Never seen a Zenith like this before
 

Anyone familiar with this set? It's at an upcoming local estate sale......it looks like it cost quite a bit when new.....

That has a similar look to a System 3 20" monitor I have, 1987 vintage.

That's sharp! It feels like it should have an "Advanced System 3" emblem on the top right.

Man, that's sweet.

About Y line. Fold down door has membrane key pad on it
with normal pots for pix controls. Should have a jack pack,
stereo etc. I had the similar 20" set. IIRC uses 9-214 main
board. A very nice set. I dont remember selling any so
model wise quite rare......... I would grab it if cheap.

73 Zeno:smoke:

Snag that baby! Get some S.C. Johnson furniture wax action going. I agree with dishdude, looks like an Adv. System-3 dressed up in Sunday Best.

I think it would make a nice replacement for that RCA whose CRT got necked. Your CTC120 console is nice, but still...

I have to admit.. that looks very, very handsome and out of the ordinary. :scratch2:

You have an amazing memory!

What size picture would this be, and what year? Not sure if I'm in love with it yet.....but worth a look. The estate sale is at a house in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the area.

Extrapolating from the ashtrays up top I'm going to say 85% chance its a 20" (19"?) with 15% that its a 24".

As for years, No earlier than 86, no later than 91.


I can't wait to see how wrong I am... :yes:

If they want much for it, my advice would be to see what kind of picture it makes before handing over any cash.

It's probably a 25" from '84-'86. I think they went to putting the lightening bolt logo on everything in '87.

Yeah, my '88 console has the lightning bolt-style logo, and I've seen nearly identical sets with the block lettering.

I think it's a 25" set. It may have Bose audio in it too.

...

When those membrane keypads failed, I always programmed a universal remote to the set and told the customer to use the remote.

those are really good sets with an excellent looking crt.make a fine picture when right.if it has the bose system,this is a killer set.grab it if the price is right.very scarce,you will probably never find another one.

That set could have been made in the early 1980s. I had a Zenith four-mode integrated stereo system which had the Zenith nameplate at the far right side of the front panel, and I have a portable AM-FM Zenith transistor radio, early '80s vintage (late '81-'82), with the Zenith nameplate on the cabinet. (Both units were made by a Zenith subsidiary in Korea, as noted on the back covers.) I also have an amplified HDTV-ready indoor TV antenna, with the lightning-bolt logo on the housing near the amplifier gain control. However, it was not made by Zenith, which has been out of business for some time. Is the former Zenith logo (the lightning bolt) now in the public domain, meaning it can be used by anyone without fear of being sued for copyright or patent infringement? :scratch2:

No, I believe LG has acquired that particular portion of Zenith's corpse. (Holdings.)

Well, looks like I'll be fighting single digit temps and snow up to my ass, but I'll make it to the sale on Saturday AM. What would you pay for it? Aside from the obvious "as little as possible" :)

For its age the set has a lot going for it. Modern cabinet, rare,
a good set new etc. But these newer sets have no known value
as a rule. Not enuf sales & no outside the hobby demand YET
as a rule. If it had a strong jug & the cabinet were perfect I
may go $50- $100. Remember if you give them $50 they are
getting more like $75 since they dont have to pay to junk it.

good luck
73 Zeno:smoke:

...

Back in the 80's I used to work for RCA Smirnoff Labs, and we had acquired in around 1986 a Zenith set that looked a lot like that. To see what our competition was doing.
http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...2&d=1424722604
The bosses were looking at it, I didn't get a chance to mess with it. Think Zenith was about to be bought by some Korean company then.

At the same time RCA was kicking around making a 32 inch CRT. We had a prototype, but someone managed to burn its heater out...

Smirnoff labs huh?:beerchug::beer: That might explain the freaky CRT fault....:drunk:

Something bothers me about this set. The more I look at
it the more I think its NOT a high end set. Its missing a
few things.
The 20" cube set I had was wood (genuine imitation ) had
side spkrs with fold out ears ( IIRC Y line. The styling was the same otherwise.
It also said Advanced System 3 & Stereo along the top.
Looking at this set I see none of that. Also at the bottom it looks
like the IR pickup AND a channel readout ? By then IIRC
almost all Zenith remotes had OSD. Wish I had the Y & Z
line folders, it will keep me awake now.

73 Zeno:smoke:

I thought that those were a set of front A/V inputs with a pencil-box lid type thing hiding them. You're right, the more I look at it the more it does make sense to be the IR receiver and the auto-contrast (room light level) sensor...

The more I look at this, the design looks like a 25" wooden cased tabletop Zenith that I once had. I think it was from '84-'85, had a flip down door with membrane keypad, and a green LED readout. It was not stereo and had no A/V input jacks. The chassis was the standard 9-181 signal module and a 9-186 sweep module. If this were a high end set, I think it would say "System 3" under the Zenith badge.

I think you nailed it. It is in one nice looking cabinet though, I'd grab it if it were near me.

The van's all ready...I'll be heading there in the morning to find out more, and come home with it if the price is right :)

Went to the sale today, and I have to say that I was really underwhelmed by the set. It was marked $150, today being half price day it would have been $75. I didn't like it enough to even make an offer on it.

It was about a 21" screen, and only as tall as a 10" Admiral console. Heavy set, some kind of laminate over particle board with a plastic back that looked as if it was trimmed down from a table set.

Zenith model number SB2581Y .....I took a shot of the service tag on the back.

25" set; but, they are about 20-25 years out of date on their asking price. Most likely, it will wind up in a dumpster after the sale and this is one reason I don't like going to estate sales anymore. I can remember a time when an estate sale was nothing more than an effort to empty the contents of a house - not to make a killing. Back in the day, I could go to an estate sale and fill up a truck for $20. Now, most estate sales are ran by these companies who price everything double the ebay asking price. Sometimes, you can get a deal if you go to a privately run sale by the family members; but, even those types of sales are few and far between.

Well that's disappointing.

Yup. I had my conversion van at the sale, with blankets, a dolly, and a couple of those Harbor Freight furniture dollies.

Even looking at the tag, 108 watts isn't a lot of power.

Seemed like just a plain jane set in a different cabinet. The whole house was done in Asian theme, so the set did fit the style.

Funny, these kind of people wouldn't dare be seen watching a CRT set, but somehow they think most others will pay top dollar for them.

Well said!

So did it have any features like MTS or Jacks or was it
a stripped set in a fancy cabinet ?

73 Zeno:smoke:

Total strippo. Cable jack and that was it.

Nice one but looks like too new for me ;)

That ir sensor was to adjust the picture for room brightness. We had a similar 19" Zenith from this era, a "Custom Series" with the same readout. Not cable ready, had small buttons across the top, plastic woodgrain but otherwise similar to this set.