Curtis Mathes Aircraft Carrier
 

Came across this set the other day. Not for sale but too cool to not share.
What do you think something like this sold for when new?

Darn - I had a price for my similar Zenith combo, maybe even posted it here, but now I can't find it.

Edit: I found an ad in the Chicago Tribune for a Magnavox roundie combo at $795.

Second Edit: the Zenith Chancellor listed at $1750.

That Large C.M. Combo, those usually had: AM-FM Stereo Tuner, amplifier of course, Record Changer, and a Reel-to-Reel Tape Deck, all in addition to the TV, as well as quite a set of speakers! Had to be over a Grand when new, I'm sure, a ton of money in that day. in the mid-'70's, when I was in High School, I had a two-year Trade Class at the VO-Tech Center, I took TV-Radio Repair. The public would often donate their old sets for us to practice on! We had one C.M. color roundie combo, the size of that one, slightly different cabinet, it was a monster! Up to that point, I had never seen a combination receiver that large, with so many features. None of us ever decided to tackle that set for some reason! I remember it sat against a wall by itself, it had to be about eight feet in length, while all the other sets, were arranged, some stacked on top of others, in an area in the rear corner of the room. I remember we had two Philco Predicta sets, and a couple late '40's, early 50's B/W, the rest were mostly 60's color, rectangular, and a couple other roundie color sets, few table models, and few portables.

It's really quite absurdly large, worse, more than half the top is lift up doors so you can't put much on top of it.

In the contest of "mine's bigger than yours" it wins hands down though. :D

i think you could take an x-ray from the neighbors house with that thing lol

How about this Ampex with 2" VTR? :scratch2:

http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ampex-signature-v.jpg

Something like 9ft long, 900 lbs, 30k$. http://www.cedmagic.com/history/ampex-signature-v.html

jr

.

Curtis Mathes, like Sears would make a stripped down version of the ctc 15 The crt mask is plastic whereas the Rca is metal, they cut lots of corners on these products.

Unfortunately only 3/4" helical scan. Could you imagine the serviceman adding oil to the air compressor.

If the recorder was 3/4" it must be a color under recorder.

I am fairly certain that the machine is a 2" unit, similar to my Ampex 660.

http://www.videokarma.org/showpost.p...38&postcount=6

Only a b/w machine.

jr

I can only imagine what the wiring diagram looked like. I worked for a Magnavox dealer in the early 70's and thought their wiring diagrams were bad...

The roundie color set looks like a Packard-Bell.

I jumped to the conclusion because it looked from the photo that it used a helical scan with the circular enclosure. I was only aware of 3/4" helical machines.

However I stand corrected. I see now Ampex marketed a 2" helical and transverse scan machine. And the photos on-line match the shape of the drum enclosure. Amazing. :yes:

There obviously was no timebase correction in those days which meant the machine must have been relegated to non-broadcast.

Yes, that Ampex 2" Helical Scan machine was home or industrial use only. Not for broadcast use due to time base stability concerns, the FCC was anal about that.

Agree. In an era where

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...5/img_5381.jpg

+

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor.../img_53821.jpg


=

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...5/img_5383.jpg

Almost impossible to take that thing up stairs in a two story home.