estate sale finds again, for 2004

[Charlie]

Cool Zenith! Must have been pretty fancy for a portable to have a sleep timer and dual speakers! Nice shiny chassis, too.

[Whirled One]

I realize that this is a TV forum, but Doug's Zenith console reminds me of this 1966 Zenith "portable" stereo combination (a model X584) that I got a few years ago. I love this thing! It's essentially a low-end Zenith console system that was sold in a portable cabinet with swing-out speakers (which can also be detached if desired), and the changer mounted on a swing-out frame. It is entirely tube-based, which suprised me when I first got it home. [alas, the output stages are single-ended.]

I found this set in an antique store where it had been hiding for years (along with a bunch of other items) underneath a table in the store's basement. I had actually passed this thing up on a couple of previous visits to that store (only the edge of the cabinet was visible), but one day it caught my eye again, and I felt curious enough to pull it out of its hiding place and open 'er up and see what it was. I've never been big on 60's-era stereo consoles and portable phonos, but I was immediately fond of this guy.

Like Doug's console, the tone arm has a remarkably light tracking force for a ceramic cartridge, but the changer mechanism is Zenith's usual rebadged V-M from that era, and not the nifty high-end Zenith changer like the one on Doug's console. Sound quality is okay on phono for a cermamic cartridge, and is quite pleasant to listen to on FM. [I'll also admit that several months ago, I "cheated" and hid a piezo tweeter inside each of the woofers to give it a bit more treble boost and crispness.]

This machine came with all of its original paperwork, including the original store receipt..! (cost: $199.95 + tax on 11/12/1966) What's more amusing, though, is that the TV store it was originally purchased from is only about one block from the antique store I bought it from! [Actually, that should be was, since the TV store has since closed, evidently meeting a simiar fate to most other small-town indenpendent TV retailers.]

--Marty

[Whirled One]

Whoops, looks like my attachment didn't attach. Sorry 'bout that. Let's see if it works this time...

[drh4683]

Marty,

Glad you joined! That zenith portable unit is great! Never seen anything like that one. Looks like brand new. Ive done some info and research on the phono in my console. Its actually co-designed by CBS and zenith.

[Whirled One]

Hey Doug,

Glad to be here-- thanks for letting me know that there were others out there with some interest in 60's/70's-era TV technology..!

I've never seen another Zenith "portable" stereo AM/FM/phono combination like mine either, though I have seen a few rather slim Zenith "mini" consoles from roughly the same era that have fold-out/detachable speakers.

By the way, I just realized that I happen to have the Zenith service manual for what I believe is the record changer mechanism used in your stereo console; let me know if you ever need a copy!

--Marty
...who promises that his next post in the TV forums will actually be about TV sets...

[drh4683]

hi marty,

thanks for letting me know about the service manual. No problem on discussing non tv equipment! Im the moderator on this forum and im not strickt about anything as long as everyone gets along

Shut up or else!





Anthony

[Jeffhs]

Originally posted by Whirled One
I realize that this is a TV forum, but Doug's Zenith console reminds me of this 1966 Zenith "portable" stereo combination (a model X584) that I got a few years ago. I love this thing! It's essentially a low-end Zenith console system that was sold in a portable cabinet with swing-out speakers (which can also be detached if desired), and the changer mounted on a swing-out frame. It is entirely tube-based, which suprised me when I first got it home. [alas, the output stages are single-ended.]

I found this set in an antique store where it had been hiding for years (along with a bunch of other items) underneath a table in the store's basement. I had actually passed this thing up on a couple of previous visits to that store (only the edge of the cabinet was visible), but one day it caught my eye again, and I felt curious enough to pull it out of its hiding place and open 'er up and see what it was. I've never been big on 60's-era stereo consoles and portable phonos, but I was immediately fond of this guy.

