Admiral console

[kg4cna]

Hello all,

I hoping someone can help me determine how old my latest aquisition is.
It's an Admiral solid state console, am/fm/phonograph. Model # AKS205
with chassis #20E5. I haven't been able to find anything that tells how old
this one is. I picked it up this past weekend at a second-hand store for TEN
bucks Everything on it works great and the cabinet is in great shape too.
Whomever had it took very good care of. It was very clean inside too.

Below are some pics.

Thank for any help.
Allen

[Tom Bavis]

It's in Sams folder 1083-3, from 1970. These usually came out shortly after the unit did, though some were much later. You may be able to find date codes on parts inside - electrolytic caps, transformers, speakers often have 'em.

[kg4cna]

Originally Posted by Tom Bavis

It's in Sams folder 1083-3, from 1970. These usually came out shortly after the unit did, though some were much later. You may be able to find date codes on parts inside - electrolytic caps, transformers, speakers often have 'em.

Thanks Tom! I suspected it might be early seventies. I'll look around inside again when I pull the back off.

[matt_s78mn]

Wow, does that ever bring back memories. My grandparents had an Admiral console with that exact same radio and turntable. That's right, it would be early '70's vintage. My grandpa got it as a gift from his Lawn Boy distributor for selling a large number of mowers. They replaced it with a mid 70's Zenith console, and they stowed the Admiral away in a storage room, because the record changer never worked correctly. The tone arm would always drop in random places, instead of on the edge of the record where it should. They had the changer looked at several times, and no one could get it fixed quite right. About 15 years ago or so, during spring cleaning, I saved it from going to the dump. I fiddled with the changer but ended up pulling the radio and speakers and got rid of the rest of it. I don't recall the radio's FM performance being all that great with the built in antenna, but It worked well when I had it attached to a rooftop FM antenna and rf amplifier. (it was rural Nebraska, you needed that kind of setup to get any kind of decent stations.) Anyway, this may be a stretch because it's been so long - but I'm thinking the radio was OEM'ed by Sanyo.

[kg4cna]

Originally Posted by matt_s78mn

Wow, does that ever bring back memories. My grandparents had an Admiral console with that exact same radio and turntable. That's right, it would be early '70's vintage. My grandpa got it as a gift from his Lawn Boy distributor for selling a large number of mowers. They replaced it with a mid 70's Zenith console, and they stowed the Admiral away in a storage room, because the record changer never worked correctly. The tone arm would always drop in random places, instead of on the edge of the record where it should. They had the changer looked at several times, and no one could get it fixed quite right. About 15 years ago or so, during spring cleaning, I saved it from going to the dump. I fiddled with the changer but ended up pulling the radio and speakers and got rid of the rest of it. I don't recall the radio's FM performance being all that great with the built in antenna, but It worked well when I had it attached to a rooftop FM antenna and rf amplifier. (it was rural Nebraska, you needed that kind of setup to get any kind of decent stations.) Anyway, this may be a stretch because it's been so long - but I'm thinking the radio was OEM'ed by Sanyo.

Yeah, it brought back a lot of memories for me too! When I was a kid, we had a Magnavox console with a b/w tv, am/fm and a changer. I remember that thing had the best sound. My dad was a radio jock and I used to listen to him on it just about every morning. My mom and I played many a record on it too.

This one is in excellent condition. You're right about the turntable dropping the tone arm slightly further in than it should. I'm going to look at that when I take it out...not sure anything can be done, but I'll look at it anyway. A local electronics shop that has been around for many years, still has needles for them. I picked up one yesterday for $10 and it sounds fine. The only thing is the left channel is not as strong as the right and it pops and crackles a bit when you touch the needle/cartridge. I believe their may be a connection problem where the cartridge plugs into the tone arm. I'll be looking at that too. Other wise, the radio plays great and picks up stations very well with the built-in antenna. There is an FM dipole that appears to be factory-mounted to the back of the cabinet and a ferrite stick inside for AM reception. A few scratches and nicks on the cabinet...but overall, it looks great. A little Murphy's Oil Soap and a detail brush does wonders

[Dan Starnes]

Nice set!
Dan