1965 Zenith model MM2670 stereo console score
 

Well earlier this week while browsing my local thrift store I came upon what I almost mistook for an old credenza....
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1794.jpg

Stylish as it was it didn't give off strong enough "I'm a console stereo not furniture" signals to keep me from almost passing it by......Then I noticed the grove in the top for the lift door and had a look. When I opened the lid I became very excited as I've seen similar models here before and knew this was a good one.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1789.jpg
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http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1811.jpg

The micro touch phono and the horn speakers give it away as a TOTL Zenith audio console.


It is a tube SS hybrid with the receiver circuits being tube the pre-amp on the tuner chassis being SS, and the output amp being SS. A dead giveaway of this is that if you turn on to radio mode it will take time to warmup, but the phono will come on instantly. The model and chassis numbers are shown below.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1816.jpg
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http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1785.jpg

The radio chassis was working fine when I tried it at the thrift, and the phono platter spun at a convincing speed, but it did not produce any sound.....A removal of the back(thanks Zenith for putting those cool service saver clips on ALL your consoles:thmbsp:) showed that the wires that go to the solder posts for the changer's audio output had been unsoldered so I'd have to resolder it at home later. The unit actually has it's complete sam's folder with it along with spare fuses, pickup cartridge and styli, and a record cleaning cloth(the cloth had something weird happen to it that I'll describe later).
It clearly has had work done to it at some point because in addition to the disconnected pickup wires the tuner chassis has enough of it's mounting screws removed for it to only be held in by gravity.

I'm too smart for the concentric loudness balance knobs...... They move in unison and I initially thought it was because they were sticky(and I was perplexed because if I adjusted balance and then held balance still and adjusted vol the balance would change too), but apparently they are supposed to move in unison and you adjust balance by moving the balance knob RELATIVE to the volume knob. Initially I thought it was an unusual and bad design, but it makes sense when one looks at the lighted tone/tuning control scales and changer compartment....This sets ergonomics were designed with operation in a darkened room in mind, and the balance setup was done that way so someone who could not see the labels in the dark could grab either of the concentric knobs and adjust the volume with out disturbing balance by mistake...It is so quirky it is genius! It took me a few minutes to figure that out and as I did that the weird incident in which the record cleaning cloth was lost happened.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1806.jpg

The weirdness happened when an Italian or Greek man in his 50's with a pronounced accent approached and the following conversation transpired...
The guy: Hey! I'm buying that.
Me: Oh, I'm sorry. I would not have moved it if I knew you were going to buy it.
The guy: I'm only joking, my son!(part of it I could not make out as I had the volume up)
Some jovial back slapping insued.
I said that it was a good model Zenith, and that I hoped I could convince my mom to let me get it.
He made some other jokey comment that I could not make out between his accent and the radio station I had on.
He then walked off and casually GRABBED the record cleaning cloth off the far end of the console!!:nono: Between the shock/disbelief of what I was seeing, and how strange I thought he was I let him walk off with the thing, but within minutes I started to regret that. Had he been a jerk before grabbing that cloth I'd have not let him get away with that. I have people randomly strike up unusual conversation topics with me at Goodwills from time to time, but this takes the cake for strangeness HANDS DOWN!

After bringing the console home I resoldered the pickup wires and found that aside from the speed being slow, and the record change function wanting to hang up that the changer is in good working order. Not bad for 20$ if I do say so myself. Five of the various indicator bulbs were bad and have been changed.

This has to be among my top 3 favorite stereo consoles I own. It is just that cool. From the tone control indicator lights that move when you turn the knobs to the awesome looking nearly flawless cabinet with it's hide away speakers to that great changer that has high end 70's features, but the mid 60's look, this thing just exudes cool. And the audio sounds great too.
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1796.jpg

http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1797.jpg

The only things I still need to look into are the dead FM stereo indicator light, and the changer before this becomes a regular use set.

More pictures here... http://s1095.photobucket.com/albums/...ent/?start=all

iv kinda been keeping my out for one like that,i like the style of it.

My parents had a very similar Zenith console but was more like Dougs. He has a video on Youtube. Ours was stolen while we were on vacation in 1974. AWESOME stereo! They took everthing except out '72 maggie console. They had moved it into the center of the room. probably was too heavy or ran out of room. My parents had lots of great parties listening to that! I have a recording my dad made of them singing drunk to Simon and Garfunkel at one of those parties. I still have the Singer cassette that was done on our Singer cassette radio from about 1971.

