1970's Admiral on eBay

[sgtrob]

Hello everyone! Just picked up the 25" Admiral color set that was on Ebay. This IS a tube set, here are some pics. The good part is that this TV does in fact work, although there is some issues with vertical height, but color and brightness are great, and that the upper portion of the cabinet that needs re-finishing is actually real wood! I have never come across an Admiral console TV of this vintage. It appears from the date on the CRT, and the date codes on the tubes, that this set was made around the 1972-73 timeframe. I got this TV with the original owner's manuals, warranty cards and schematic. Anybody out there on the forum know anything about these Admiral sets?

[sampson159]

Originally Posted by sgtrob

Hello everyone! Just picked up the 25" Admiral color set that was on Ebay. This IS a tube set, here are some pics. The good part is that this TV does in fact work, although there is some issues with vertical height, but color and brightness are great, and that the upper portion of the cabinet that needs re-finishing is actually real wood! I have never come across is an Admiral console TV of this vintage. It appears from the date on the CRT, and the date codes on the tubes, that this set was made around the 1972-73 timeframe. I got this TV with the original owner's manuals, warranty cards and schematic. Anybody out there on the forum know anything about these Admiral sets?

i had the same set in the mid 80s. this is a good set .vertical could be in the tube or dirty controls. admiral had a special look to them. your s is a hybrid set and those are among the best made.all manufacturers of that time frame made perhaps their best sets then. the sylvania d-16,zenith hybrid,philco sets were some of the best pictures ever. you have scored a great set. love it!!!

[bgadow]

Looks like an RCA crt, which is good news! I probably have some factory service lit for this beast, if you need it.

[sgtrob]

Yes, it looks like a great set. My Zenith 25CC50 found a good companion, lol. Definitely interested in any service litereature you might have! -Rob

[sgtrob]

As soon as I get it cleaned up and running as good as I can get it, I will post some pics! -Rob

[sampson159]

that is an admiral crt label. very nice tubes with a great color reproduction. always seemed technicolor like to me. love those admirals!

[radotvguy]

i had a admiral solor color set, but it was a table model , hybrid set

[zenithfan1]

Glad to hear this is a good set! Congrats! Also glad the finish can be fixed.
Keep us updated!

[freakaftr8]

Great find!! That set is awesome! Post working pics when you get it up and runnin!

[bgadow]

The '274' EIA code comes back to RCA.

[Carmine]

Glad to see somebody saved it... I think those 70s cabinets are great, yet another style that will never come back, and that on its own makes it better than some soulless black/silver cube.

Good to see the chassis is so clean.

Thats exactly the type of set I was searching for to let my friend use in his wife's play (set in the 70s).

[sgtrob]

Thanks for all the great comments everyone, a truly unusual set. I fired it up again today, and cleaned all the basic controls, my vertical came back great. There is some snow in the picture, even with a good antenna, so I guess I will have to clean the tuner, or at least check it out. Another curious thing I noted is that all of the tansistors are mounted in sockets, rather than directly soldered to the board.....I checked the CRT on my B&K picture tube tester, and it's scale of 1-100 the guns are R-87%, G-90%, B-88%. Oh man! No wonder the picture is so bright.....Also, after doing a visual on all the tubes, the only one that was ever replaced is the Horizontal output tube, a 6KD6 (kinda oddball?) all the others have the original Admiral script!

[sampson159]

great!!! those admirals were something special to watch. my sister had a solid state set in the mid 80s -they purchased new in 1974-75. those were hard on horizontal boards and triplers. east side repairman charged them 150.00 to replace with used parts. 40 days later,out it went. wouldnt stand behind the work,etc.i bought it for 10.00 and hauled it away in my 79 ltd. repaired it and used as a watcher for 2 years. sold it to a buddy and i thnk it still works. great picture! bgadow is right-label is admiral,tube i rca built. she still has a sylvania superset from 1985-admiral replacement. still going strong!

[radiotvnut]

Speaking of mid '80's Sylvania's. Someone gave me an '87 Philips made 26" Sylvania table model (26B1 chassis, I think). They claimed lightning got it and it wouldn't come back on so they went and bought a Wal-Mart LCD set. Well, I brought home the Sylvania, plugged it in and it works fine. I've heard of power surges locking up the microcontroller and all one has to do is unplug the TV for a couple of minutes and it will be fine.

[bgadow]

The main TV in our house is a '90 Sylvania and it was always prone to locking up in bad storms. Always comes back, though.