Early 80's Curtis Mathis - Page 2 - Videokarma.org TV - Video

kx250rider · #16 11-12-2008, 10:41 AM

I definitely don't think that Curtis Mathes was superior in quality to any of the other small production TV companies (i.e. Packard-Bell, Hoffman, Kaye-Halbert, etc), or even department store brands. Curtis Mathes sets were perfectly good, but not of the caliber of DuMont or Zenith. They marketed as "the most expensive TV in the world", and I guess they were. The service and exclusive sales stores made you feel like you're dealing high-end, much the same as you can go to Toyota and get a Camry, or go to Lexus and get an ES300. Same car, different horn button and dealership, higher price & better service.

Charles

KentTeffeteller · #17 11-15-2008, 10:07 AM

Hi,

Curtis-Mathes made OK TV sets in the 1960's. Their console stereos then were excellent. When Curtis Mathes, Jr. came along, what real quality they had went to heck in a handbasket. In the 1970's you had some of the department store brands with better actual quality and reliability.

Adam · #18 04-20-2009, 03:23 PM

This must be the last tv-radio-phono combo set ever made:
http://flint.craigslist.org/ele/1127201218.html

1985 Curtis-Mathes. It even has 8-track and cassette.

radiotvnut · #19 04-20-2009, 03:54 PM

Yep, that's probably one of the last ones. I've had many similar CM models over the years.

sampson159 · #20 04-20-2009, 04:09 PM

i think they made an even bigger one.i remember a model that had a reel to reel unit built in.it was over 5 feet tall and took up almost the whole side of a room!
i hated those things then and now.we called them "andres tv".

peverett · #21 04-20-2009, 04:24 PM

I once had a mid to late 1950s Curtis Mathis console set with 21 inch B&W TV, reel to reel tape player, phono, and AM/FM radio. It was about 6 feet long and 4 feet high. Took 4 people to move it. Needless to say, I gave it away, just too big for me.

I also have restored a mid 1960s B&W Curtis Mathis TV. Even at that time, Curtis Mathis was using Japanese made capacitors. This TV is presently on loan to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum-CM was based in Texas. Even though it is a console TV, it used the same chassis as one of their portable sets.

fsjonsey · #22 04-21-2009, 10:57 PM

Weren't the massive, ugly 70's and 80's CM consoles "sold" mainly by rent to own stores like Rent-a-Center and Aarons? Overpriced crap that was basically paid for many times over by the time the renter was actually done with it...

*zenithfan1* · #23 04-21-2009, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fsjonsey

Weren't the massive, ugly 70's and 80's CM consoles "sold" mainly by rent to own stores like Rent-a-Center and Aarons? Overpriced crap that was basically paid for many times over by the time the renter was actually done with it...

Yes.........Kind of how it works now, only with modern crap. Still way overpriced.

radiotvnut · #24 04-21-2009, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fsjonsey

Weren't the massive, ugly 70's and 80's CM consoles "sold" mainly by rent to own stores like Rent-a-Center and Aarons? Overpriced crap that was basically paid for many times over by the time the renter was actually done with it...

I think you are correct. I've seen Curtis Mathes, Colortyme, and Rutherford TV's that looked identical except for the name. Most used an NEC chassis. Yes, they were overpriced crap, IMHO. You could have bought a Zenith, RCA, etc. and had a much better set for less money.

*zenithfan1* · #25 04-21-2009, 11:20 PM

The way they worded those commercials suckered a lot of people to buy those damn things. "It's only 40 bucks a month"......for the rest of your life. Muahahahahahahah!

AUdubon5425 · #26 04-21-2009, 11:52 PM

There was a Curtis Mathis showroom in Metairie, La. (a suburb of New Orleans) at least until the early-mid 90's. I remember an old boss of mine back then bragging about his new CM set, best money could buy, etc., etc., I saw it briefly once and the picture looked muddy to me.

radiotvnut · #27 04-22-2009, 12:25 AM

About a year ago, I junked a '74 CM TV/stereo combo in a cheap particleboard and plastic cabinet. The chassis was built by NEC and the CRT was a 23" delta gun Westinghouse. The CRT was toast and the chassis had many problems. The stereo chassis was some low grade outfit that looked similar to a Yorx, Lloyds, Electrophonic, etc. I do remember the speakers being made in Taiwan.

The newer CM sets had a single board chassis and an inline CRT. Those didn't hold up well, either. I remember having another CM 19" set from the early '80's. It was in a metal cabinet and used standard rotary tuners. It had a good picture; but, the horizontal would sometimes fall out of sync and a good slap on the cabinet would bring it back. I resoldered everything on that chassis and still couldn't fix the problem. I ended up giving the set to a friend to stick in the laundry room so his wife could watch TV while washing clothes. That was years ago and I think he still has it.

bgadow · #28 04-22-2009, 10:39 AM

In the mid-80s our neighbor bought a new set and gave his old one to my sisters. It was a C-M 19" from about '76-77. It had an upright modular chassis and was assembled in the British West Indies, which I found quite odd! It did seem to be a well built set, heavy. Eventually the height shrunk real bad-just a bad cap, I'm sure, but at the time I didn't know that. All of the 70s/80s consoles appeared to be low end. I recall seeing one at a friends house once, it was pretty new at the time, muddy picture and very bad "snivets".

Around 1990, give or take a year, they ran a promotion (maybe for an anniversary?) where they were looking for the oldest C-M TV. The print ad showed something from the 10BP4 era as an example. The idea was to get people to trade in their old sets (of any brand) on a new CM. I called the local store, thinking they might be swimming in great old stuff! The young manager said that any trades like that were just tossed...he really didn't want to bother with me. I bet at the time the best trade they would have gotten might have been a CTC-38 or something.

Bill R · #29 04-22-2009, 11:36 AM

Speaking of CM and NEC, I think I read that the founder of NEC is the man who founded VIZIO. Certianly would explain the quality of the VIZIO sets.

BIll R

radiotvnut · #30 04-22-2009, 01:38 PM

I wonder how many of those Vizio sets come back? This newleywed couple that I know just had to have a modern flatscreen TV and was asking me what brand to buy. Vizio was one of the ones I told him NOT to buy. What does he do? Goes out and buys a Vizio. Now, I'm waiting to see how long before it craps out and he comes whining to me to fix it.

I just remembered something else about NEC. We had an early '70's Truetone portable hybrid color TV that was actually built by Midland for Western Auto. I opened it one time and it was full of NEC branded tubes.