/VCR combos to any AK members.

Let me guess, full of plastic parts and a tape mechanism you could probably bend in half with your bare hands!

I picked up a used Samsung VCR/DVD combo for my parents for $25, still works but is built really cheaply inside, like any other new VCR.

Dropping the HS-430UR on one of these would probably completely smash it:tongue:

Let me guess, full of plastic parts and a tape mechanism you could probably bend in half with your bare hands!
Of course. But I will mainly use the DVD recorder section.

Dropping the HS-430UR on one of these would probably completely smash it.
Don't be too excited with your HS-430UR. Sure, it will last a long time, but it's a poor choice by me to keep it going for the super long run (at least 40 years). I bet a Panasonic AG-2100, which I recommend at the VCR forever thread, will outlast your Mitsubishi HS-430UR.

Ok, I'm done... I'll post a pic of my radio collection..... can you find the American-Made Zenith's?


I spotted at least three: K723 (please correct me if I'm wrong on the model number), C/H845, K731. I own one of each of the last two; they are excellent radios, and are keepers as far as I am concerned.

If you ever find yourself having to sell your collection (Heaven forbid), by all means hold on to those Zeniths if you can, as they don't make them like that anymore. The only place to find these great old sets nowadays is on eBay, Craigslist, or at estate/yard/garage/rummage sales.

In its heyday, Zenith was darned nearly the top of the line in radio and television. It was a darn shame the company had to sell out to offshore interests in the late 1980s, although I read in this forum somewhere that Goldstar was manufacturing "Zenith" branded radios as recently as the '70s, so Zenith apparently was already offshoring its radios 35+ years ago. The television plant didn't follow suit entirely until GS took over, although many Zenith 12" portable b&w sets of the 1970s were made by a Zenith subsidiary in Mexico. The company's last radios, including its last wooden-cabinet set, the H430W (again, please correct me if I am wrong on that model number) with slide controls, a tuning meter and a little thing called a "bass booster" on the back, were actually made in Taiwan by yet another Zenith subsidiary (I even read somewhere that Zenith's "Circle of Sound" radios, with and without the clock, were already being manufactured as well by Gold Star as recently as the early '70s), so the radio side of Zenith had been offshoring for quite some time before the TV plant pulled up stakes in Chicago. The latter move killed the once-mighty Zenith Radio Corporation forever; the "final nail in its coffin", so to speak. :no:

Yeah the AG-2100 is built better, and in the 1980s, Panasonic mechanicals sure were built to last, take my PV-1545, its had heavy use and the heads are still good!

Is that AG-2100 even Hi-Fi? I just can't get past the low quality sound of non Hi-Fi vcrs although I do know they will outlast Hi-Fi units.

I guess linear stereo in SP doesn't sound too terrible, but Hi-Fi sure sounds so good.

But back to the thread, I've got a few old Zenith sets and I plan to keep them, I've never really been into newer Zenith stuff, I like their stuff when it was still made by them.

Is that AG-2100 even Hi-Fi? I just can't get past the low quality sound of non Hi-Fi vcrs although I do know they will outlast Hi-Fi units.
No, AG-2100 is a 2-head mono video cassette player with no clock display on front and no record function. Very simple, oversized machine. The simpler, the better, and nothing will break.

No, AG-2100 is a 2-head mono video cassette player with no clock display on front and no record function. Very simple, oversized machine. The simpler, the better, and nothing will break.

Meh. Sorry, waltchan, I gotz to have my bellz-'n-whistles. And if it's not purdy, with multi-colored LEDs, displays, or various other complicated means of transmitting information, I don' want it!

I know. It's a weakness. Damn my eyes!