Sony 26" Console

[Sandy G]

Wow, an' in '82 a 26" TV was considered "huge"...Anyone here have one of them 40" or 43" CRT Sonys they offered a few years ago ? Wonder why they quit ? I was gonna get a 40", & take my 36" & toss it off the side of a building....<grin>

[Carmine]

I think from about 1966 to 1986-ish, 25" was about the biggest you could get, whether you were the president or lived in a trailer. Things were a lot more equal back then, and I guess TV size was part of it.

(I know there were projection TVs, but those sucked.)

Nice TV score! Especially if it's in really nice shape like it is and is easily fixable, you did good

[rca2000]

A few facts.......

That Sony with the 26" tube has a VERY bad reputation for bad CRT'S!! EVERY one of them I have encountered had a bad one, even over 16 years ago!! And you CANNOT "hit" them, either-- they will improve some, but will FADE before your eyes in a matter of hours!! Last year, I had the opportunity to get an'82 Sony like that one, with the 26" tube, BUT the NICE one with stereo sound, full OSD control, full AV in/out, etc(KV-2643, IIRC). I PASSED it up, as they are very heavy, and I figured the pix was sure to be gone. SO, off to the dump it went!!


Now, RCA had a 26" in tube in at least 1984, and used it in the colortrack 2000 sets, including the dimensia models. In 1987 or so, it was replaced with a 27" tube. ALL of those RCA tubes have a great repuatation for long-lives and durability, unlike the Sony 26".

As for those 40" Sony tube sets-- they weigh over 350lbs. (the 36" inch ones weigh close to 300). I do NOT want to even think of trying to load one myself into my van!!

[Sandy G]

The 36" Sonys weigh 275. You WILL see stars, lightnings & colors if you try to manhandle one yrself. Not only are they WAY too heavy, there ain't NOTHIN' to grab ahold of, & they're about as slippery as a greased pig. Not only that, they are bad out of balance-the weight's all in the front. Mucho fun...

[superdeez]

My Dad bought one of the 15" LCD sets for the kitchen in he and my mom's condo. He unpacked it, and tried to tune through the cable channels on it. It picked up 2-13 real nice, and then just got static. Apparently the makers of this expen$ive TV decided that there would be no easy way to change from air to cable, and also decided that the set would (every time it was unplugged) be set to only tune standard UHF and it wouldn't include anything about switching it in the manual.

Finally, under "Other settings" > "Special options" at the bottom of the menu, I found where you tell the set to tune in cable. The only reason my Dad didn't have to call the 1800 number is because I knew what the problem was. I can only imagine the laughter on the part of the engineers and tech support guys when this glut of wal-mart shoppers calls in to say there TV is broken!

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Who would notice that from a normal viewing distance? Any TV picture (yes, even on analog CRT sets) will look worse when you are close to or right next to the screen. Who actually watches TV that close to the screen anyhow? Bars, taverns and other establishments with HD flat-panel TVs probably have the monitor mounted high on a wall, so the patrons are some distance from it.

Heck; the Islands Restaurant & Bar near me in Northridge has new plasma 40" sets on the wall over the bar, and they look pixelated, blurry and awful at 20 feet, and at 30 feet, 50 feet, and probably even from the embankment across Hwy 118 looking through the window too

Charles

[andy]

Originally Posted by rca2000

A few facts.......

That Sony with the 26" tube has a VERY bad reputation for bad CRT'S!! EVERY one of them I have encountered had a bad one, even over 16 years ago!!

Does anyone know how Sony's recent CRTs are aging? I haven't seen a single Wega (flat) sony CRT that was bad yet. The early Wegas are getting to the same age where older Sony CRTs started to fail, or at least look soft.

Originally Posted by rca2000

As for those 40" Sony tube sets-- they weigh over 350lbs. (the 36" inch ones weigh close to 300). I do NOT want to even think of trying to load one myself into my van!!

The heaviest set I dealt with was an RCA 38" wide screen CRT. That was a real monster to move, even with help.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by rca2000

Now, RCA had a 26" in tube in at least 1984, and used it in the colortrack 2000 sets, including the dimensia models. In 1987 or so, it was replaced with a 27" tube. ALL of those RCA tubes have a great repuatation for long-lives and durability, unlike the Sony 26".

I agree with your comment on the longevity of today's RCA CRTs. The 19" tube in my RCA (Thomson) CTC185 is still going strong after almost seven years; the picture is every bit as good now as it was the day I purchased the TV. For that matter, so is the picture on my 11-year-old Zenith Sentry 2, which also has its original CRT.

BTW, Thomson must have finally wised up and licked the CRT issue which was such a sticking point in its earlier sets, but it took them a while; the same with the on-board tuner and its problems. (The tuner in my set is an onboard type, but after having had the grounds resoldered after a repair job five years ago, the tuner and the rest of the set are working just fine.) Today's RCA/Thomson sets have the tuner separately mounted from the main chassis, but I for one wonder why it took them so long to discover and correct these problems, which have been the death of many an RCA/Thomson TV over the last 20 years. I have a friend whose parents bought an RCA Guide Plus TV in the early 1990s; the CRT failed after only two years. I think this was just a matter of a bad tube getting into the field, as the TV they bought to replace the one with the bad tube still works like a champ, despite having been knocked over and moved some 15 miles two years ago.