That's a great one. Possibly TOTL?
I had a 1970 model A931 IIRC. Looked identical outside but the receiver is a one-chassis all transistor with a cheaper TT. The 10" woofers and horns, but nothing else. Still have the rcvr and TT but had to downsize it...boo

Grew up with one of these in the house but a year older. The only thing that looks different is the tonearm/headshell is more sleek on yours. That volume/balance pot can be touchy though. Nice find!!

I wonder if Zenith built that changer? I always considered it to be unusual, with the 45 adaptor, built into the turntable.

Great Score, my favorite console. i have the all SS 1968 version, that took
me ten years of searching to find. These were very expensive, over 1,000,
when new.
I modiifed mine to use an Ortofon magnetic cartridge.

My research on the changer some years back turned up that it was a joint
venture design in 1961 with CBS and Zenith. i believe CBS mostly designed
the cartridge. There was one website I found that claimed it was made by Webcor, but my findings do not support that.

Those belt drive changers were used by Zenith in their top of the line models
thru 1969, the colors changed a little each year and the tonearm became
slimmer after 1965.
I found after examining the late 60's versions that were black and silver,
they were actually the early 60's brown color underneath the paint and were
just repainted. That leads me to believe that the basic changer base were all
made in the early 60's and Zenith just repainted a different color scheme
on them each year.

That's a great console score and it is one of Zenith TOTL models. I'd like to find one from this series; but, the only two I've seen were out of reach. The first one was a beat to heck half working model at the Starvation Army for $75 and then there's another one at the flea market with a dead record changer for $125. That one DID look nice, until they started stacking crap on top of it. Of course, the price hasn't gone down, even though they are ruining the top.

I get a blast out of those people that don't bargain on price and then abuse the piece. What's so hard about using cardboard, or even newspaper to protect the surface? :nono:

It is a pity that you got robed. The owner of mine was a clearly worried about that happening to him.......
http://i1095.photobucket.com/albums/...t/DSCN1821.jpg
The sticker indicates it's serial was on file with law enforcement agencies.

Wow.....you stole that set! :D

Very interesting and cool cabinet. I love the way the slats close over the speakers when not in use. Just goes to show that occasionally you CAN find good stuff out there.

Great find! Surprised that it still has a magic eye considering most of it is SS. Zenith could have just as easily used a meter for tuning indication.

Real nice console and thread
 

I just picked up a Zenith 960 console, very similar to yours. I am soooo glad you mentioned that balance/loudness know thing. I also thought it was a sticky rheostat but now knowing what you found, I'm going to go play with it and figure it out. I do need to open up the chassis to fix the on/off buttons though. I took the back off but for the life of me I can't figure out how to proceed! There is a record bin, then the chassis; both suspended from the top. I don't see any obvious attachment points for them. Any advice, or just start pulling every screw from the cabinet?

Great score, just like mine, those are fantastic consoles when restored properly.

The tuner chassis is a bit of a challenge to remove, first you remove the
record bin. Look up, you will see six screws,m three on each side.
The tuner chassis is held the same way, three screws on each side, the three
screws towards the front are a bear, you will need a a long screwdriver and
a mirror. It lifts right out, be sure everything is unplugged.
The amplifier under the record changer is fastened by screws underneath the
console and by screws inside adjoining speaker enclosure.

Due to age, all of the electrolytics in the amplifier and preamp/tuner chassis
should be replaced.

One trouble spot if you are getting volume changes or left or right channels cutting
out is the internal speaker selector switch, be sure to clean with deoxit.

More great advice, I'm going to start the surgery this evening. The kids are away, so perfect time to disassemble delicate things with lots of parts! I played with my loudness/balance rheostat and something is definitely wack with it, I'll have to tinker more. The unit works and sounds real good now, is there something that would be characteristic of the caps going bad or is it just assumed after 45 years that their time is up? I see you are in Winter Park, perhaps I'll bump into you at Skycraft when I go to buy new caps!

One other thing comes to mind now, how do I remove the turntable platter? Does it just lift straight up after bringing up the 45 adapter? I gave it a mighty pull but perhaps the rubber grommets have "seized".

