|
|
 |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
|
#16
05-07-2011, 07:30 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I guess I became an "Equipment Snot" from an early age. My dad drove Mercedes-This was LONG before they became the rather overpriced status symbols they are today. They REALLY WERE made better than almost anything els on the road. Also, the printing plant my family owned used a good deal of German & Swiss equipment. The Swiss stuff was maybe even better than the German stuff, which was pretty much TOTL. Where we fell down was not maintaining it to Swiss/German standards- Their factories apparently REALLY DO look like you could eat off the floor. Or at least they did back in the Sixties.
__________________
Benevolent Despot 
|
|
#18
05-07-2011, 09:15 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I have to pretty much agree with Andy on this. TVs have generally always been made as cheap as possible(with Zenith being a possible exception). I Have TVs with the cheap wafer tuners that always need to be jiggled to make connection(even after cleaning). I also remember this being the case many years ago in the 1970s. Due to cost, almost all of the old tube type TVs have very poor FM sound detection systems(and the B&W sets lack DC restoration) as well.
As to modern TVs I still use my mothers 1980 Sears solid state TV in my workshop. Other than some buzz in the sound it works great with no repairs. My mother had a Goldstar(cheap Korean brand) that went 15 years until the CRT became so weak it was unwatchable(no repairs ever). I personally had a Mitsubishi TV that lasted about 15 years with not repairs(lightning got it). I presently have Sanyo that has lasted since 2004 with no repairs. The old TVs are great to restore, but were not that reliable, even when new. That is the reason so many TV shops were then in business. As to the reason no one works on new TVS: 1. They are cheap. Pretty much no one worked on Transistor radios in the 1970s either. Also the complexity of the present TV (even CRT ones) design and manufacturing is many times what was done in the 1960s. Surface mount technology, multilayer PC boards, ICs with millions of transistors in them(This is a great bargain compared to 1960s stuff) make repair inpractical. And this is continuing-I just recently went to a presentation that stated Intel and IBM are now putting billions(not millions) of transistors on some of their chips-These are for the internet server market, not TVs, but some of this will trickle down. 2. All of the electronics in now in the integrated circuits, which are not repairable and may be harder to get than 1960s TV(or even 1920s radio) vacuum tubes after 4 or 5 years. Luckily integrated circuits usually last many times longer than the old vacuum tubes(especially the power ones). I like restoring the old TVs, but am glad they are not my daily watchers.
|
|
#19
05-07-2011, 09:18 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I'm thinking along the same lines as Chad. We've come to expect cheap electronics, cheap everything practically. Much of today's stuff isn't even really designed to be serviced at all. You can buy a DVD player for $39. Down the line, if the laser gets weak or goes out, your chance of finding that part is nil and even if you could, it would cost something like $80-$90 probably because the only thing you could get would be the entire assembly. Very few places stock anything anymore. Repair costs exceed replacement costs and it's hard to find good old fashioned repair shops. Best Buy, forget it.
I remember servicing VCR's when they were heavy beasts that usually only needed idler wheels and belts changed, sometimes heads. The last one's I worked on would be worn out after two years of use. The mechanisms would be so sloppy, it would jam up. Mode switches failed all the time, etc. The design was actually much better than the earlier machines but the grade of parts, motors, etc., was so poor, they would not last. But they were one third the price they used to be. TV's were the same way. Remember the RCA/GE's with all the board shield problems? Never would have happened if the components would have been separate, instead all on the same board. Also wouldn't have happened if some genius could have figured out the metal and plastic don't expand and contract at the same rate when they are hot/cold. Something has to give and it was solder joints which would sometimes take something else out with them. The fix was to resolder all the shields with new flexible solder. But this design became popular because of the lower cost it took to produce it. Today with the new flat screens, it seems to be power supplies that pack up. My Phillips is an older one (2003). I brought it to a tech because I didn't want to mess with it. He went through the power supply and replaced all the caps and diodes, not just the two that failed with stronger parts. He said it will outlast the display and I believe him. He also said the the newer, inexpensive ones are difficult, if not impossible, to get unique parts for and are a bitch to work on. In the old days, if you bought a cheap radio, you probably paid up to $19.99 for it. Seems cheap but translate that into today's dollars. $100? $150? more? Still seem like a good deal? Any appliance was a major purchase whereas today you can pay more for a movie than for the player to play it on????? OK, off soapbox, ranting stopped (maybe), sorry if I went a little off topic. Last edited by ggregg; 05-07-2011 at 09:37 PM.
