Early 80's Zenith 13"

[andy]

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[zenith2134]

Hey Andy did you find the remote control too? If I recall, it was an IR computer space command.

I like AKB on almost any set EXCEPT 90s-2000s Sonys which blank the raster. I had a 35'' trinitron from around 99 and the raster would just flash on and off sporadically, due to a weak red gun.

Your set looks like it was really heavily used which is cool because it still makes a great pic; with any luck the tube'll hold up fine!

My buddy just phoned me today--hes out of a town and picked up an 82 z-nith for me. Probably nothing special maybe Ill post some pics. I actually really like these sets up until about 84-85

[andy]

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[Jeffhs]

I had two Zenith 13" portables, one (L1310C) from 1979, the other (I forget the model number) from 1982. Both sets worked very well for over 20 years, with excellent pictures on an attic antenna. The 1982 Zenith had one-knob electronic tuning. Got rid of both sets when I moved seven years ago, as I had bought a new 19" RCA and had brought my 1995 Zenith SMS1917SG with me (no room for four sets--five, actually, as I also hauled along an old Zenith J121Y twelve-inch SS B&W portable). Anyway, I probably should have held on to at least one of those 13" Zenith color sets. As I said, both worked extremely well for over 20 years (the CRTs were still going strong in both sets), no servicing/repairs whatsoever on either--that was Zenith for you until the GS era of the late '80s to now.

[compucat]

I know what you mean about that special "something" that Zenith sets have. I have always been a fan of both Zenith and Sony. The Sony is what I would call textbook perfect as far as color reproduction goes. The Zenith, however, has a warmth to the color that other sets don't quite match. The last "real" Zenith I had, a 25" console Space Command made in 1989 had that warm Zenith color.

One of the reasons I am so eager to fix my roundie is that I miss that picture quality. I hope the roundies have "it". Our living room set is the two year old Samsung HDTV with a 27" 4:3 tube. It is great but I miss the old Zeniths much in the same way I keep coming back to tube radios and mechanical watches.

[bgadow]

Ditto here...I've never seen many Sony's that impressed me (not many around here, I guess) but I can think of many Zeniths from the Chromacolor era on up into the 80s that made anything look good. My wife's cousin has a well kept System 3 console from the early/mid-80s (new enough to have stereo) and everytime we go over there I just sit in awe of that picture. Just something about it, like everyone says. I know that set is destined for the curb someday (if they haven't tossed it already) as I'm sure they're coveting a flatscreen. No matter, I have no place to put it so can't save it.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Nice lookin' set there. Interesting design too. Who knows maybe your crt will last and last-all my Zeniths from this era are still going strong and I use em often. Good luck

They're good sets, We bought a System 3 25 inch console made in December of 1982 in early 1983 and it is still in use as a daily watcher. It does have a slight heat problem where hte pciture turns a reddish cast but until I get the part for it, when it does happen be it an hour, week or a month from now, we rest the set for a week and generally she is good to go again. We have a 1998 19 inch Zenith backup, probably a Goldstar TV, that's a good set too but the 1982 beats it.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by bgadow

Ditto here...I've never seen many Sony's that impressed me (not many around here, I guess) but I can think of many Zeniths from the Chromacolor era on up into the 80s that made anything look good. My wife's cousin has a well kept System 3 console from the early/mid-80s (new enough to have stereo) and everytime we go over there I just sit in awe of that picture. Just something about it, like everyone says. I know that set is destined for the curb someday (if they haven't tossed it already) as I'm sure they're coveting a flatscreen. No matter, I have no place to put it so can't save it.

If I could, I'd love to snag it when the time comes if it still works. If it doesn't, I keep looking for parts for my 1982 System 3. It's a shame when people toss perfectly good stuff when it still works though. HDTV or not, I plan to keep the 1982 Zenith going as long as I can.

[Jeffhs]

Some Zeniths from the mid-to-late '90s had great pictures as well. My 1995 Zenith SMS1917SG 19" table model has an excellent picture; better, I think, than my daily watcher RCA CTC185. The Zenith has 12 years on it, but I only used it four years at my former home; it's been sitting in my bedroom here the last eight years, just being used now to cross-check when I have cable trouble. The most use that set ever got since it's been here, however, was for two weeks in 1999-2000, when my RCA was in for repairs. The Zenith will replace the RCA when the latter eventually goes belly-up, but exactly when that will be I don't know--the RCA has seven years on it and still works almost as well as when it was new; razor-sharp picture and all (but again, not quite as good as the Zenith). I'm expecting to be using either the RCA or the Zenith with digital cable in just under two years when the TV standards go to all-digital, the narrow 16:9 picture on a 4:3 set notwithstanding. The only problem the RCA set has, that I know of anyway, is a small problem in the jungle IC, but to see the picture today one would never know it (though it might show up if the set were being used on an antenna--I have digital cable here and have never used the set on an OTA antenna because antennas don't work well in my area). I have never once had the Zenith in for repairs, which speaks volumes for how their TVs were built even in the mid-1990s (before the Gold Star era spelled the end of Zenith forever ). I had a local TV shop repair the RCA twice, both times for the same problem (antenna connector snapped off the tuner PC board), but the one on my Zenith is still holding on and working well, as is everything else about the set, a dozen years later. Maybe I was lucky to have gotten a good set, considering how much trouble Zenith TVs of 1990s vintage were. No problems with the CRT or anything else--yet, anyway. Knock on wood.

It wasn't, IMHO, until Gold Star took over Zenith and moved the company to Korea that the quality of their TV sets started sliding downhill. I am surprised, moreover, that LG still uses the Zenith lightning bolt logo on at least one of its current production flat-panel TVs. As I mentioned in another post a week or so ago, I was sure LG had abandoned that logo very shortly after they took over the company.

[mbates14]

them little 150k resistors are notorious in zeniths. even to this day.