Thanks a lot

If you ever watch the old "Bewitched" TV series, you will see a Zenith similar to this one to the left of their front door in their living room.

My dad never bought a Zenith until 1970. Too expensive for his taste. Lots of Maggies, though.

Not familiar with this particular model, but some stereos of that era did not have a separate balance control, but concentric volume controls left and right with a friction clutch. Sounds like what you may have? If you turn to normal volume on a mono source, then hold the outer knob still and turn the inner knob to balance the sound to center (or vice versa,) you're done. Then you just use the control normally as a volume control without using the clutch function.

Yes, the platter is "supposed" to lift right off with the 45 spindle in the up
position. The upper platter isolated from the inner belt driven platter
by rubber grommets and after 45 years they are usually stuck pretty good.

You may have to remove the whole assembly by loosening the allen screw
underneath the spindle/platter bearing. Then you can see underneath and
pry gently at the grommet points. Gently, the inner sub platter supports can be
bent with too much pressure.

Beautiful console stereo score! I'm too crowded with Magnavox consoles right now, or I would get a Zenith console. I do have four Circle of Sound sets, two with radio, two without, one without speakers. They of course all have the Microtouch 2 Gram tonearms and VM changers.

There is one Zenith console in the Good Samaritan Thrift Store down here, with the same cabinet pictured in this thread, except it sits on a base that's scaled smaller than the depth and width of the cabinet. They want $140 at the moment, and when I saw it, it had a 27" Zenith color console flopped on top of it, and a tv on that one as well. It seems to have an upscale changer, with the controls on the right hand side of it.

Here it is, it's not the original ad for it so I'm taking the chance of posting. No affiliation. :music:

Surprised to hear the Zeniths were more expensive than the Magnavox sets
some of the TOTL Magnavox Imperial sets were decently expensive back then didn't t sound bad either.
I recall they were positioned alike in the marketplace . I worked P.T.
for a Magnavox dealer in H.S.
Cool to see these vintage Zenith's

double post please remove thanks .

Interesting to see more similar sets to mine.
After seeing that post about the concentric channel volume shafts I'll have to check the schematic to see if the "balance" control on mine was implemented in that manner.

A few months back I dealt with the belt on my turntable, and got it running at the right speed. I've been using it occasionally, but less now that I dropped a pair of tube Heathkit monoblocks into my component set up.....They just beat all else I've got.
I've got much older Zenith gear that is still chugging along with the original caps so until I notice problems I'll leave the originals be.

I'd be weary of caps from Sky Craft...Some have been sitting for a long time and are not good anymore. If you don't have a eye type cap checker just buy new instead.

Magnesonic, the Zenith you pictured is a 1971 midline model with the later style VM
changer.

Hey everybody zenith and maggie has very excellant sound as far as I am concerned all tube type stereos rock... those who agree let every one know.. Timothy

Nobody else needs to know. Tube stuff is getting way too expensive these days!!

Thanks Orthophonic, I figured it was somewhere in that range. I saw a high end Zenith with a more deluxe version of the rh control VM similar to the one I posted.

Regarding Magnavox pricing compared to Zenith, it seems like that was one of their selling points, they illiminated the "middle man" their stock was from factory to dealer, no warehouse. Magnavox for years had such simple looking controls and changers in most of their sets, they started getting more gadgety and flashy in the 1971 model year. Then, it was downhill, like all of the other manufacturers. The Imperial line in the Astro-Sonic era was as deluxe as they could get them, all had high end reel to reel tape recorders, changers with damped cuing and stylus pressure adjustment, (ceramic pickup) and cabinets made by either Hammond organ, or Allen organ.

Not to hijack, I've worked on many Zeniths and Maggies. Many were the high-end models, but have never worked on a Maggie Imperial. Must not be many around this area.

I personally liked the tube stereos better than the solid state, but thats just my preference.

LOL! Hey, this thing I bought is solid state, maybe I need to go bid up a tube unit and compare the two in my home!

I paid $79 for mine off craigslist from a nice couple who liquidated estates, but it's hard to beat the deal the original poster got though.

Here is my imperial
 

This is a 1967 imperial astrosonic.It has power tuning,remote control for both turntable reject and fm tuning.Also has 15 woofers in sealed cabinets that are tied together by a wooden"sound tunnel".

Nice. It needs it own thread!

Love your '67 Imperial, yes it does need its own thread!