|
|
#20
05-07-2011, 09:24 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I also remember GE's cheap TVs in the 1960s, all tubes, including horizontal output and damper on the PC board. Motorola and Philco also started doing this at some point. After a few years, the PC board was charcoal and the TV was unrepairable. Some manufacturers were cheap back then too.
|
| Audiokarma |
|
#21
05-08-2011, 12:20 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Oh, there was cheap crap sold back in olden days, but you rarely see any of it because 99.9% of it has been tossed long ago. I did find, when we needed to sell my grandmother's house, a really cheapo photo enlarger for a home dark room. Used corrugated cardboard for positioning lenses. Probably sat in the attic, where we found it, forgotten for about 40 years.
The Japanese made really crappy AA5 radios back in the 50's, before they mastered quality manufacturing. You rarely see any of them today.
__________________
|
|
#22
05-08-2011, 12:30 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#23
05-08-2011, 07:29 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Yeah, I had one of them Jap AA5s-Or was it an AA4. Don't remember. I do remember it was lemon yellow & creme-colored plastic, the chassis was that weird "multicolored" anodized finish, & it only picked up the little local daytimer. Don't remember the brand, I think they used a BUNCH of different names, but were prolly all made in the same place. Wish I had it back.
__________________
Benevolent Despot
|
|
#24
05-08-2011, 08:56 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
I've got 3 of those Japanese AA5 tube radios from the early-to-mid '60's. One is white, the other is Grey and both have the "Tempest" badge. The third one is Pink and has the "Juliette" badge. Over the years, I've ran across them under many other brands and many colors. The insides are basically the same from one model to the next. Mine work and will pull in the local stations; but, they don't sound that great.
I once knew an older man who had a radio/TV shop up until the early '70's. He told me that in the late '60's, one of the local discount stores had a truckload of these radios that they wanted to unload because the new solid state sets had taken over and they wanted these old cheapie tube radios gone. My friend bought them for around $2/each and he never plugged the first one in. Instead, he pulled the tubes (usual AA5 miniature tube line-up) and tossed the rest of the radio. The whole purpose for him buying those radios was to get the tubes because he could get the tubes cheaper than he could if he bought them from the parts house.
|
|
#26
05-08-2011, 12:38 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
That really takes me back, what a time for the hobby. Top quality gear being sold in there as well (scott, Mcintosh HK). Prices were not cheap like the garbarge you find for sale now and what a huge selection of items being sold. "the shack" has really really gone to the dogs.
|
|
#27
05-08-2011, 02:30 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Just last week I picked up a LG 42" plasma TV non-working off of craigslist. Ended up needing the ICM, which is the large module on the Y-sustain board. It was a royal pain in the a$$ to unsolder! Flat screens woudn't be so bad IF they would use better quality components namely CAPACITORS!
Summer of 1980 I stopped by a repair shop that was going out of business and got a 19" Zenith CCII with the 4-lead cap problem and the neck burned off the CRT. I replaced the capacitor an scrounged a 19" CRT from a junk set (not a Zenith) and stuck it in. Convergence was close enough, focus was a little off but had a decent picture! I used it for another 10 years and gave it to a friend who used it 5 or so years more. He gave it back and it was really beat up so I set it outside for another year or two and one day I decided to power it up- and it still worked! I really miss Zenith quality! 
|
|
#28
05-08-2011, 03:18 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I cleaned out a TV shop a while ago and think that I have a couple 2 transistor radios laying around somewhere(If I can find them). I am not sure if they are Realistic brand though. I also have a box of brand new LLoyds AM transistor radios from the 1970s that were in the shop. I have put batteries in a couple of them and they work just fine. Probably not worth anything at all though.
|
|
#29
05-08-2011, 03:56 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
To this day I use a 40+ year-old Lloyd's AM clock radio - no service needed yet. Solid state set from around 1970, Telechron clock and radio chassis that belongs in a pocket set. Probably $20 new if that much.
On the other hand, I have a cheapo Chinese AM/FM digital clock radio I bought for $10-15 in 2006. Started having trouble with the time set buttons last month. The radio is total crap and it's just a backup alarm in case the Lloyd's decided to retire.
|
|
#30
05-08-2011, 05:55 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
I was thinking more of in the thirties instead of 1965 but I get what you are saying. You know stuff has really gone to the dogs when we are talking about the quality of Lloyd's. I know, much it is not too bad, especially compared to what came after.
|
| Audiokarma |
|
|
|
Linear Mode
