RCA COMBO find

[rcaman]

i have my mom,s console stereo from about 71,72 it has the same turntable and radio as yours the sound is great on it. does the fm work properly on yours mine has one side that has static on it. steve

[MarkWilson]

Everything on this set works great except the turntable doesn't function the way it should.....could use a new cartridge as well so if anyone has a turntable sitting around for this one I'd be interested in it. Sound quality is quite good. Even when watching tv the sound is full and very BIG. I'd like to make this my daily watcher but I'll have to have someone go thru it and set it up properly, white balance is off and if you crank up the brightness or contrast too much the whites bleed quite badly and I lose alot of color. Reds seem to be hot as well while other colors are slightly washed.

[sampson159]

sounds like a soft crt."fires up"!color bleeds over the image itself. you can turn burn down the drives and adjust screens to try and compensate. picture won t be as bright with the reduced contrast,but could be very good to watch. rca made a good crt, except the low budget one. i ve had new tubes that fired up. pics in operation?

[MarkWilson]

Is there anyway a "soft" crt can be rejuvenated? I'll take pics soon as I get my digital camera up and runnin. How hard is it to adjust the covergence and the pincushin on these?

[sampson159]

convergence and pinamp are very easy on these sets. as for crt,you will need a picture tube tester. we all have had luck with increasing heater voltage to 8 volts and letting it cook for awhile.if you have to hit it ,do it gently! i have seen many tubes ruined by too much. i ve done it myself.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by MarkWilson

Is there anyway a "soft" crt can be rejuvenated? I'll take pics soon as I get my digital camera up and runnin. How hard is it to adjust the covergence and the pincushin on these?

I've rejuvenated these old tubes with good results; but, not with an old style tester. Any B&K model 467 or newer will be suitable. The older testers (like the B&K 465) have a very crude rejuvenate function and will probably do more harm than good. My first crt tester was a 465 and I ruined more color tubes that I helped. I have a B&K 480 from the '90's and it's much better.

[Tony V]

Another bad thing with a CTC40 is that they have instant on and thats probably why your crt may be tired. The instant on feature keeps the filiments lit even when the tv is turned off. This was done so the picture would come on quicker when powered on. theres no switch to turn that function off as on other sets but someone here might be able to tell you how to disable this feature. You might luck out and the crt may have been replaced sometime in yours but if it is original and put through heavy use the crt may be shot. The best results i've gotten with reactivation of crt's was with a beltron tester/cleaner/reactivator. Easy on the tube and longer lasting results. The positive side to this is that there are suitable replacements available and reasonable. I got a NOS crt for mine on an auction site for $85 with shipping included. There might be a member here that can help you out also. I have the same model but in a french provincial cabinet. Mine worked well for awhile until something went wrong in the deguassing circuit and took out the b+ boost circuit with it. A fellow member offered me another tv chassis for mine but never came through so i'll probably parts mine out now as i persued that avenue for over a year. I have a good changer in mine. Actually the whole stereo portion works well and only needs the controls cleaned. Mine has the deluxe version of the stereo unit and turntable in it. It has those oddball giant oval woofers in it also. Need parts?
Good Luck,
Tony

[MarkWilson]

I didn't know this set had "instant on" feature as I used my cable box to feed it and control the power with the outlet on the back of the box. Hopefully that'll help out in the future with the set once i get it runnin at its best. Plus I just don't trust leaving this old of a set powered up 24/7, makes me nervous.

As far as parts, YES I need a turntable and the crossovers as my left crossover is kinda fried. Doesn't let low frequecies through. Mine also has the strange oval speakers as well. Have never seen these in a set before, but still love the sound this console produces. Let me know how much u want for that table.

I'm actually carting this console off to a guy who used to repair these sets when there were new and I am gonna have him do the work on the crt as it appears it needs hit with some voltage to bring it back. He is confidant that he can get it back to where it is supposed to be.. and honestly it just looks like the red gun might be a little weak as the green and blue are quite a bit stronger. I'll keep ya guys posted on its progress.