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  #1  
Old 08-01-2015, 12:39 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Late 1950s Magnavox Console Stereo

Hello, about a year ago I had picked up at the local Goodwill for 50% off a late 1950s Magnavox Console Stereo (mono tuner, stereo record player.) But the only problem was that the amplifier had been stripped of its tubes (someone more than likely stole them out of the unit when it was on the floor in the store yet, either that or the previous owner decided to keep the tubes to sell on ebay to make money on them), and so I had stolen some 6BQ5s out of the back of an old Silvertone radio I had that someone gave me to use for parts and I had ordered the 6EU7 online and the 6CA4 I had laying around in my tube stash and once I got the tubes and got them installed I fired it up and sure enough it came on without any hum (although the tuner was dead).
So I took the unit apart and looked and sure enough it had all of its original Magnavox tubes in the tuner yet but none of them were lit so I took them all out and checked them in my tube tester and sure enough one of the tubes was dead (the 6BA6 if I remember correctly) which luckily I had several of those laying around in my tube stash that I could put into the tuner and I stuck a new tube in the radio and sure enough it was playing music though the radio and it sounded pretty good.

Of course the record player had a bad idler tire which needed to be replaced but its a nearly $40 part when you factor in that you need to send in the old one to Gary Stork over at the Voice of Music store and then the fact that the new part is $28 and then on top of that price the shipping costs to send the new one over (the cost to ship the old one over last I checked when I sent him the cylcer tire from an old 45 RPM changer that I restored for someone was about $6 and then the shipping for getting the new part is also about $6 it works it out to about roughly $40.)
And then on top of that I need a new cartridge for the record player so on top of the $40 that would be needed to get the idler tire, I would need to spend about $24 to get it a new cartridge as well so it would be pretty close to $55 dollars I would have to sink into the record player on this Magnavox to get it going properly which I don't have that kind of money right now because I currently don't have a job and my mom is wanting me get rid of some of my radios working or not even ones that can be made to work but since I probably wouldn't get to the magnavox's record player right away and my mom would probably freak if she heard how much it would cost to bring that record up to snuff again she would probably definitely want me to toss it to the curb which I don't want to do because its a perfectly good unit yet, and considering that its a Magnavox I'm sure I could get a decent amount of money out of the unit fixed up.

Currently I'm only into the unit $24 currently and ontop of that if I were to get the record player running with the new parts I would be into the unit for $88 which I figure I could possibly sell the unit for about $150-$200 I could still make a little profit off of the unit, although not a whole lot.
Anyways I would like some opinions on what they think of this unit and if I should try to hang onto it until I can afford to fix it up the rest of the way so I could sell it to someone who could appreciate the unit properly.
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Old 08-01-2015, 01:23 PM
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dishdude dishdude is offline
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What is the cabinet like? Style and condition? It doesn't sound like it will take much to get it going and I suspect the market for console stereos is better than the market for console TVs.
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Old 08-01-2015, 01:57 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by dishdude View Post
What is the cabinet like? Style and condition? It doesn't sound like it will take much to get it going and I suspect the market for console stereos is better than the market for console TVs.
The cabinet is Early American Style I suspect, the cabinet is still in pretty good shape yet and still has all of its original faux drawer knobs on the front which are solid brass, and It's working perfectly yet except for the old Collaro Made Micromatic turntable which like I said needs a new idler tire and a new cartridge, and some new crossover caps possibly as well. The metal chassises in the cabinet are still pretty decent looking yet as they aren't rusted or anything and they still work fine with the original filter caps in place and they don't get hot or anything, Its pretty much hum free. it apparently saw pretty regular use if the original filter caps are still good in it yet.
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Old 08-01-2015, 07:59 PM
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Pro tip: Goof Off (the clear lacquer thinner like one), and rubber renew can sometimes clean surface glaze off rubber idlers and return them to usable condition.

If you have any junker phonos with a similarly mounted cartridge transplants are a cheap alternative.
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Old 08-01-2015, 08:26 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M View Post
Pro tip: Goof Off (the clear lacquer thinner like one), and rubber renew can sometimes clean surface glaze off rubber idlers and return them to usable condition.

If you have any junker phonos with a similarly mounted cartridge transplants are a cheap alternative.
Well that's the problem I don't have any junker record players that use a similar style cartridge.
And the idler tire was actually dry rotted to the point that the rubber actually crumbled off of the idler tire leaving some of the metal underneath the rubber exposed, so its not even salvageable anymore.
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Old 08-02-2015, 11:18 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Captainclock View Post
Well that's the problem I don't have any junker record players that use a similar style cartridge.
And the idler tire was actually dry rotted to the point that the rubber actually crumbled off of the idler tire leaving some of the metal underneath the rubber exposed, so its not even salvageable anymore.
The changer might use the EV-26 cartridge. The one with the mounting bracket riveted to the case and held with one screw.
The stereo is a little newer than the late 50's. It seems like '61 to '64 model year. It's a great little amp and sounds good, for being single-ended.
If the radio chassis is the one I'm thinking of, there was provisions for a multiplex adaptor, if it has an insulation board covering a large hole in the chassis.
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Old 08-02-2015, 01:28 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
The changer might use the EV-26 cartridge. The one with the mounting bracket riveted to the case and held with one screw.
The stereo is a little newer than the late 50's. It seems like '61 to '64 model year. It's a great little amp and sounds good, for being single-ended.
If the radio chassis is the one I'm thinking of, there was provisions for a multiplex adaptor, if it has an insulation board covering a large hole in the chassis.
Its a pretty simple tuner as it doesn't even have any dial lamps for the tuner display, and it does have a place to hook a multiplexer adapter on the tuner chassis in the form of 3 RCA style jacks and then the console has a couple of sliding doors on the top to reveal the tuner, turntable and record storage.
The Collaro made Turntable is an early Micromatic turntable which did have an EV Model 26 cartridge installed but mine was installed using a special custom made 1/2" spacing screw type to single screw adapter that had the cartridge attached to 1/2" spaced screw holes and then the adapter was attached to the single screw hole on the top of the tonearm.

