Solid State Zenith; vintage?

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Nolan Woodbury

Did solid state television production mirror radio and hi-fi production? Seems that would be the case as well.

All-solid-state (except CRT) TV lagged audio because of the difficulty of building horizontal output transistors and high voltage rectifiers. At Motorola, there were a few years with hybrid sets - solid-state small-signal circuits with tube sweeps for the low end, while the first all-solid-state color sets (Quasar "Works in a Drawer") were the top of the line. Some other manufacturers may have made a sharper or slower cut-over. My first color set, bought in mid 1966, was a Motorola 20-inch hybrid color table model, in "beautiful" walnut grain vinyl-over-metal cabinet. Really wowed the neighbors! Once a year, around Christmas, I would replace the tubes in the horizontal section to restore the picture to full brightness.