Found a Sony KV-1201 today!
 

A bit grubby but in good shape, even has the antennas with the red tips still on them.

Powered up with good gray scale so presumably the CRT is in decent shape.

Pictures later if anyone's interested.

Picture
 

Tube looks pretty good.

Very cool!

That's beautiful, what year is it? I have an identical set in my living room, but never got a good answer for the age. Mine works too, I need to start using it.

I have a kv-1205 and its also a very good performer, and I'm pretty sure it was a 1975 or '76.

I've got the demon spawn KV-1201. Found it at a yard sale. Seller said it was perfect. (You know where this is going...) I couldn't plug it in to see.

Got it home. It's been wet inside. Pulled and cooked the chassis for a couple of hours in the oven on low. Cleaned the interior of the set and CRT while the chassis was baking.

Stuck it all back together. Plug it in, and ARCING allover the CRT socket. Found more dampness. Cleaned it up, fired it up again. No arcing, but a dull reddish smeary picture. With a signal, it looks even worse. My CRT tester shows about 10% life after it sat for 3 hours baking.

Moral of the story: Check the CRT first.

That's a good looking set! I have one that has turned into a parts set for my KV-1200U. The 1201 had a dead CRT and a bad HV block.

I'm surprised the CRT is good since it apparently has the "Instant On" feature, also the cabinet is dirty like it was used for a million hours, or at least sat in a dirty location for a long time, maybe it was just stored?

Nice. CL here has scores of 80/90/2000 vintage sony sets but nothing interesting like the kv12xx series. I do believe that the Sony sets are going to be my next passion. Kinda getting tired of the rca/zenith/maggie stuff. BUT 1st gotta get rid of a large bunch of miscellaneous and really uninteresting sets.

Very nice find. I've been searching for a similar 12" Sony Trinitron for quite a while without any luck. I love my KV-9200 and it's fun to watch, but a bit small. I am always impressed by how much quality was put into these early small Trinitron TVs, and how great of a picture they produce.

Good set for a trip!

Nice set! I think I might have an extra one for parts, if you need cosmetics for it. Mine is wood case version, but the front bezel is the same on both. That aluminum trim on the edges is often all banged up, but I think mine is clean.

Charles

Those Trinitrons are real troopers. Most of the ones listed on Ebay have great pictures.

The trim on this one is in very good shape, the cabinet is the black plastic model, not all that attractive but in good shape.

I'll probably have to take it completely apart to clean it, it feels like it's got a layer of grease or nicotine on it, doesn't seem to smell bad though.

I'm afraid of what the chassis might look like!

Neat looking little Sony, I've always like the look of the early trinitrons.:yes:

On the subject of this 1201, I've found 3 of this model in the last 4-5 years at the thrift stores. All of them had a working chassis, but weak CRT's.

That sure says something for Sony's chassis quality.