I looked over at the Voice of Music website and they had some EV 26 Cartridges but they were almost $40 and the idler tire that my Collaro made Micromatic Turntable needs is also almost $40 when you factor in that the shipping to send in the old idler tire is $6 now, and then the new part is $28 plus the $6 shipping then it comes to pretty much $40, I wish I could find another old Micromatic turntable that I could salvage the idler tire from or figure out if someone on here has a spare Micromatic idler tire that they'd be willing to part with for free that I could have, and as for the cartridge I had found another EV cartridge (can't remember the model number right now but its one of the 4 digit model numbered ones, that was only $18 and with shipping it would be about $24 (which is nearly half the price of the EV 26.

Anyways I just wish that this old Magnavox Micromatic Turntable wasn't so expensive to get going...

Last edited by Captainclock; 08-02-2015 at 01:43 PM.
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Old 08-03-2015, 09:51 AM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Originally Posted by Captainclock View Post
Its a pretty simple tuner as it doesn't even have any dial lamps for the tuner display, and it does have a place to hook a multiplexer adapter on the tuner chassis in the form of 3 RCA style jacks and then the console has a couple of sliding doors on the top to reveal the tuner, turntable and record storage.
The Collaro made Turntable is an early Micromatic turntable which did have an EV Model 26 cartridge installed but mine was installed using a special custom made 1/2" spacing screw type to single screw adapter that had the cartridge attached to 1/2" spaced screw holes and then the adapter was attached to the single screw hole on the top of the tonearm.

I looked over at the Voice of Music website and they had some EV 26 Cartridges but they were almost $40 and the idler tire that my Collaro made Micromatic Turntable needs is also almost $40 when you factor in that the shipping to send in the old idler tire is $6 now, and then the new part is $28 plus the $6 shipping then it comes to pretty much $40, I wish I could find another old Micromatic turntable that I could salvage the idler tire from or figure out if someone on here has a spare Micromatic idler tire that they'd be willing to part with for free that I could have, and as for the cartridge I had found another EV cartridge (can't remember the model number right now but its one of the 4 digit model numbered ones, that was only $18 and with shipping it would be about $24 (which is nearly half the price of the EV 26.

Anyways I just wish that this old Magnavox Micromatic Turntable wasn't so expensive to get going...
Let me look at my warehouse-of-horrors. I scrapped a few Magnavox combos for the amps. The radio chassis is not impressive at all. I never noticed, it didn't have dial lights. One radio chassis even had a tuning meter.
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Old 08-03-2015, 12:38 PM
Captainclock Captainclock is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
Let me look at my warehouse-of-horrors. I scrapped a few Magnavox combos for the amps. The radio chassis is not impressive at all. I never noticed, it didn't have dial lights. One radio chassis even had a tuning meter.
Well My magnavox Console was one of the BOTL or MOTL models as the tuner it uses is the chassis 7907-00 Tuner, and the Amp is the 8601-20

So the Amp I know is a good amp but the tuner was pretty much bottom of the line for them as it didn't have dial lights or tuning meters or stereo multiplex or even Stereo Simulcast for FM just a plain ol' FM Mono tuner with provisions for a Stereo Multiplexer to be attached at a later time if one so chose to buy the unit.

Anyways the tuner is pretty decent at picking up stations with a 2 foot length of wire attached to the antenna terminals on the back of the unit, but without the wire its not very good at picking up stations except very local stations, although it doesn't help any that the original built-in FM antenna is non-existant anymore (there would of been a dipole antenna attached to the back of the cabinet and attached to the antenna terminals but that has long since been lost but the staples from it still remain in the case yet.)

Anyways I appreciate you having a look in your junk pile to see if you have any spare Magnavox Micromatic Record players laying around.
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Old 08-03-2015, 03:17 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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Well My magnavox Console was one of the BOTL or MOTL models as the tuner it uses is the chassis 7907-00 Tuner, and the Amp is the 8601-20

So the Amp I know is a good amp but the tuner was pretty much bottom of the line for them as it didn't have dial lights or tuning meters or stereo multiplex or even Stereo Simulcast for FM just a plain ol' FM Mono tuner with provisions for a Stereo Multiplexer to be attached at a later time if one so chose to buy the unit.

