24" Magnavox from 1955.

[Eric H]

This was a Craigslist find, I wouldn't have gone after it but it was cheap at $25 so I figured a road trip would be fun, also I got a Silvertone Roundie from the same seller (see thread in Early Color)

The 24DP4 CRT is pretty tired, it'd work well with a brightener but it's not responding well to increased heater voltage (it drops quickly).
The seller told me he plugged it in and the 5U4 arced and blew out so I know it must have a shorted capacitor at least.

There was an attachment under the chassis shelf that the seller and I both thought was a home made kludge of some kind, turns out Magnavox was really serious about the sound of this set!
It has a separate push/pull 6V6 amplifier to run two huge speakers.
I'm sure I could get my money back on the Amp alone if I wanted to.

I'd really like to restore it but with a weak CRT it's going to have to sit until I find one. Cabinet is a little rough, could probably be fixed with Some Howards rather than a full refinish.

There was Silver Glo 24CP4 listed on eBay but I looked up the specs and the CP4 is electromagnetically focused and the DP4 is electrostatically focused, a major operation to modify it if it could be done at all.

Sorry, no face pictures yet, it's still face down in the Van.

[Electronic M]

Magnavox sure loved those seperate amps....I have the sams for their rebaged CTC-4, and unlike other manufactuers that rebadged them Maggie did little cosmetically to the cabinet and made no control layout mods to hide the sets origins, BUT they just had to clip the speaker wire coming from RCA's audio board, connect it to one of their amps, and feed their amp from RCA's audio pre amp.

[dieseljeep]

That's probably the last Magnavox chassis of it's type. More like a '55 model. All the newer Mags were upright chassis with the CRT neck through a hole in the center. I think they did that because Magnavox was always known for quality sound.

[zenith2134]

dieseljeep read my mind... Magnavox was certainly known for their 'hifi' consoles and sound in general...The name is literally latin for Loud Voice.
Those 6V6 standalone amps are very highly praised by some audiophools and with good reason...I heard one once with 6V6GT's push pull and a 6SN7 front end and I have no clue how they got such tight, powerful bass response out of the smallish output tx's.

[Eric H]

The wires to the speaker have been cut and alligator clips added.
I can only guess this was done so the amp could be hooked up to an external speaker, possibly they were using the amp to power a phonograph at some point, or they just thought it would sound better with another speaker?

One reason for thinking this was a kludge is that there is a separate plug on the amp, I see now though there is an outlet on the back of the TV chassis where the amp would plug in.

BTW, the chassis on the set and amp are very shiny and new looking, it was probably a lifelong resident of the Mojave Desert (Victorville CA).

[Eric H]

I got this beastie in the house to take a better look at it.

Made up a Solid State replacement for the 5U4 for testing purposes, one reason for this is to prevent trashing a good 5U4, another reason is you don't have to crank the voltage up so high to start.
The 5U4 won't start conducting until it hit 60 or 70 volts but the Diodes start working immediately.

Nothing dramatic happened, nothing happened at all as the set is completely dead other than the heaters, lack of B+ I suspect.

after slowly bringing it up I finally set it at 115 volts, it was drawing about 2.0 amps at that point, not too high but the thing is the amps never dropped off after a slow warm up, the filters never reformed.

One of the cans was a little warm after hitting 115 volts so I pulled the chassis back to look underneath, there are a couple more Axial Electrolytics under there that have been leaking badly, one of those was getting warm also.

So there it sits, it needs several caps just to get started, I don't want to put a whole lot of effort into it until I can find a CRT but I would like to get it fired up just to see how it looks, and more importantly, how it sounds!

Here's some pictures, the cabinet's a bit rough, solid though and not water damaged at all.
The chassis' is excellent.

[David Roper]

This definitely suggests it's no later than a '56 model.

Unfortunately it's still black & white.

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by David Roper

This definitely suggests it's no later than a '56 model.

Unfortunately it's still black & white.

Cool, that set doesn't seem to have doors though, also the dial light isn't lit so it was probably not even plugged in at the time much less color!
I like the "Color TV" sign in front of the set, wonder how many people went out looking for that model after the movie came out?

I keep seeing 5 37 stamped inside on the various parts, probably 37th week of 1955.

[mstaton]

Interesting pic of a B&W TV with a color pic superimposed on it. Obviously the same year set as yours

[kx250rider]

There's almost that exact model sitting in my barn. I rescued it off eBay locally a few years ago. I was fascinated by the twin speakers and big outboard amp. Never seen another one like it until yours now!

Charles

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by kx250rider

There's almost that exact model sitting in my barn. I rescued it off eBay locally a few years ago. I was fascinated by the twin speakers and big outboard amp. Never seen another one like it until yours now!

Charles

Maybe yours is the Color model seen above!

I went after this one because it was cheap and I figured I could part it out if it was a junker, now that I've seen the sound system on it I really want to get it going.

It has a "Phono" switch on the front and an input on the rear apron, obviously they intended to put that amp to better use than just Television.

I corrected the title of this thread since I now know it was built in 1955, may be a 56 model though.

[Adam]

What's that picture with the fake color tv from?

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Adam

What's that picture with the fake color tv from?

It's from the Movie "Artists & Models" with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

I was intrigued by the picture and watched it last night.

I wonder if the Prop people got hold of that set, removed the doors, added some trim around the CRT and added the metal cross hatching to the grille?
Probably in an attempt to hide it's B&W origins.
Otherwise it's identical to mine.

[kx250rider]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Maybe yours is the Color model seen above!

I went after this one because it was cheap and I figured I could part it out if it was a junker, now that I've seen the sound system on it I really want to get it going.

It has a "Phono" switch on the front and an input on the rear apron, obviously they intended to put that amp to better use than just Television.

I corrected the title of this thread since I now know it was built in 1955, may be a 56 model though.

Mine has doors... I'll go down there and get a picture and repost here. Now I'm curious about that set. I kind of forgot about it after I stuck it in there. I should take it someplace else for better storage, as it's weather-tight but it's still a dusty barn with temp extremes. The set is in really clean shape, and I should feel guilty for neglecting it.

Charles