Ugly RCA AM-FM stereo with tape inputs!
 

Friend dropped off a toy for me. An RCA RLC-70B tabletop radio. Ugly is an understatement.

I replaced a single 1000mfd 25v capacitor, and it came to life. It's over 22" wide, and has a tape input, and a phono input with a strange plug.

Tell me what you think. Plays OK, and the speakers are Pioneer branded.

Thats a yardstick on the top of it.

Well, it DON'T Favor Much, do it ?!?

fugly for sure. It should get together with some of my fugly stuff and have a party.

I've seen a few of them in person, and have a tough time deciding if I think they are cool or funny looking (the ones I saw were still in use so they must have been decently constructed).

The bad capacitor looked like it just spilled its innards and died. All the others, including the power supply are original.

It does have some background hiss, and the stereo light appears to be burned out, but it does play FM stereo.

I thought it was in a brown cabinet. Then, I noticed a clean spot. It was coated with cigarette smoke. :smoke:

It won't be any older than 1969, since it has the modern RCA block logo. Motorola and Philco-Ford also had similar stereo table radios with aux/phono inputs.

I remember when they started phasing in the new logo. I still like the older logo better.

RCA--The most trusted name in electronics...:tears:

Growing up, for some reason, I thought that GE was a better product than RCA. Looking back, I know that Zenith was better than both of them in alot of ways.

I looked allover the chassis, and found nothing that could be a date code. I was thinking that this unit might be from around 1970-71.

BTW, I let it play all night connected to a 1/2 amp fuse. It does have a nice tone, considering the 4" speaker size.

I think I have the original RCA service manual for that set. It's one of the early models that is Japanese built. I have the same set, or one that is close to it.

I'd like to see that. Japanese built probably explains the Pioneer speakers.

I have this model in a wooden cabinet, I don't think it's ugly at all! Mine I think could use some new electrolytic capacitors as the sound quality isn't all that great.

I think the wooden cabinet would be pretty. The plastic cabinet is butt-ugly, IMHO...

This one sounds pretty good... its been playing all day here beside the computer...

Arvin made tons of table model stereos with a very similiar layout. I'm partial to them, and have a couple. There is also a line of Magnavox sets that aren't much different.

I thought that yard stick logo was a forecast of where this set was going...on the other hand, be a fine garage radio for when you're cleaning out or working on a car.

Reece, That yardstick is over 60 years old. It was strictly used for size indications... NOTHING gets tossed here at the old electronics graveyard...

These days, I cant even get into my garage for all the stuff stored out there.

I have the wood cabinet version, they are from 1970-71. What is ugly about it?
I think it is great mid century mod.