Zenith x334 resto pics

[ferninando]

Not antique so hope its ok to show my zenith x334 resto job.

[radiotvnut]

Nice job! I keep seeing those pop up on epay and want to get one; but, other things seem to keep coming up. The "X" in the model number indicates that it's from the '67 model year, which is towards the end of US tube radio production. I think Zenith's very last tube radio was a cheapie plastic AM/FM from the "Z" model line, which would be '69. IMHO, postwar Zenith AM/FM sets are about the best performing FM radios built in the USA. Even the early Zenith SS table radios are good performers. That all changed when Zenith shifted radio production to Korea.

[Kingfisher]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Nice job! I keep seeing those pop up on epay and want to get one; but, other things seem to keep coming up. The "X" in the model number indicates that it's from the '67 model year, which is towards the end of US tube radio production. I think Zenith's very last tube radio was a cheapie plastic AM/FM from the "Z" model line, which would be '69. IMHO, postwar Zenith AM/FM sets are about the best performing FM radios built in the USA. Even the early Zenith SS table radios are good performers. That all changed when Zenith shifted radio production to Korea.

I second that on Zenith quality. They resisted circuit boards well into the SS era. I am mainly a stereophile from the AK site, but I just love post-war AM/FM radios, especially Zeniths and stereo radios. They sound so good compared the Asian mass-market crap thats available today. Even the plastic-cased models.

[ferninando]

Only dates visable were pat. dates last one 1-30-59 in tiny font, so don't really know age but if you say 67 Ill buy it. Was hoping more for late 50s . No matter, its not worth anything and was just a passing thing I wanted to do. It works, is a 7 tube affair and now looks good by me. Once it was all back togeter it wants to play awhile then no audio. I have to futz with the afc/fm/am switch to get it back so need to look into it, but later. Only gave 20 for it in rough/fair shape.
PS: yeah I seen several on ebay one for 125!!!! Dreamer.

[Jeffhs]

I'd clean the bandswitch contacts if you're losing audio on either AM or FM and have to jiggle the switch to get it to work again. I have a Zenith C845 that had the same problem; cleaned the bandswitch (and the volume and tone controls while I was at it, as they were quite noisy) and the trouble disappeared. The radio sounds wonderful now, typical great Zenith high-fidelity audio from its 2-speaker system.

Your X-334 will sound great too, once the issue with that switch is resolved and the controls cleaned, to say nothing of replacement of doubtful capacitors, especially the 3-section filter cap in the power supply (the last if you hear any appreciable hum in the sound, although in a radio this old--43 years if yours was made in 1967--it wouldn't hurt anything to replace the cap on general principles). Zenith (the original Zenith Radio Corp. of Chicago) did not make junk; quality was their middle name and, for decades, their slogan was "the quality goes in before the name goes on."

I don't recall if the X334 had a selenium rectifier or not. If it does, I'd replace the stack with a silicon diode (1N4007) and a series dropping resistor to insure that the B+ voltage at the output of the new diode rectifier is identical to that from the selenium.


The X-334 was probably introduced shortly after the last runs of the K-731 (the latter, in the Early American cabinet, was produced and marketed until, IIRC, 1965 or thereabouts, the console-TV cabinet style [with short legs] probably being introduced in '64 or so). The front panels are similar, with slight but obvious differences, such as a vertical tuning scale on the X334 as opposed to a horizontal one on the K731, slightly different style of knobs, but the band switch on both is a three-position unit for AM, FM-AFC and FM.

I'm not sure, but I think the X-334 had a dial light, whereas the K-731 did not. The same applies to the C-845 series of the late '50s through 1960; the C845 did not have the dial light, but later models (C845,C845L/M, et al.) did use a pilot lamp, probably an NE-2 or NE-51 neon bulb. Since these radios were made in the '50s, with the last ones appearing in 1960, however, I would think an NE-2 bayonet-base neon bulb was used as a pilot lamp. I don't think the NE-2 (a very small bulb with wire leads) was introduced until well into the 1960s.

[ferninando]

Looks like a SS diode rect. Vol/tone contrls are clean and scratchy free. No recaps yet. It works on am & fm altho not with strongest recpt. compaared to a modern SS grubdig S350 with whip ant. Has a incandecent dial lite. The knob color is my doing as all the silver chrome was worn off. I like mine better. So if I gotta get back in a nd fix that switch I may as well do the PS caps in the can at least. Others may follow as I feel like it. Im not a fanatic radio listener so not alot of need to have it in perfect cond. So far its been a fun project. Oh, and theres no hum.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

IMHO, postwar Zenith AM/FM sets are about the best performing FM radios built in the USA. Even the early Zenith SS table radios are good performers. That all changed when Zenith shifted radio production to Korea.

I'll second that. I have several postwar Zenith radios here, and every one of them works very well on FM (with the built-in antennas) in my area, which is about 40 miles from most of the Cleveland FM stations.

I will also second your comment on how Zenith radios went downhill when the company left Chicago and started production of radios (and later televisions [!]) in Korea. I once had a Zenith IS-4041 AM/FM/8-track/cassette/phono integrated stereo system that worked reasonably well (and sounded great) on FM, but the AM tuner was so bad I could hear shortwave in the middle of the dial (around 1140-1200 kHz or thereabouts) at night. It wasn't so good for local AM in the daytime, either, and I lived in a suburb of Cleveland at the time (early 1980s) that has excellent reception of all the city's local stations. (My other AM and AM/FM radios received Cleveland AM stations with no trouble, and no shortwave interference after sundown.) I used to say at the time, and still believe today, that the AM tuner in my Zenith stereo probably was nothing more than a glorified crystal set.

However, I have a Zenith model R-70 13-transistor AM-FM portable radio, made in 1980 in Korea, that works very well on AM and FM in this area. In fact, I am convinced that this radio was built for high performance and good sound quality, with four IF stages on FM, two IFs on AM, and ceramic filters for both bands. As sensitive and selective as this radio is, however, I wish it had defeatable FM AFC (it doesn't; the AFC lock-in range is quite narrow and is non-defeatable, as stated in the service manual). Other than that, my R-70 is, IMHO at least, a couple of steps above the average AM/FM transistor portable, and I'll bet it had a hefty price tag as well when it was new (I would guess it sold for around $40 or so). Mine was an eBay score a few years ago, so I got it for, IIRC, about half that.

However, I believe the R-70 was one of the last really good portable radios produced by Zenith, whose radio production plant by this time (1980s) had been moved from Chicago to Korea.

Korean-made or not, I think the R-70 is an excellent portable radio, aside from its non-defeatable AFC which can make tuning difficult if you are in an area with stations closely spaced on the dial (although the ceramic filter and four IF stages on FM helps a lot, they are no substitute for defeatable AFC), or if you are trying to receive weak stations next to strong local ones. When Zenith ended production of this gem they broke the mold; it marked the end of an era as well.

[radiotvnut]

Yes, Zenith was one of the last hold outs when it came to using PC boards. I have a '67 Zenith solid state AM/FM clock radio in a white plastic cabinet and it's built on a metal chassis with socketed transistors. I think around '68 is when they started using PC board chassis in their radios but they were still made in Chicago. I have a cheapie '73 Zenith AM/FM clock radio that's Korean built. Zenith kept using a metal chassis for it's color TV's well into the '70's. One thing that's weird is that I have a Zenith clock radio from the mid-late '50's that's on a PC board chassis. I was not aware that Zenith used PC boards for tube chassis products as early as the '50's.