Zenith 23XC38Z - Videokarma.org TV - Video

iong · #1 04-27-2023, 06:57 PM

Got the table top Zenith that was on Ebay last week. I notice however this one does not have the Gold Guard tuner. Was this a special lower priced 23XC38Z? All my other Zeniths have the Gold Guard tuner

Electronic M · #2 04-27-2023, 07:38 PM

Not all had the gold guard. Cheaper sets usually didn't . Remote sets almost always were gold guard.

zeno · #3 04-28-2023, 09:19 AM

GVG tuners were in better B&W"s and most colors the E-line.
The flat chassis had a SS version. From E line on varactors took over
for a TOTL set. Zenith also built these.
I would guess yours was either the leader or a drop in model.
Probably dont have AFT or dial lites.
If you post the model ## I can look it up & see if anything else is
different.

73 Zeno

LFOD !

Jeffhs · #4 04-28-2023, 07:14 PM

I had a Zenith 23" TV years ago, IIRC with a GVG tuner; I don't know if Zenith was using these tuners in their sets made in the 1960s as this one had been. I had no trouble at all with the tuner from the time I got the set (it was a trash find in my old neighborhood in the 1970s), although I did have to replace all but two tubes (23ANP4 CRT and 1J3 HV rectifier) because the former owner had filched the rest of them.

BTW, this would have been an excellent TV if I could have kept it, but I moved in 1972 and couldn't keep it even if I wanted to (I did, goodness knows I did, especially after all the work I put into it). It made an excellent picture on all three (at the time) Cleveland VHF TV stations, even using a cheap pair of rabbit ears (I was some 33+ miles from the stations' transmitters at the time).

I hated like heck to have to give up that TV, but as I said, I moved and couldn't have kept it even if I had wanted to. It was probably trashed after I left (my grandmother moved into the house shortly thereafter; we cleaned out the basement and everything else), which is a darn shame, especially after all the work I did on it. However, since I was moving to a three-story house (my father's second wife's home) and my bedroom was to be (and in fact was) on the third floor of the building, keeping the set was completely out of the question. I was already bringing a 21" color set with me, not to mention a 19" Philco b&w TV and my Sharp 12" portable (two sets too many!), so it probably wouldn't have made much sense to add the Zenith to the collection.

DavGoodlin · #5 05-01-2023, 09:17 AM

The 23XC38Z number gives two clues:

No AFC, or it would be a 20X1C38 but the 20 versus 23 is a tube count.

The Z-suffix is usually denotes an extended run, sunset models before discontinuation.

Zenith's last 21" round model 24NC31 was a 1966, 24NC31Z is a 1967 model. Rather than a new "X" series, the roundie was extended one more year to use up 21" round CRT's no doubt.