Like Doug's console, the tone arm has a remarkably light tracking force for a ceramic cartridge, but the changer mechanism is Zenith's usual rebadged V-M from that era, and not the nifty high-end Zenith changer like the one on Doug's console. Sound quality is okay on phono for a cermamic cartridge, and is quite pleasant to listen to on FM. [I'll also admit that several months ago, I "cheated" and hid a piezo tweeter inside each of the woofers to give it a bit more treble boost and crispness.]

This machine came with all of its original paperwork, including the original store receipt..! (cost: $199.95 + tax on 11/12/1966) What's more amusing, though, is that the TV store it was originally purchased from is only about one block from the antique store I bought it from! [Actually, that should be was, since the TV store has since closed, evidently meeting a simiar fate to most other small-town indenpendent TV retailers.]

--Marty

I like all kinds of Zenith gear as well, Marty. Been interested in this make for most of my years of fiddling with electronics, radio and TV (I'm almost 48 now; I've been an electronics bug since the age of 8 and a ham radio operator the last 32 years as well). Had a basement full of Zenith TVs, radios, etc. in the late '60s-early '70s. I own two old Zenith radios today, one antique [1951], one not quite there yet [1963]. Both were ebay scores, one last year, the other about two years ago.

I like your "new" Zenith combo unit. Never saw one like that before now, although I have seen several models of Zenith's portable stereo phonographs; in fact, I had one, without the AM/FM tuner, in the late '70s. Mine was made, I believe, in the mid-1960s (I remember seeing one on the set of an old movie some years ago). It worked well as long as I had it; in fact, it worked as soon as I got it home (it was a trash-day find, as are most sets we AK members have in our collections). Don't remember (or perhaps I never knew) what type of cartridge the changer in mine had, although if pressed for a quick answer I would guess it was ceramic. Whatever it was, it sounded really good and worked well, as do all Zeniths before the '90s or so. Those old sets were built for high fidelity, high sensitivity in the case of radios and TV sets, and to last. (My Zenith K731 AM/FM radio from 1963 sounds almost incredibly good, especially in the bass range, for a table radio, but it was made with a 5x7 oval speaker and electrostatic tweeter, 19T8 first audio amp, 35C5 output, and is housed in a large and heavy walnut cabinet, not to mention probably having one or more tone-compensation circuits and a wide-range tone control.)

BTW: Is the FM tuner in your unit built for stereo FM reception, or is it just standard FM? I saw the function switch on the front panel, but couldn't tell if it had a position for stereo FM, FM MPX or MX, etc.

BTW (2): Before I saw yours, I had never seen a combo unit with the AM and FM dial scales right next to each other horizontally (rather than one below the other or vertically beside each other and separated by a logging scale, the latter being common in consoles). I hate to think what the dial cord drive arrangement looked like from the back. Seems to me it would have been one heck of a job to restring this thing to operate two dial pointers at the same time, and to eliminate pointer backlash (which often caused the dial pointer to indicate the wrong frequency when tuned to a station; I've seen radios so bad in this regard that when the thing was tuned, for example, to a station on 1100 KHz the pointer would be on 900 or thereabouts).

BTW (3): I had an errand to run last night and saw a Zenith System 3 (or was it Space Command?) table-model 19- or 21-inch TV sitting in back of one of the apartment buildings in my small town. When I got done with my errand and was coming home, however, the set was gone. Either someone had put it out by accident or some other electronics bug got to it before I could; I'll never know now. The set had the random-access keypad and, I'm sure, the LED channel indicator to the right of the CRT; I could swear I saw the words "System 3" above the panel, so maybe my first hunch was correct.

[drh4683]

Just picked this mint sears portable up today at an estate sale in 10531 chaucer ave westchester IL for $20 . These sets are extremely hard to find! Especially with the original knobs and working! I have run across sets like this and the slider knobs seem to always be missing.
This set is model 4158, the sears source number is 564.80130. The TV works like brand new with beautiful picture. Has a japanese color tube, tests almost 100%, all original sears tubes too. The TV never got used, however the radio did and I will disucss that later.
The CRT is dated "JUNE 1969" I was a year off, I thought it was a 68 when I spotted it. Came with the original TV stand too. After some research on the sears source number prefex, the set was made for sears by SANYO! I generally think of sanyo as junk by todays standards, but this is one hell of a good well built set. Very heavy and very solid construction. The best part is, its an ALL tube sets, zero transistors (excluding the UHF mixer osc of course) Has 21 tubes! Luckily they are all normal american tube numbers. Its a series string set, so there are some typical japanese tubes like the 8JV8, 4EH7 etc. This set uses a 6BK4 HV regulator!

