Those older Sonys were great sets. One of my great-aunts had two sets by Sony, one a 12- or maybe 15-inch late-'60s portable (I think it was an early Trinitron) which lasted her maybe 20 years, and the other a 20" Sony table model. Don't know the model numbers of either of those sets, but I do remember they had a great picture, even using rabbit ears (before cable). Those were the days.
Those days are still here as far as Sony is concerned, as I've seen very few if any complaints about their TVs, either here or in any of the TV repair sites I've visited. Sonys have a much better reliability record than Thomson-built RCAs.
BTW, speaking of RCA TV and its inherent onboard tuner problems in the CTC185, et al., I had an RF port replaced on my now 6-year-old CTC185 a couple months after purchasing the set [it snapped off the tuner PC board] and yes, the tech who repaired this problem did in fact resolder every ground point around the tuner, in addition to reinforcing the bracket which holds the connector to the board. This is in answer to a comment made in response to one of my recent posts, in which I mentioned that the RF port had been replaced in my set. The respondent said, in paraphrase, that a CTC185 cannot be expected to operate six years or longer with the factory soldering job around the tuner; the ground points around the OB tuners in these sets absolutely must be resoldered if the TV is to operate normally. This is probably (likely) why my set has gone the last five years with no further tuner problems (or problems of any kind). Knock on wood. The tech who repaired the RF port problem also told me the jungle IC had some sort of problem, but I honestly don't know to this day what it is or was. The set makes a great picture on cable, using a cable box (I have Comcast digital cable), and has its original CRT which is still very strong for the set's age. I'll definitely hold onto this set
as long as it works as well as it does. (I also have a 1995 Zenith Sentry 2 color set that still works well, but that's another story; suffice to say that I am keeping that set to replace the RCA when the latter eventually dies, as I don't intend to put any more money into the RCA--the extended warranty expires early next year.)
BTW (2), I was looking at Chad's RetroAudioLab site earlier tonight and saw the phrase "ESR meter" used several times. I've been interested in electronics most of my life, but never saw this abbreviation until I joined AK. I think they have something to do with testing capacitors, but I'm not sure by a long shot what this instrument really does. Is it a solid-state version of the old capacitor testers such as Eico's model 955, et al.?
BTW (3): Also on Chad's RetroAudioLab site, I saw a picture of a 1974 RCA "Lyceum" TV. The set pictured was a 25" b&w receiver. Seeing that set brought back memories for me, as when I was in high school, we had a four-channel CCTV video system which used a 1975 RCA Lyceum color set as a monitor for our only color channel at the time, channel 7 (the other three were b&w and between the three Cleveland VHF network stations, using Sony AV and CV series VTRs and Sony TVs as studio monitors, although our channel 2 monitor was a 1960s Zenith 19" b&w set). I was not aware until now that RCA made a b&w Lyceum. The set in our school's CCTV system had a black-out channel selector panel with illuminated selector drums; the b&w Lyceum on Chad's site has standard, non-illuminated selector knobs.