Got the fever
 

Hello,
I am new here, been perusing the forum a bit lately and have caught vintage fever. Been looking for some cool consoles, and had my sight set on a tube amp. I found a non-tube Magnavox 1P3811, went to take a look at it and just bought it for the heck of it, the reason I bought it was it looked like it was in absolute perfect condition and it was, walnut finish, phone works, radio works, the only thing that seems to have quit on me is "in stereo" red light which is a bummer cause it was kinda cool. I spotted what I thought was a juicy little number on CL and went and picked it up today, it's a Magnavox 1MV 355 with a B or a R next, a guy bought it in an estate sale, original owners bought it new, sat in their house until last week. I think i got a good deal on it, and when I was looking at in on CL the plan was to take the tv out and make some shelving for modern day equipment and hopefully keep the radio and turn table functional, now that i got her home I am not really sure what to do with it. So, which thread would be a good place to ask questions about this unit?
Thanks

I don't know which thread you could ask questions about this, but I vote for leaving the tv in the cabinet. It's a beautiful set!

So do I. I have a Magnavox stereo theatre from 1964, B&W, that I got for $5.00. It has a great picture. It's definately worth saving.

I used to see them at a local thrift with the TV gutted and shelves put in. I never even thought of buying one of those as it was no longer original, and thus devalued in my mind.

Hi
Well, I paid a little more than 5 bucks, it needs a good going over and I guess this is a good place to start, I really didn't want one with a tv but it was local and the price was right. I know nothing about these things yet. The problems I have noticed so far are, low, low noise when using the radio, although it has killer am reception the fm is pretty weak also. The tv comes on but I have yet to get a signal and, and I don't know the names of these parts but, it seems the arm that pushed against the metal geared wheel on the turn table isnt quite pushing it far enough to make it work on auto. I have also noted a couple of tubes that are not working one of which is on the tuner side which would make me think this is the problem with the sound output being so low. It seems like it sounds really sweet playing albums though. Well, I am excited about this, hope to get some good info from the veterans. Thanks.

rectangle TV would be the right forum.

Those are neat old sets, fun to watch old movies on. IMHO it would be a mistake to hack it up to install "modern" equipment. They are easy to fix, and make a nice pic when done (many good shows are in B&W anyway).

I am assuming its an astrosonic tuner based on your description, again easy to fix prob just needs a few of the low volt PC mounted electrolytic caps be replaced.

The TV is very basic and also easy to work on. Most likely a open or shorted doubler cap in the power supply. Again an easy fix. Your best bet would be to seek out some local help from someone that has worked on old stuff. Tubes are cheap for that set (nothing special used).

It would prob be a good idea to check the CRT, but I would bet its ok, and even if it "test" weak, It may still produce a decent pic. avoid any attempts to rejuv the CRT if that is suggested.

the only other hard to find part is the flyback transformer, but again even if it looks bad (melted black goo in the cage) it prob is fine, I have a couple of those and the flyback looks terrible but works just fine.

In your attached photo of your Maggie console, I noticed a black mark running vertically down the right side of the CRT. Is this just some kind of digital-camera artifact or (heaven forbid) an ion burn? :scratch2:

BTW, I agree with magnasonic66's advice regarding repairing and keeping the original TV. These older consoles are becoming rare in this age of digital TV, so any time anyone can get their hands on a beautiful specimen like yours (the cabinet looks excellent), the TV should be preserved by all means.

I personally like those large consoles, and in fact owned a few (my favorite having been my 1963 Zenith K-2739 1963 console, a trash find in 1969) when I lived in a house with a basement. The closest I can come to having a console since moving to an apartment 12 years ago, however, is a small medium-oak Sauder utility cart with concealed casters, containing my 19-inch flat-screen TV, VCR, and DVD. But consoles are out of the question (if you could see how small my place is you would know what I mean).

For guys like yourself who do have the room for a fabulous combo console like that Maggie, however, I'd say do the usual overhaul (new capacitors, at very least the power supply filters, control cleaning, etc.), refinish the cabinet if needed (although, as I said earlier, the cabinet looks great as-is, IMHO), and you will have a pre-DTV entertainment center to be proud of. Connect a cable box or an OTA converter box to the TV and it will work better than it ever did under the old NTSC television standard. Even if the set does not have remote control as standard equipment, the use of either a cable STB (set-top box) or an OTA converter will instantly convert it to basic remote control (channel +/-, volume +/-, mute, and in most cases TV power switching), since all such converters come with remote hand units similar to those supplied with TVs.


As to the stereo-FM indicator, I'd first check the small bulb behind the "stereo" legend on the control panel, as the bulb may be burned out. If the bulb is OK, the problem is likely in the stereo multiplex decoder circuitry, or else the received signal is too weak. Stereophonic FM broadcasting, like color TV, demands a very strong signal to produce good results; if the tuner is set to an extremely weak station, the stereo light will flicker on and off or may not illuminate at all, in which case the solution is to use a better antenna. The built-in FM antennas in most of these consoles will work reasonably well in moderate to strong signal areas, but if you are in a weak signal area, a good antenna is a must for good stereo reception.

Thanks for all the information, I really appreciate it. It seems something just dripped down, took the glass panel out and cleaned it off. Anyone know anything about the amp? About all I see on it is "T-1" and 75-67. Also, just firing it up and looking around it seems all the tubes are working except for one and it is on the tuner, could that be my volume problem with the radio? If it is, just replace that tube? The model # is 1MV 355 R. Thanks again.

Hello replacing that tuner tube may resolve the problem with the radio check all the tubes to make sure you have good sometimes you cannot tell bad tubes lite as well good luck keep us posted..Timothy

Mr Fontzmark! From your original posting, I was under the impression that the set was solid-state. If it's tube, all the better. Even their single ended, low wattage amps sounded pretty good. It's still a beautiful piece and well worth buying.

Welcome to the funhouse Mr. Fontzmark. Magnavox tuners were good but not as selective as Zenith or RCA. Mag more than made up for that with great speakers.
Jeffhs is right on about the outdoor antenna. Multipath FM interference is death to reception on Mag tuners - it sounds like wind on a microphone.

A furniture guy at the place I worked removed many a combo's TV (usually a soft 25BP22 CRT and T/U920 chassis) and installed a 25" Colortrak 2000, trimming it out and finally connecting the audio output into the amp. The customer got a new cable-ready remote TV in a nice cabinet with....a great sound system.

I re-activated many turntables for customers, usually near the holidays. The standard routine was to pull the motor apart, clean the grease out of the bearings and off the shaft with swabs/alcohol, re-lube with "3 in 1" or similar oil. The idler wheel pivot and platter shafts need the same treatment.

The idler wheel tire, platter friction surface and motor step-shaft need to be cleaned fully with alcohol. It should spin just right after all that. A new stylus is usually needed even if the cartridge is good. They're cheap.

Replacing that tube actually worked, so I now have a nice sounding tuner. The phono seems to work pretty well, I have a junker astro sonic so I kinda practice tearing that one up to look things over, I did replace the idler wheel, with an old one from that unit and it make a world of difference on the phono, still, like I said I have no idea how to do all the needed check ups, I just tinker with it now and then and hope it keeps working for now, but all in all, a pretty cool console, Thanks again for all the advice, I really appreciate it.

Hey glad you got your tuner and phono working keep up the good work maybe we will see you at the early tv convention this year in hilliard ohio...Timothy

Thank you. Probably a dumb question but is there any way to hook up an Atari 2600 to this tv?

Hello yes there is just hook it up to the vhf antenna leads set tv on channel 3or4 and start playing that is if you have the hoookups... Timothy