Brought home a Hoffman
 

I found this set on accident a couple of days ago. I was delivering a 1940 Zenith Radio to a lady, and found an Antique Mall that I had never been to. I stopped and found this one set... Hoffman Easy-Vision Mark 5... model 3281... Sams 378-3 dated 11-57. It has a 21ACP4 that tests good, and power tuning (a wired remote was optional).

The sound pumps out from TWO EL84's into two 8" and one 4" speaker! It also sports seperate bass and treble controls. The lower side of the speaker grill says Soundorama. Pretty good sound system for an upright console. There is also an RCA jack for plugging in a turntable, and a 25 watt max AC outlet on the back.

The cabinet has the fake stuff on the sides, and the top is veneer. I kinda think it's been sitting out in someone's garage. There are no scratches, but the finish has flaked off on most of the front woodwork, and the finish on the top is just starting to peel up. It wouldn't take much effort to sand and refinish it considering how easy the original finish pops right off. The side panels are a little rough at the bottom edge. It has really nice trim on the front that should clean up nicely.

The insides don't look too bad. The chassis is rust-free, but the tubes show a good coating of nicotine. Most of the original Hoffman tubes are still in there (including the pix tube). It would seem even the HV rectifier is original... date coded 1957. The HO, LV rectifier, and sound tubes were changed. The EL84's and 12AX7 was replaced with Amperex Bugle Boys. Those cost a bundle today! There was a schematic sitting inside the cabinet, but it looks like bugs have been eating at it.

I'm not going to attempt bringing it up on the Variac untill I pull the chassis and get a look underneath. No sense in possibly blowing something out.

Overall, I think it's an attractive set and should clean up nicely. I'm sure this carried a hefty price tag in it's day for a black & white set.

Interesting set Charlie.

The tube almost looks like it has a cataract or is it just dirty?

I think it's just dirt and nicotine. All the glass parts are coated pretty good. Some of the tubes are coated so much that I'm having trouble cleaning them off. I'm a little surprised that the chassis body itself isn't golden brown.

Charlie,

Could they have called this set Lazy-vision because of the remote control? There was a Hoffman wired remote control a couple months ago on Ebay. Do a search through completed auctions. Maybe it did not sell.

Peverett is going to be jealous over this set. Right?

AAAAA the cabin... nice get away you have there!!!

polaraman

Rich: Yeah I had to bring it to the cabin. As you know, I can't really fit anymore sets in my house. I suppose... if i was really hard up for space... I could leave the ol' Duster outside and put more sets in the garage... Um... no that's not gonna happen. Although, I can just barely get it in the garage as is.

My space problem might be solved by the end of this year. I'm currently looking into building my shop up here in the woods.

Jody's not jealous... he's got a lead on one a little older than this one.

What a great find, with that sound system, especially with the little Altec-Lansing-flavored HF diffuser in plain sight. When you get a chance, please post a picture from the rear of the speakers. The Bugle-Boy tubes on eBay would probably repay the set and then some!


Reece

Definitely an interesting and different set. I'm envious of that lavish sound system. The power tuner looks fun, too. I guess you push up or down buttons to change channels, eh?

Phil Nelson

Wow!! Audiophile stuff from the 50's. I'd like to plug my guitar into that bad boy!! That must have been a VERY expensive set in its time. Like the Dumont's of the late 40's.

Most folks today don't believe that they had remote control in the 50's, or color television. I have had conversations with several people who were around in the 50's who you can not make believe that these things existed. I was not yet born when color television began in 1954 or so. I am thinking remotes started with Zenith in the mid 50's.

Great Find!!

Phil... The tuner button on the right engages the motor in one direction and the tuner stops on the stations you set (like most others with the little tabs). The button on the left disables the "auto stop". Push the left button in, and then press the right button and release when you get to the station you want. I've already cleaned up the contacts for the auto stop... it wasn't always stopping.

I'm nearly finished re-capping the chassis. I think I only have a few left. There is plenty of room underneath to work, and also plenty of ground points
for wiring in new lytics.

Reece... I, too, had the same thought... those BB tubes would certainly pay for the set! And, as you requested.... the speakers from the inside (with a fresh new 1 mfd. cap installed. (They gave me a handfull at the parts house since they couldn't find them in the computer... that was cool)

The set is back together and working! The picture is pretty good with good brightness and contrast control. After running it for a half-hour or so, the verticle rolls occasionally. The verticle hold is already at one of the stops, so I can't adjust it out. I'll have to go thru the verticle section with a fine tooth comb.

