RCA New Ortho Hi Fi

[maxhifi]

Picked this beauty up for a crisp $20 bill today. It's missing the record player, and has been hacked a bit... But the tuner, amp and speakers are all present. Whoever took it apart and put it back together way back when didn't notice one of the pins on a power connector wasn't making any contact., so it was dead on arrival.

All I have to say is, on FM radio this console sounds fantastic... Just awesome really. No hum, no distortion, no critical tuning or noise... Just fantastic hi-fi sound. RCA never lets me down - this is sound I can live with.

I am going to give it a once over, touch up the cabinet, and install an Optimus single play record player and a 3.5mm aux input jack. Young daughter recently has got into music in a big way, she was given a copy of the "frozen" sound track on LP recently and I wanted something she can operate - she listens to it almost every day and follows the lyrics in the insert. It's a wonderful experience you just can't get with computer tech - I plan to get her a new LP every few months... Lavish packaging and great sound quality make a person appreciate music as art rather than a commodity; my view anyway (And spare the Thorens in the big system)

[maxhifi]

Chassis view

[Olorin67]

A VM changer might fit

[DavGoodlin]

What is the model number on that?
I have just the speaker, same size and style as yours that went with a model 7-HF5.
You got a certified bargain there!

[maxhifi]

HF-192

It's a Canadian set, made in Montreal. Most likely it has an American cousin which is near identical - may be nice to find out that model # to make repair data easier to find.

I like how the radio chassis has its own power transformer. It's neat how it's a series string chassis with a 35W4 rectifier. I could actually remove it and use it as a stand alone tuner if I wanted to.

The tweeter output is very low, likely needs a new capacitor. The whole set works well actually, aside from this, but I will change the caps all the same. Too bad Sams didn't do Canadian products, it may make the service info harder to find.

Bass seems exaggerated, I it booms like an old jukebox. It actually adds a plesant quality to the sound which i quite like.

[DavGoodlin]

That amplifier looks like the one I liberated from this: http://videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=261077

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by maxhifi

HF-192

It's a Canadian set, made in Montreal. Most likely it has an American cousin which is near identical - may be nice to find out that model # to make repair data easier to find.

I like how the radio chassis has its own power transformer. It's neat how it's a series string chassis with a 35W4 rectifier. I could actually remove it and use it as a stand alone tuner if I wanted to.

The tweeter output is very low, likely needs a new capacitor. The whole set works well actually, aside from this, but I will change the caps all the same. Too bad Sams didn't do Canadian products, it may make the service info harder to find.

Bass seems exaggerated, I it booms like an old jukebox. It actually adds a plesant quality to the sound which i quite like.

There should be some coverage in Beitmans, 1956 or 1957 manuals. The amplifiers seemed to be the same. I liked the way RCA used 6CG7's instead of 12AU7's.
BTW, RCA used that tuner as an option, that could be added later, in their Hi-Fi and stereo consoles.
The chassis was similar to their AM-FM table radio, of the day. The transformer is an isolation transformer with a 6 volt winding for the dial lights.
It also uses a 19X8 tube as an osc/mixer, which isn't that common of a tube.

[maxhifi]

I bought the service manual from www.antiqueradioschematics.org. It has instructions for aligning the tuner with a signal generator and a VTVM, but nothing on using a sweep frequency generator. Aside from that it's fairly complete and will allow me to put together a bill of materials for replacing paper and electrolytic capacitors.

This will be the first furniture refinishing project I have done in many years... all the TVs I have picked up have been either plastic case, or in more or less mint condition. This one needs new finish, it's got surface cracking and various nicks and scratches, much more than I can deal with using furniture polish. Luckily it has a metal control panel, so no pesky decals to replace or otherwise deal with. The grill cloth is also in excellent condition. I have no idea what kind of varnish to use on the cabinet. I want to avoid the ugly glopped on polyurethane look which I have seen on a lot of bad restorations. I am thinking about disassembling the cabinet, then using a chemical furniture stripper, followed by a very light sanding, re-glue loose parts, wood filler, stain, and shellac to add some shine. I have had pretty good luck with natural shellac in the past, it's a forgiving product to work with and looks nice.

The original changer was a Collaro - one of those horrible ones with an idler drive change mechanism. I am kind of glad it's not present, it means I don't need to mess with it! I am still not entirely decided what sort of a record player the console will get, but it's going to be single play and have a stereo magnetic cartridge. I mentioned an Optimus I have sitting around, which seems ideal because it has a built-in RIAA preamplifier - it's kind of ugly though.

[Olorin67]

Personally I think those Collaro changers with the dual idlers are the best performing changers, If you want single play, and something kinda in keeping with the vintage of the set appearance wise, look for a Garrard SP20 or 25. Those are a single play version of the Autoslim chassis models like the at-60.