I know this is a little historical leap, but I bought my first decent TV -- 25 XBR -- because of the audio section. I was an audio engineer at the time, starting an audio for video edit suite at a post production house. The little GE 13" wasn't cutting it any more... (Now back to your regularly-scheduled decade.)

Chip

Drat, I replaced a few electrolytics, one resistor and two Bumblebee Caps, put it back in the cabinet, brushed against the 1B3 cap, recoiled and ripped the base cap off the CRT. :drool:

It was broken and loose to start with and all the wires but one just came out but one broke off flush with the glass. (sigh)

A couple wires ripped out of the connector as well but I fixed that easily enough, oh yeah, and my soldering Iron came in contact with the fine tuning knob I had stuck in the back of the cabinet so now it has a melt mark on it, some days it's better not to try and fix things.

I was able to scrape away enough glass on the CRT base to make a connection, it's very poor but it works, I trimmed away the rest of the broken Cap so I can see it and resolder it if needed.

Anyway, the set works fairly well now, it's a bit unstable, especially cold, no doubt a full recap would make it 100% but I don't want to do that unless I find a good CRT at some point.

It's sitting her playing as I type this, the vertical loses sync now and again, the sound is terrific!

Sorry to hear about the knob melt, Eric. Maybe a picture would jog someone's memory and they will pull one from a box of knobs!

Thanks, it's not a big melt but it's annoying.
I may even have one in my box of knobs, I need to look for another knob for someone so I'll check soon.

This set is going on the back burner for now, I just wanted to see if it would play so I could decide whether to junk it or keep it, I'll keep it.

Now to get back to the Predicta.

Maybe a while playing or with some gentle heat will help stability. Coils absorb moisture over time.

Maybe, but after playing for a half hour last night the picture faded away to almost black, shut it off and it comes back but fades quickly.

the Fly's staying cool at least.

It always aggrevated the hell out of me that as TV set pictures improved, the audio on them steadily became worse and worse.