As far as the sound goes, it's both good and bad. The speaker and tube selection has a good sound to it. However, there's an annoying buzz that get's really bad when text comes on the screen. Watching the temperatures on the weather forecast was really buzzy! I've tried getting rid of it with the fine tuner, but that's not making much difference.

When you change the channel, a switch cuts the screen and sound off, so as the channels roll by, the screen is black and no sound. As soon as the tuner motor stops, the raster, video, and sound come back on. I thought that was kinda neat.

Good job, Charlie, looks like you'll have another FANTASTIC old set once you get those few small problems worked out...

Wow, that really is a rather impressive tube (and speaker) complement for any TV, especially a "hi-boy" style B&W set.

Interesting appearance too-- I think Hoffman was mostly distributed on the west coast, so you don't see many of them elsewhere.

...

Andy is correct about testing the tubes first. I had a set where the sound detection tube checked in the low end of the good range. The set had a lot of buzz as described above. I replaced the tube with a new one, and the buzz was almost eliminated.

The set was an RCA that used a pentode type detector. The tube was a 6CS6 or something like that.

Unfortunately, I do not have a generator to do an alignment. I'm going to swap the tubes with new ones to see if that helps... which might... considering more than half the tubes are the originals.

Nice set. Some friends of ours had a similar set when I was growing up. It too had 3 speakers and push-pull audio. Is your audio section on the TV chassis?

Regarding the buzz, too much signal strength will also do that. Does it have an AGC pot? Maybe it's set too high.

John

Super picture!

Reece

Awesome set Charlie! :thmbsp:

Much better now
 

Thanks for the good words, guys. I happy with the way things turned out.

As Andy pointed out, tweaking the discriminator reduced the buzz greatly. There is still a little there... probably needs an alignment... but it's a hell of lot better now.

Regarding the sound, my Philco Diamond D hits the bass really well only using one 6x4 speaker and a 6AQ5. Since this Hoffman has two 6BQ5's and two 8" speakers, I was really expecting bass response more like the Philco. Don't misunderstand... the Hoffman sounds really good for a 50's TV. In fact, I can crank the Hoffman's volume control all the way up to the stop... and not one bit of distortion!

John: Yes, the audio is on the TV chassis. I tried the AGC... not much affect there... but good sugestion.

Changing a couple of resistors in the verticle section fixed the occasional roll. I couldn't find the reason for the verticle being steady at the stop of the pot... everything checked well within spec... so I replaced a 1.2 meg resistor off the grid of the oscillator with a 910k resistor... and that put held the picture right in the middle of the control.

:thmbsp: Nice set Charlie--I bought a Hoffman 19" tabletop b&w new in 1960 and it was more expensive than other sets of the same size--like Whirled One said they were sold mostly on the west coast. Yours is the second one I've ever seen.Good Luck with your find. :thmbsp:

With those speakers the Hoffman ought to have good bass. If not, increasing the size of the audio coupling caps should help. Also, be sure that the two 8" speakers are in phase, cones moving in the same direction, not one in and one out. A good way to test is with a flashlight battery (this is probably old news!)

Reece

Yes, the speakers are in phase... that was the first thing I checked. It really does sound fine the way it is... I was simply expecting the same thump I get out of my Philco.

Increasing the audio couplers size, eh? Hmmm... perhaps I will toy with that for fun!

I think that's your answer Charlie, it's doing what it was designed to do.

Pete

The Hoffman company is based in Los Angeles. They are now Hoffman Video Systems. However, they did have a factory in St. Louis, Missouri at one time. I have gotten several sets here in Texas and seen others in the midwest. These probably came from the St. Louis factory.

Pete, that's a good point. You're absolutely right. Kinda goes along with if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

That looks like a great old TV. Hoffman made other consumer electronics. I picked up a Hoffman AM/FM transistor radio recently. In the early and mid 60's they made transitor radios powered by solar cells. Somewhat ahead of their time.

- Pete

Yep... got one right here.

why does everyone else have all the luck... my poor 21-T639 is still sitting outside on the porch