With Circuit City closing all their stores, Zenith brand may be dead as well...

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Hey Jeff, I have that same Zenith 19" set. I think it was the last one to have the controls alongside the screen instead of under. It was Christmas present from my mom back in '94. And the tube is still good!

I don't think that layout was very common on the consumer sets of that time. I've seen several hospital TV's (all with bad CRT's) from that time period that was laid out like that and those, IIRC, still had a red LED channel display. I've still got a line isolation transformer laying around somewhere that came out of one of those hospital sets.

[bgadow]

I've been wondering where new Zenith stuff was being sold-I haven't spotted any for several years now. I never go in CC-today my wife stopped in there and said it was packed. The girl who rang her up was peeved because they manually had to take the 10-20% discount off each item. The girl took her calculator and multiplied each item by, say, 20%, and then subtracted it. Kim tried to explain how it would be easier to multiply by 80% but this went way over the girl's head.

I suspect the Zenith name, were it to die, would resurface again. Probably on radios sold at Dollar General or something like that.

In my travels today I spotted something I haven't seen in awhile-a Chromacolor II. A 19" that was kinda beat up. Could have got it for $15 but I don't have the room to keep it, and none of you guys ever want to drive over here to nowhere and haul off this stuff I keep dragging home

[Rental Limo]

I bought my Zenith SY2572DT 25 inch color set from American TV in 1997. It was a high end model CRT set at the time. The picture in picture option was useless since you needed a seperate tuner. I also bought a 25 inch RCA CRT set from Circuit City a year later. I still have both sets. The last item i bought from Circuit City was a Creative brand set of computer speakers with subwoofer. They work great. I once bought a set of Cyber Acoustic computer speakers from there that did not last 6 months. One thing that i liked about Circuit City is the DVD selection.

[radiotvnut]

Since we were on the subject of Zenith products being manufactured at different places over the years, I thought I'd share this. It's a Korean built Zenith AM/FM clock radio model C462L. Judging by the "C" in the model number, I think it was built in '73. If I am wrong, please correct me. I found it at the SA and the boss just told me to take it when I discovered that it didn't work. I gave him $1 anyway, brought it home and cleaned the volume pot and band switch, and it now works about as well as any other cheap clock radio. I'll take one of the '60's Zeniths any day over this one.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Since we were on the subject of Zenith products being manufactured at different places over the years, I thought I'd share this. It's a Korean built Zenith AM/FM clock radio model C462L. ...it now works about as well as any other cheap clock radio. I'll take one of the '60's Zeniths any day over this one.

I had a digital Zenith "Circle Of Sound" clock radio - I'm pretty confident it was manufactured in Asia. Although the time was a tad inconvenient to set with just fast or slow forward buttons, it was a good performer with a decent tone. Gave it to my brother because he liked it so much. Sadly, he lost it in Katrina. I would buy another if I ran across one locally - they're always on eBay but I can't see paying over $20 plus shipping!

[magmod93]

I really enjoyed reading all your posts on this thread about Zenith.
It's a shame indeed that they had troubles.... Being a Tv Service tech, I saw the first of those CRT problems in 1992... and it ran Zenith into bankruptcy with all the recalls, crying for Goldstar/LG to save it.

As for CC, they ran a shoddy business, good riddence to bad rubbish I say!
Lousy customer service, incompetent goofball salesmen... etc. Karma caught up to them. bleh.

This is what happens when a good American named company (Zenith) messes up, and starts off-shoring products. A few of their post import stuff was decent. The Allegro series always had reliability for the money.
Ok, I'm done... I'll post a pic of my radio collection..... can you find the American-Made Zenith's?

[Tony V]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

I had a digital Zenith "Circle Of Sound" clock radio - I'm pretty confident it was manufactured in Asia. Although the time was a tad inconvenient to set with just fast or slow forward buttons, it was a good performer with a decent tone. Gave it to my brother because he liked it so much. Sadly, he lost it in Katrina. I would buy another if I ran across one locally - they're always on eBay but I can't see paying over $20 plus shipping!

The radio on these were pretty good and these suckers had one heck of a clock alarm (not the radio alarm) on them. If you die when you sleep, this one will wake the dead. I had one and gave it to a co-worker who's girlfriend would always sleep through the alarm. I came over early the next day to pick him up for work and while he and I were sitting in the kitchen drinking our morning coffee like we usually do, the alarm went off and she let out a scream you only hear on horror movie's I said to him "I told ya!".
-Tony

[AUdubon5425]

Good story - the frequency of that alarm was certainly unique and effective!

[bgadow]

I have one of those Circle of Sound alarm clocks; I also fixed one a couple years ago for a co-worker of my wife. It was something very minor, might have just been dirty controls. They were built by Gold Star.

The best clock radio I had was an Arvin-built Silvertone, solid state. Had a crappy but loud AM radio plus a buzzer taken right out of your old kitchen range.

Zenith needed new technology to save it. They tried, with stereo for example, and they came close to HDTV in the 80s I guess. When color tv sets became a commodity the big players had to move on; had flat-screen HDTV arrived 20 years ago Zenith may have survived and thrived. Instead they had to compete with increasingly cheap imports.

