The garbage goes in before the smoke comes out

I can't believe it.............I won't even tell you, click on the below links.

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Anthony

[jstout66]

dude I know!!!!! I saw all of those when I got bored one night and "googled" to see who still made consoles. And what pricey rip-offs they are!!!! Low end sets in a CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP cabinet. I've seen that RCA console that looks like it has the "Amityville Horror" windows on the side of it. It looks SOOOOO plastic, and those poor people paid like $800.00 for it!

Amityville! That's a hoot, I've been to that house (didn't get inside though).

As for them putting the cheap chassis in them, that's dispicable but I guess from a pricing standpoint they need to offset the cost of the cabinet. Looking at them, they appear to literally slide a table top set right into the cabinet (guess the have larger speakers on the sides though).

Am amazed that they even offer these units. The more vertical consoles do look a bit nicer though.

Anthony

[Celt]

Granted they ARE over-priced for what they are. But personally, I'm sick of seeing silver and grey painted plastic cabinets.

[jstout66]

oh I agree celt! but I've seen some of these sets and I can't believe they don't try to make the cabinets a little better considering the price they charge. I've seen the RCA, and that has got to be the most "cheapie" plastic looking cabinet I've EVER seen! Out of curiousity I called some local places to see if they were in stock, and sadly, if I got a yung un', they had no clue to what I was talking about when I said "console tv" Anyway... no-one carries them here, and most on-line places are out of stock. I bet not many places want to carry them. I don't know why the trend moved away from consoles. I think it would be neat if they came back!

[bgadow]

I guess its been a couple years or longer since I last visited the showroom of one local furniture store,a place in business "forever". They actually had more consoles (Zenith) than they had black boxes. Probably a half dozen on the floor. (they also had an early 50s 21" RCA b/w table model up on a back shelf) The little tv shop we have downtown still stocks a few tv's though I haven't peaked in their window lately to see if they have a console.

I guess its been a long, long time since anyone made a first class, solid wood console. Even in the late 60s there was particle board, and lots of plastic in the 70s. In the early 80s my uncle went shopping for a new color console (to replace a late 60s Admiral) and he shopped by cabinet quality, not performance. He said the Zenith was the worst, that you could see daylight through the seams. He chose an RCA; not too bad an idea, I guess, since 80s RCA's seem to be decent performers.

[jstout66]

yes... I was going to add that comment to my earlier post concerning the "cheapness" of the Zenith System 3 cabinets. I didn't want to because I love Zenith sets so much. I sold them new during that era, and Zenith really went on "the cheap" in many of the cabinet designs during that period, which was sad considering what an outstanding set the System 3 was.

[Celt]

When I was a kid I always wondered why someone didn't build quality cabinets to last and simply offer replacement chassis. You'd get to keep the nice furniture and update or replace the bad chassis.

[jstout66]

which reminds me of how mad my Uncle or Grandpa would get when we had a customer who wanted us to put a new set in their existing cabinet. Grandpa would always say "Hell NO!" Looking back, I can see why they wanted to do that. There were some really high quality cabinet designs in the 60's. You could tell if the customer really loved the cabinet if they shelled out the money to have their older set fixed rather than get a new one. If the price was right tho, they tended to go with a new set. Zenith really discounted the Chromacolor 2's when the System 3 came out. I of course would always talk my Uncle into fixing the old ones for our "used" side because even at a young age I couldn't stand seeing the older stuff get thrown out.

[Celt]

Yep, I saw many nice cabinets get tossed to the side when the chassis became unrepairable. Some did get converted to other things, but to me creating a standardized chassis made sense considering that 25" was the standard for many years. Oh well!

[rca2000]

And it does have speakers on each side. It has a 10w/ch. dc amp,(but the speakers are cheap and can't handle the amp), PIP, 2 AV inputs plus S-video. Oh, and it probably DID cost someone $800-1000 or more new, but i got for $0.000 (broken), and fixed it for free. It replaced a 27" Rca, in a similar cabinet, that I got the same way, and for the same price.Both sets are ctc169 sets(a good rca chassis design, WITHOUT the TOB problem). (the 27" still works, I am going to try to sell it next month in our community garage sale, along w/some plastic-black 27" and such tv's).

[Markw]

Believe it or not, there's still a strong market for these buggers in some areas. ...right outside retirement villages!

Yes, they are overpriced and underperforming but there' still a few "old timers" who grew up in the 50's and 60's and are now wiling away in retirement communities.

They love these consoles! It's like comfort food. To them, TV's were as much a piece of furniture as it was an entertainment device.

Heck, my mom has Alzheimer's and I would love to get a good 12" portable with a drum tuner. I'k keeping a POs Emerson alive 'cause she can't understand how to work a remote control, even thesimplist I could fine, with only four buttons. volume up/down and Channel up/down.

But yes, the are overpriced and underperforming.

[Big Dave]

I looked at the links and saw the vertical consoles. BLECCCCCHHHHHH.

I have nothing against vertical consoles. I happen to like my Andrea, 2 RCA VICTOR's, and my Hallicrafters. At least these were made to last. (I know, this is the color thread).

I'd lke to get my hands on the idiots who destroyed our electronics industry.

If they think I'm shelling out that kind of cash for a piece of shit PC board, crap tube and a plastic cabinet with a picture of woodgrain in it, they've got another thing coming.

Why pay all that cash for a set that would remain off most of the time because the programming on them is also shitty?

Tube sets are good.

I'm a meathead.