Lil' Symphonic
 

These are such cool looking little sets. One just ended on ebay, and then one just started. Kinda like the next generation of the Safari...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-mini-3-i...%3D5%26ps%3D63

http://cgi.ebay.com/SYMPHONIC-Minni-...3D10%26ps%3D63

That is cool!! I didn't know symphonic was around in 1967? I always associated it with funai...

They ARE cute l'il fellers...Apparently, they made a white version, as well as the more common black ones...Kind of a funky power supply/wall wart/plug-end.

I've seen some Symphonic branded record players that dated as far back as the early '50's. Some of them were pretty nice units. I don't know who Symphonic was a part of back then; but, it wasn't Funai. Just another case where Funai bought the rights to the name.

...

Actually, Funai-made sets and VCRs didn't arrive until the early 90's. We saw a few multi-system Funai VHS VCRs in the late 80's (Navy town, widely sold in the PX'es) that were quite solid, with idler-less FF and RW, and nice jog/shuttle operation. Decks were probably Matsushita. The first Funai US-sold stuff I remember was some off-brand sets sold by Circuit City. The joke at the time was that Orion just got the competition for junque!

Cheers,

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When I was a kid, I saw one of those in Two Guys. I wanted one soooooo bad, but I wasn't able to come up with $99.

Funai also made the first small portable VCR, the CVC format that used unique 1/4" tape. That was in the early 1980's. Its brand was Technicolor. I'm sure it had little to do with the movie film company, except maybe a licensed name.

I have two of these. I carried one thru the military to watch TV at night. It is a very rugged TV. It has a high voltage tripler with rectifier tubes the size a medium medicine capsule. The tuners were excellent and battery life was not bad either.
Very well made!

Hello Gentlemen,

The Symphonic TVs are sure cute but they are hell to work on! The boards form the 4 sides of a box with the component side oriented towards the inside.

To recap boards, you have to remove them and there are very many tiny screws of varying size. There are no fast-remove connectors, just wires soldered all over the place, so it's absolutely vital to photograph the PCB side before disassembly as there no indications whatsoever of where each wire goes.

BTW, would anyone have a schematic or a service manual (Scan or for sale?)

Symphonic actually sold two models, the more common TPS-5050 and the TPS-30. I have also seen it as a Standard Radio SR-3 including a CCIR Euro version. As Standard Radio was specialized in miniature consumer electronics, i have wondered if they were not the OEM supplier of the TV.

Last photo is the Symphonic TPS-301 which includes an AM/FM radio.

Best Regards

jhalphen
Paris/France

Yeah, Jerome, seems like I vaguely remember seeing ads for the one that had the radio, too...