I've only been in Circuit City a few times and never found anything there to buy. I don't blame it so much on the company-there is very, very little new technology that interests me. In my area CC had been around for maybe 10 years when Best Buy came to town; just the fact that BB had the bigger, flashier store...and newer store...made CC look like yesterday's news. Appropriate that the local CC was next to Wal*Mart, while the BB is next to Target. The younger crowd wants a cool place to shop...

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenithfan1

Hey Jeff, I have that same Zenith 19" set. I think it was the last one to have the controls alongside the screen instead of under. And the tube is still good!

That is exactly why I intend to keep my Sentry 2 as long as it works as well as it does; also, I'm keeping the set for sentimental reasons, as it was a present to me on my 39th birthday in 1995.

Your Sentry 2 and mine are probably among the few (very few) 1990s-vintage Zeniths that did not have CRT problems. I wonder how many other Sentry 2 sets are still in use today, and still have bright, sharp pictures like the day they were first taken out of the box. The only thing wrong with my set, after almost 14 years, is that the gray paint on the cabinet is flaking off in spots; I wonder if that set's cabinet was originally jet-black or was available in that color, as well as gray.

[bgadow]

One of the sets my friend has at the TV shop is a Sentry 2 console with a production date in '93. Sitting next to it is another Zenith console dated '98. It occured to me that he has the whole series of bad perfomers sitting there! But he says they both work great.

[breetie]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

--Probably the reason BB and others will not accept the Zenith brand is because of the bad reputation Zenith had during the '90's bad CRT era.

While I can't argue with Zenith's "fall from grace", as it were, Best Buy is hardly a measure of quality, simply from a products standpoint. They are like any other retailer, and will carry only what they feel they can make an inordinate sum of money on. As it stands, now, Best Buy is not exactly clearing the gates without a scratch...I estimate they'll be in the same position as Circuit City in the next few years.

[tubeboob]

I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. I have two MC-7051 stereo receivers from circa 1980. One I bought new from Gimbels in NYC, and another I bought used.

Both sound great, weigh some 27.5 lbs, put out a real 40 wpc, and have the classic gold tone aluminum faces, wow!!

They're made in Korea with a lot of Samsung parts. Judging by the longevity of both receivers and the lack of issues, I would say they are very well put together units.

The sound quality is really very good. Crisp highs, mellow mids and decent bass. Stereo separation is way above average and imaging almost pin point.

It will really be a sad day for all.

[julianburke]

"I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. "

Zentih has gone out and has been out. The Koreans just bought the name and that's all there is now and has been that way for some time. Zenith is not "Zenith" and neither is DuMont, HH Scott, Crosley, RCA, Admiral, Quasar and "Harley Davidson" in the stereo and TV line. I'm sure that there are some out there that bought say a original Crosley way back when and thought that was the best set they ever owned and don't know that what they are buying today is NOT the same thing!

Technology is pretty much the same nowadays but there is still "cheap", "cheaper" and "certainly not meant to be repaired cheap". Some warranty claims are give the customer a new unit and destroy the returned unit.

Retail outlets sell whatever they can and usually go for the high profit cheap items that are offered to them in any franchise. It used to be that retail outlets of name brand stores sold higher quality/priced items and remember the drug and jewelry stores (like Juliette) that sold the "no name" brands. The no names will take anyone who will buy their products. Today it is "factory direct" with no wholesalers in the middle and sell where ever they can.

[breetie]

Originally Posted by tubeboob

I will be really saddened if Zenith goes out. I have two MC-7051 stereo receivers from circa 1980. One I bought new from Gimbels in NYC, and another I bought used.

Both sound great, weigh some 27.5 lbs, put out a real 40 wpc, and have the classic gold tone aluminum faces, wow!!

They're made in Korea with a lot of Samsung parts. Judging by the longevity of both receivers and the lack of issues, I would say they are very well put together units.--

As julianburke pointed out, there's no real connection between those units you have, and the Zenith of today. Rest assured, however, that those at Zenith are as interested in the company's well-being as you are--perhaps more-so--and will definitely be looking for alternative venues to peddle their wares. If they are worthy of saving, it will mean they have competent, interested decision-makers in the appropriate positions to see that the company's interests are met, if not exceeded. If they are not worthy of being saved, well...it'll disappear, much like Circuit City.

Originally Posted by julianburke

Zentih has gone out and has been out. The Koreans just bought the name and that's all there is now and has been that way for some time. Zenith is not "Zenith" and neither is DuMont, HH Scott, Crosley, RCA, Admiral, Quasar and "Harley Davidson" in the stereo and TV line. I'm sure that there are some out there that bought say a original Crosley way back when and thought that was the best set they ever owned and don't know that what they are buying today is NOT the same thing!

I couldn't agree more. The entire reason most of us collect these older, less-advanced systems are due to our perceptions of the quality versus the reality. The reality being that not all newer systems are better-manufactured, designed, or perform. In many respects, the companies that built the units we've come to cherish doubtless have almost nothing in common, now, with the companies as they appear today.