I picked up an early motorola on a swivel legged base, I notice on the Motorola badge it says HI FI what is that all about??Any ideas on this TV?

Knob layout looks similar to my 59 Moto TS-564. My set has a single tone control at the very bottom right. Only has a single 4" speaker, and I think the 6AQ5 tube.


The Hi-Fi badge just means it has a better sound system than the standard sets. Probably has bigger speakers, possibly a 6BQ5 sound tube instead of the usual 6AQ5, and probably a tone control... possibly even separate bass and treble.

Not to go off the subject too much, but, I had a 1956-57 Motorola B/W console that had a single 8" speaker that had more audio range than most sets I've seen since. I had to use it during the summer-fall of 1971, because our then-new RCA color console burned... I do mean burned... a week after being brought home from the dealer.

I often wondered why TV had such crap sound for so long...

Knob layout looks similar to my 59 Moto TS-564. My set has a single tone control at the very bottom right. Only has a single 4" speaker, and I think the 6AQ5 tube.


The Hi-Fi badge just means it has a better sound system than the standard sets. Probably has bigger speakers, possibly a 6BQ5 sound tube instead of the usual 6AQ5, and probably a tone control... possibly even separate bass and treble.

I certainly like the looks of your Motorola, I need to get mine cleaned and tested and go from there once excessive overtime ends in April.Hopes are to get all my sets running good by the end of summer the hybrid Zenith is the one that poses a challenge.

The badge on my 53 Philco says "High Fidelity" also, it also has a tone control behind the on/off volume knob that's not marked anywhere on the escutcheon.

I don't know if it was a last minute change or a later modification.

I have that same Motorola; an elderly friend of mine, who had bought it new, sold it to me before he died. That swivel mechanism, at least on mine, isn't very stable. Not a good set to stack stuff on top of! Mine was built in '60. It's a transformer chassis and uses a little device which, I guess, holds off B+ until the filaments come up? Or something like that. Also, the tuners in these are very sloppy. Sharp looking sets, though.

It's a transformer chassis and uses a little device which, I guess, holds off B+ until the filaments come up? Or something like that. Also, the tuners in these are very sloppy. Sharp looking sets, though.

Sounds like a good description of mine as well... delay switch and sloppy tuner.