Other than the Magnavox consoles that neighbors had in the neighborhood, I have never seen any of these Fisher, VM, or any DuMont consoles. I've got an old mono RCA console in the garage.

The Fishers were really lovely units. I had, and donated, a GE Vacuumatic console. The thrift store got some good money for it, too, and I was happy.

Some of those basic models sound remarkably good.

You guys are inspiring me, and causing me to start getting packed in! :D

I just brought home a six foot long Zenith/Voice of Music console stereo. Somewhere along the line, it's been modified with very heavy duty adjustable crossovers. Price was $25 in a beautiful Danish Modern cabinet with not a scratch on it.

Seller said that it didn't work, and the reason why was stupid.....somewhere along the line, someone disconnected all of the speakers. I assume that there must have been, making this 2 for 2, some external speaker hookup.

I removed the huge back to expect to find a small Voice of Music 6BQ5 amp similar to what's in the RCA I just got. Nope. Push pull stereo 6L6's, on an amp that's got to have a footprint of about a foot square. This is serious audio. And what amazing sound!

I'll post pics tomorrow :)

Turns out that this is a Voice of Music console, model 816-2, from 1960. It's got a Zenith label on the front lower left corner that has a pilot light, and has a Zenith stereophonic tube tuner. Here's a picture of what it looks like:

http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/popup....jpg&TITLE=816

So somebody modded it with the crossover and Zenith tuner? Maybe had no tuner at all originally? Sounds hefty!

Y'know, I'm not sure exactly what was done, or if this is the way it came from the factory. Here's the unit itself:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...d/IMG_5340.jpg

Here's the tuner/pre setup, below the preamp are the two crossover adjust knobs :

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f9...d/IMG_5341.jpg

There's a Zenith OEM decal on the back that has the tuner model number and a tube layout. It also seems that someone added a mono/stereo knob on the back with again what looks like a factory decal, but someone had to notch out the vent holes in the waferboard for it. I'd take more pics, but my camera's out of charge......

This is an interesting find indeed. Figuring what it is, alone, is worth the $25 I paid for it :)

If you look closely around the side edges of the tuner, the wood seems to be a different color... which would indicate to me that something else was in there originally. It may not have been a tuner though, it's more likely it was a little record bin or something.

I would think the 'proper' tuner for that thing is the V-M 1413. It was intended as a drop-in upgrade for the phono-only consoles.

Spoke to a very nice gentleman at http://www.thevoiceofmusic.com/ this morning.

He informed me that the 800 series never came with a tuner, but that there was a slot for adding one. Apparently whoever had this, added the Zenith one.

Trying to figure out what to do with the unit now.......

here are a few i have in storage in my long forgotton teenage hangout garage of yesteryear. when i went up north last year, i snapped these. these consoles have not seen power, or the light of day in 10+ years. someday i will go back for them..

maggie providential

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...TS/MAGGIE1.jpg

note the garrard TT, clearly not original, but not my work.

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...OTS/MAGIE2.jpg

monkey wards airline..

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...TS/GHJYUKU.jpg

on the bottom of the stack, you can see the top of my zenith tube tv/stereo console

http://i1119.photobucket.com/albums/...ROOTS/NITH.jpg

Is that breadbox shaped thing in the above shot on the upper left a radio or a UHF converter? Whatever it is, it looks pretty beefy....

Wow Rob, if I had the Magnavox, I'd slip that Garrard into a period correct base, and stick its Webster changer back in it. The Airline's changer shows up on the VM site. Here's my next to my last console:

kam, the breadbox thing is a am radio/ 78 only phono combo. i have aboud a dosen of these. it needs a cap job cause all it dose is hum.

magna, when i go back up to get it, and when i bringit down here, im gunna give it a full restoration with a period correct TT.

btw i have a magnavox concert grande in there too. can you see it?

kam, with the x-over knobs, more than likely the speakers were upgraded early in its life, theres probubly something really cool in there. have you looked yet?

mag, even though its SS, ive always loved a good old astro-sonic maggie! hows it sound?