Estate Sale find

[julianburke]

I went to an estate sale today and found a TV that I haven't seen before. It was one of the 25" Sylvania Super Sets in a super fantastic "Designer Series III" cabinet with tone controls. Looked kind of danish modern with a short pedestial but was in super mint condition. With original remote, worked and was made in 1982. They wanted $45 for it but said they would reduce the price much further. These sets must be pretty rare because it is the first one I have seen except in pictures. Must have cost a pretty penny too.

Anyone know much about these? Should I have bought it? I'm only speaking of the designer cabinet as it was one I haven't seen before. The chassis is one that I have worked on 100's of and don't care about. They were made in Greenville, Tn., (my backyard) and it was a georgeous set!

I have so many sets that now I am out of room for the time being. I gave the woman my telephone number that if she didn't sell it to call me. There's always room for one more if I stack it.

[Sandy G]

I've always heard the "Super Sets" were The Business back when they were new, even beating Trinitrons on picture quality. However, I've never seen one in person.

[radiotvnut]

All I can tell you is that NAP owned Sylvania by the time this set was made in '82. Even so, it could still use a Sylvania designed chassis like the single board E34 or a modular E5x series chassis. I'm sure it uses an inline CRT as I think the use of the older delta gun tubes had come to an end by then. At any rate, I don't think you'll go wrong buying it.

I think by the mid '80's, the chassis used in Sylvania TV's were NAP designed and were the same chassis used in Philco and Magnavox sets. Now, the Sylvania brand is part of the Funai group (puke).

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

All I can tell you is that NAP owned Sylvania by the time this set was made in '82. Even so, it could still use a Sylvania designed chassis like the single board E34 or a modular E5x series chassis. I'm sure it uses an inline CRT as I think the use of the older delta gun tubes had come to an end by then. At any rate, I don't think you'll go wrong buying it.

I think by the mid '80's, the chassis used in Sylvania TV's were NAP designed and were the same chassis used in Philco and Magnavox sets. Now, the Sylvania brand is part of the Funai group (puke).

I had a Zenith 13" portable color TV which I bought new in 1982. IIRC, it still had a delta-gun CRT, so these tubes may have been used for awhile in smaller sets, even after production of large-screen delta-gun tubes had ended--probably to exhaust their existing stock of these tubes. My Zenith Sentry 2, new in 1995, has an inline CRT, so I guess the inline design took over from the delta-gun probably some time in the late '80s or nineties.

I didn't realize that Sylvania is now a division of Funai, although it doesn't surprise me. It is almost impossible to know anymore who actually made a TV with the name of a former American television manufacturer on it; the trend these days (it's been going on for a couple decades) is to build these sets cheaply overseas, then put an American brand name on them and sell them here just as cheaply if not more so. Many consumers do not realize this, which is why so many get upset (oh boy do they get upset) when their "Zenith" (for example) flat-panel HDTV goes belly-up after only a year or so. "I paid $3000 for this thing; it's a Zenith--why didn't it last as long as my first Zenith color set did?" is a frequent response to such early failures, especially if the person's first Zenith lasted twenty years or more with little or no trouble.

[radiotvnut]

I just had a 2005 27" Sylvania pass through my hands that was Funai built. Cheap, cheap, cheap crap with a cheap, cheap, cheap picture. It only needed a vertical IC and 1 cap to get it back going, which seems to be a common problem on the newer CRT sets. Cheap Chinese cap fails which takes out the vertical IC.

Concerning delta gun CRT's: That would be an interesting Zenith if it did use a delta gun tube that late. The early '80's Zeniths that I've seen used a tri-focus inline tube. I have seen some late Zenith CCII 23"/25" sets from '79 that still used a delta gun tube and some RCA 19"/25" sets from '79/'80 that had a delta gun CRT. Sylvania/Philco also had some late run delta gun sets from '79/'80. I think the newest delta gun set that I've seen was a 25" Teknika (built by Wells-Gardner) from around '81 that was cable ready w/ remote.

Actually, delta gun CRT's started to be phased out by the mid '70's. Especially in the small (19" and smaller) screen imported sets. The oldest large screen inline tube that I've seen was in the 25" GE "YM" chassis from the mid '70's. It was actually a large neck CRT with the same style base as a regular delta gun tube. And, that whole chassis was a piece of crap; but, that's another story.

[bgadow]

"You won't beat Sony again!!!"

[andy]

000

[sampson159]

sylvanai s last delta crt was in 1979-1980.e 48 chassis.the 19 inch delta left in 1976-1977.they used a delta 21v in some solid atate table models also.the 25vdmp22 beat sony in the model years 1976-1979.really good sets but that crt went reasonably quick.2-3 years aqnd it was gone.unlike a zenith or rca crt form the early to mid 70s.they go forever.i love these sylvanias.they were laid out pretty simple and werent too hard to keep going.not as engineered as the zeniths or as fine quality,but still a fine looking picture and a nice style.i still have a superset with the 48 chassis and electronic tuner.also have an e 41 with a rebuilt empire crt.got it from bryan.cabinet is stripped and the ready to be put back together.this set has a terrific picture and only needed tuner work to get it right.although the zeniths are by far and away the best,i still have an affinity for the sylvanias.takes me back to my youth.

[radiotvnut]

I remember some 19" Sylvanias from the '76-'79 time period that had a large neck inline tube and some electronic convergence circuitry. I don't remember the chassis #; but, it was a single board chassis built on a metal frame.

I also remember seeing some Sylvania delta gun 19" hospital sets from the mid '70's. They had motorized tuners, a power transformer, and were heavy as lead. I think the chassis was an E08. One of our local hospitals used them up into the late '80's.

[wa2ise]

I think this set I have is a Superset. It uses a comb filter to filter the chroma subcarrier, thus avoiding most false color crawlies on referees' shirts. At the time, this set would have had a better picture than most other sets of its day. I had to resolder some connections on its tuner, other than that, it has worked well.

[compucat]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

I think this set I have is a Superset. It uses a comb filter to filter the chroma subcarrier, thus avoiding most false color crawlies on referees' shirts. At the time, this set would have had a better picture than most other sets of its day. I had to resolder some connections on its tuner, other than that, it has worked well.

I had one of these during the mid eighties. It was a good set but I never really liked the tinted glass on the picture tube. I thought it affected the color too much. Also, there used to be some kind of glitch in the processor because occasionally it would switch off when I pressed one of the channel buttons. On the whole it was a good set and quite well made, especially by today's standards. Mine was branded Montgomery Ward.

[sampson159]

that is a superset from the early 80s.these were really good sets with a black matrix inline tube.you never see one with a bad or even weak crt.tuner problems and vertical ic issues but never a crt.those early inline e08 chassiss were pretty reliable also.hot s and triplers (eeg523) and a few color ic problems but again no crt s.if only they could have made a 25vdmp22 to last like those inlines!

[radiotvnut]

There's one other hospital set (E53, I think) that I remember from the early '80's. It was a modular chassis but did not have a power transformer. The CRT was an inline tri focus type and the tuner was a motorized varactor tuner that had a switch that would change it from OTA UHF to cable midband channels.

I've got an '81 E32 knob tuned set that still works but the CRT is weak. I rejuvenated it once and it lasted about a year. I'm not complaining because that set has about 30 million hours on it.