Does anyone know what this is?
 

Hi,

Has anyone seen one of these before? It looks like a custom cabinet to me but the person who sent me the photo thinks it was a unit made by RCA. Any help appreciated.

Alan

I can tell that the TV and record changer are both RCA; so, this is probably the real thing. A friend has a similar looking Packard-Bell combo from the early '70's that contains an AM/FM/cassette recorder/VM mini-changer, along with a place to hold one of their 19" TV's. This RCA set-up looks like a metal cabinet 21" set that's installed in this stereo cabinet, similar to the Packard-Bell unit that my friend has.

Never seen one but sure looks factory to me.
Both units same vintage abt 1974, same modern
RCA logo. It all fits together too good to be made up.
Agree its a tin can 21" a common set.
Maybe one of the RCA experts will pipe in.

73 Zeno:smoke:

saw only one of these units.21 inch rca solid state set.spacesaver combo.from 1973-74 season.love to have it

From the 70's.... It's gotta be C1PO.....

Hi Sampson159,

The guy who has it is looking to sell. He's in Oklahoma. Road Trip?

Alan

I think it's a rental unit. Places like Colortyme would order up custom units (of the cheapest components) to be able to advertise "Rent a complete home entertainment center for $9.99 a week", etc.

Charles

Definitely RCA... :yes:

I have a Curtis Mathes set that is very similar to that, but several years newer.

its cool as all get out but oklahoma is too far away.it is very ,very cool though

I'm almost certain that's an RCA. I worked on one for a customer (many moons ago) that was almost just like this one. I remember not being impressed with it at all. The TV used it's own little speaker instead of going through the two larger stereo speakers on the bottom. You could tell that the engineers just took a stock tv and stereo and screwed them into a cabinet.

Thanks for all the replies. The owner is interested in selling and wants to know what it's worth. Any thoughts? Is there any market for this sort of thing?

My expertise is in much older equipment so I don't know what to tell him.

Thanks,
Alan

It all depends on the market there. If the styling appeals to some retro decorator crowd that might exist they could get a couple of hundred for it. If there are no decorators and no collectors that it appeals to, then they may have a hard time giving it away for free. I'd start it at 100$ OBO and drop it from there if there are no bites...if I wanted as much as possible out of it. OTOH if I wanted it gone fast I'd start it at about 30-50$ OBO and take the first offer I could get.

If I were buying this, I'd first want to make sure the CRT was strong and that everything else was in fairly decent working order. If these contitions were met, I might go as high as $50 on it. Around my area, you'd be doing good to find someone to haul it off because most people around here have the "why would anyone want that old junk" attitude when it comes to old TV's.

Speaking of cobbled together combos…….GE roundie w/attached phono, AM-FM stereo. Believe it was called the "Hutch" model. Never saw one in person.

-Steve D.