[drh4683]

a side view. The set is exremely deep and very bulky and heavy! The way old color tvs should be! The crt is almost exactly the RCA bonded lens crts. However the bonding material is 100% clear and perfect in this set.

[Chad Hauris]

Re: dial scales, Philco used a lot of side by side am and fm dial scales in sets of the 60's and 70's. I have not opened up the sets to see how the dial cord is but it likely is a similar arrangement to a standard side by side dial but just longer with two dial pointers attached.

[drh4683]

21 tubes in this set!

[drh4683]

As for the radio in this tv, it does not work. The on off switch to the radio is broken in the ON position. A tek cut the wires to the radio on off vol switch and jumped them together. Basically the volume down would basically be "off". As a result of this decision, the radio power transformer fried out. When I found the tv, it was still plugged in behind a dresser in the bedroom with the rabbit ears up, so the set was plugged in for many years I belive and with the radio really never being off, the trans fried out. The primary winding is open. I would like to find a replacement, Ive seen this exact transformer in many other solid state japanese radios. The radio in the tv is basically a simple transistor radio with the seprate power supply as shown. I would immaging a late 60s-early 70's sanyo solid state table radio will have all the parts I need to fix this up. Too bad that had to happen! Oh well, should be an easy fix when I find the parts. I believe the transformer steps the voltage down to 9 volts as the filter cap is rated 1000uf at 10volts.
Here are the numbers stamped on the trans. R-W7103b

[Whirled One]

Hey everyone,

Thanks again for the welcome, and thanks Doug for not objecting to my "co-opting" your interesting thread on your estate sale finds.

A couple quick responses regarding questions on my Zenith "portable" stereo combination:

Yes, overall it's in very nice shape cosmetically-- pretty much all I had to do was clean off all the accumulated dust (probably from sitting unwanted in that antique store). However, most of the credit for its current condition probably goes to the original owner. When I got this set, I found no fewer than *three* old, worn styli in its storage compartment (the door visible to the left of the record changer; the compartment is big enough to store 45's). Evidently, it's a fairly high-mileage machine despite its physical appearance. [After I got it, I immediately ordered a new stylus, so now there are *four* worn-out styli in all sitting there...]

Yep; the tuner indeed has a stereo multiplex decoder for FM..![You can also see the stereo "beacon" light in the upper right-hand corner of the front panel, above the words "STEREOPHONIC FM" (which admittedly aren't very legible given the resolution of the image). ]

As for the dial-cord stringing pattern, I don't think there's actually anything particularly complex going on. It's basically like Chad said-- it just has an double-length scale with two dial pointers instead of one. Probably just an attempt to make it look more "high tech". [Chad's also right about Philco-- I was actually going to point out that the computer I'm typing this on, in fact, has its audio run through a late-60's Philco stereo receiver (really just a stand-alone version of a Philco stereo console chassis) with exactly this type of dual AM/FM dial arrangement.]

Attached are a couple more images; the lower one is what the Zenith "portable console" looks like when the speakers are closed. Notice that Zenith disguised the perforated backs of the speaker cabinets ("infinite baffle") with more speaker cloth.
[I think most of those portable stereo phonos had cloth-covered perforated backs like that too, come to think of it.]

--Marty

Doug,
I think just about any AC/DC portable radio would have an acceptable power transformer. I think I have a couple old junk portable radios in the basement. If I get the chance I'll rumage around down there this weekend and see what I can come up with. If I find anything I will let you know here. Observation: I've worked on a few of these sets and the tuner assembly is a real bear to get out of there.
Jeff (PUNK ROCK DUDE)