As to Sony, I think they made better TVs in the '70s and '80s as well. My great-aunt had a Sony Trinitron 15" portable for some 20 years which worked very well; the only reason she replaced it was another problem, unrelated, IIRC, to the CRT. She bought another Sony after her first one that actually wound up outliving her (she passed away some 15+ years ago). The last I heard, however (some years ago), her second Sony was still working; how well, though, I can't say.

Whether today's Sony TVs will last anywhere near 20 years, however, seems to be anyone's guess. I'm not even sure if Sony TVs are built by Sony anymore. Their XBR flat-panel HDTV series was top of the line several years ago; now, I'm not so sure. Like most other television and electronics manufacturers, Sony has probably been absorbed by some other offshore company.

Sad, but as former CBS News anchorman Walter Cronkite used to say, that's the way it is.

[JCFitz]

Originally Posted by andy

Does anyone know how Sony's recent CRTs are aging? I haven't seen a single Wega (flat) sony CRT that was bad yet. The early Wegas are getting to the same age where older Sony CRTs started to fail, or at least look soft.

I've changed a wega tube that was under contract.The green gun was weak.Get this.Not only was the picture lacking in green with more of a blue hue to it but the set would shut down. That's right.It wouldn't just blank out.It would shut down because it couldn't balance the emission of the 3 guns.Trying it on another tube it stayed on all day which conmfirmed the tube was the culprit.Me and my boss just about killed ourselves bringing it to the shop and back.Haven't seen too many bad ones yet.The projections are a different story.Sony projection tv crts are junk.Worse than Mitsubishi.

P.S. Modern Philips(Magnavox) tvs of all sizes do the shutdown thing.The G2 setting on the flyback is critical on them.And the tubes on those are dying right and left.

[bgadow]

I'll always remember along about 1980 we were visiting a friend's house and in the garage he had a Sony console. It looked very "American" save for the unique trinitron crt. The story was that it belonged to his boss and had came out on the wrong end of a lightning strike. It would have had click stop tuning & at least a 25" screen-I don't recall seeing another like that. He must have never had it fixed as it dissappeared soon after and the last time I was in their house (late 90s) they were still watching an early 70s XL-100.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

The 36" Sonys weigh 275. You WILL see stars, lightnings & colors if you try to manhandle one yrself. Not only are they WAY too heavy, there ain't NOTHIN' to grab ahold of, & they're about as slippery as a greased pig. Not only that, they are bad out of balance-the weight's all in the front. Mucho fun...

DONE THAT & won't again! I was not the same for weeks. And I bench press a 1-RM of 240 lbs (work out with about 160)


Charles

[andy]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I agree with your comment on the longevity of today's RCA CRTs. The 19" tube in my RCA (Thomson) CTC185 is still going strong after almost seven years; the picture is every bit as good now as it was the day I purchased the TV. For that matter, so is the picture on my 11-year-old Zenith Sentry 2, which also has its original CRT.

Those Thomson CRTs do seem to hold up well. I can't remember seeing a single weak one. A good quality CRT can last at least 10-15 years under normal use. I would consider anything less than 10 year poor.

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

...I have a friend whose parents bought an RCA Guide Plus TV in the early 1990s; the CRT failed after only two years. I think this was just a matter of a bad tube getting into the field...

I've seen a lot with defects like shorts or open heaters. If it lasts more than a few years, it will last a long time.

[kx250rider]

I've seen a few faluty WEGA tubes with shadow mask problems (NOT been banged, just won't get purity). Also I have seen a shorted one in a 32" WEGA that would arc and shut the set off every now & then. But I haven't seen the poor emission like we did on the 26" 710AB22, or the 27" standard A68JMT50X. They did come up with an improved 26, which I installed MANY MANY of after the '94 earthquake. Those seemed to hold up much better than the old ones. I can't remember the number, but it was something like A67JHGxxx. Dunbar ordered 3500 of them in February, '94, and sold every one of them by summer @ $150 ea! Slightly off topic; I think about 98% of those CRT replacements were fraud. People were dragging TV sets out of closets and even off the street and declaring earthquake damage and getting FEMA and private insurance payouts. We had people calling the shop all day long asking to buy smashed TVs "for insurance purposes". Shame what people do. I wonder if that went on in New Orleans?

Charles

[wiseguy]

well this one must have survived the bad crt problem,it plays well now,i replaced a ton of capcitors.. only because i have them..it really didnt need anything,it has a perfect white balance/grey scale..this thing is in my dining room,right next to the patio door..and yeah thats a pioneer SX-1250 on top off it..,this thing has such a nice looking cabinet,you would have to see in person...this will be my last vintage TV..(i guess vintage..).