Anyways the tuner is pretty decent at picking up stations with a 2 foot length of wire attached to the antenna terminals on the back of the unit, but without the wire its not very good at picking up stations except very local stations, although it doesn't help any that the original built-in FM antenna is non-existant anymore (there would of been a dipole antenna attached to the back of the cabinet and attached to the antenna terminals but that has long since been lost but the staples from it still remain in the case yet.)

Anyways I appreciate you having a look in your junk pile to see if you have any spare Magnavox Micromatic Record players laying around.
The one I located has, what appears to be a usable idler wheel. It does look, to be a pricey one to rebuild. It has a lot of rubber on it!
The cartridge in it, is a EV-26. It even has the stylii, but the condition of either is questionable. The tiny screw that holds the idler wheel to the shaft was missing.
Any questions, PM me!
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Old 08-07-2015, 06:47 PM
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I don't know the construction of your bad idler wheel, but what some have done is to remove all the old rubber and take the wheel to the hardware store and look through their selection of O-rings. Best would be to find a fat one that fits on the now exposed metal of the wheel. The fact that the diameter of the wheel may change doing this is not important as the wheel is only an intermediary between the motor shaft and the turntable. Once you find an O-ring that works, if needed, with the ring in place and properly aligned, carefully superglue it to the wheel, being careful to keep the glue only in the area of where the ring contacts the wheel. It will wick down into that space. You don't want any on the outer surface, obviously.
While you're there, pick up a tube of light grease and a can of light oil for refurbing the changer mechanism.
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Old 08-07-2015, 08:30 PM
dieseljeep dieseljeep is offline
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I don't know the construction of your bad idler wheel, but what some have done is to remove all the old rubber and take the wheel to the hardware store and look through their selection of O-rings. Best would be to find a fat one that fits on the now exposed metal of the wheel. The fact that the diameter of the wheel may change doing this is not important as the wheel is only an intermediary between the motor shaft and the turntable. Once you find an O-ring that works, if needed, with the ring in place and properly aligned, carefully superglue it to the wheel, being careful to keep the glue only in the area of where the ring contacts the wheel. It will wick down into that space. You don't want any on the outer surface, obviously.
While you're there, pick up a tube of light grease and a can of light oil for refurbing the changer mechanism.
The idler used in that changer is not one that could repaired with a O-ring. It's a totally different type of idler wheel with a molded tire on a small diameter cast aluminum or pot metal wheel. I can see why the firm would want the kind of money to refurbish the original.
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Old 08-07-2015, 08:51 PM
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The idler used in that changer is not one that could repaired with a O-ring. It's a totally different type of idler wheel with a molded tire on a small diameter cast aluminum or pot metal wheel. I can see why the firm would want the kind of money to refurbish the original.
Yeah, it definitely had a lot of rubber on it and about 95% of the rubber is still intact on the original idler tire and the other 5% is crumbled off due to the rubber being dried up.

Yeah the Voice of Music website had this particular idler tire for $28 plus the shipping costs of returning the original idler tire to them and then the shipping costs to ship the new one which brought the price to nearly $40 which is way more expensive than I was willing to pay for this part.

I mean when I ordered the drive tire for an old RCA 45 RPM Changer that I restored for someone that part was only $10 plus the return cost (which was way cheaper.)
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Old 08-10-2015, 10:18 PM
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Well I received the "new" turntable from Dave (dieseljeep) today and I ended up using the turntable he sent me on my Magnavox to get it up and running instead of using it for parts because I figured out that the cartridge that I needed off of it was riveted onto the holder that secured it to the tonearm so there wasn't anyway I could remove it from the holder so I just used the screw from the original turntable that was missing on the turntable that Dave sent me in the mail and screwed the idler tire down and then swapped out the old LP needle with a new one I had laying around put it back together, swapped out the power connector from the original turntable that came with my Magnavox onto the new one turntable as the new turntable's connector wasn't the same as the one that came with my original turntable to begin with then hooked up the turntable secured it into place and then popped a record on and let it play and boy does it sound good!
The only thing I noticed though was that the stereo had some popping, snapping and staticy noises coming out of the left channel so I took the amp out of the console and recapped it (replaced all of the coupling capacitors except for one of them) and hooked it back up and then turned it on again and it still was making nosies out of the left channel, then I turned it off and then turned it back on again and then the noises went away and now it plays fine.
But what I found odd was that the nosies only happened when it was on phono mode only, when it was on radio mode it played just fine.
So I don't know what the deal was with that.
Anyways All I need to do is replace the crossover caps on the speakers which are 16 MFD 25 Volts Bi-polar electrolytics for crossover purposes, and I saw that Radio Shack has a 10 MFD 50 Volts Bi-Polar crossover cap for 97 cents, would that be a good replacement for the original crossover caps?
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Old 08-10-2015, 10:33 PM
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If you have 2 30-32MFD 50V polarized caps you can MAKE a 16MFD 25V non-polar(Bi-Polar) out of them....Just connect both positives together and use the negative leads to connect to the circuit, or connect the positives together and connect the negatives to the circuit.
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