Quote:
Originally posted by dsk
Thanks for the advice. Actually, it has 2 speakers, both traditional drivers.
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I just reread your post. You did mention that the C845 has two speakers. I guess that will teach me not to go firing off a reply to a post without first reading that post thoroughly.
The blonde wood cabinet of the C845 would place it around the mid-1950s, as this was when blonde wood furniture (not to mention pink colored stuff) was popular in American homes. (I don't remember the model number offhand, but one of Zenith's 1950s-vintage clock radios was in a pink cabinet.) My folks were married in the '50s, and we had all sorts of pink and red dishes, kitchen furniture, etc., not to mention a blonde wood cabinet Crosley Super-V 21" console TV, in our house when I was growing up and until I was about 16.
Another tipoff to the '50s heritage of the Zenith C845 is the tuning dial. The presence of the two Civil Defense icons on the AM tuning scale at 640 and 1240 kHz would date this radio around the mid-'50s as well, as this was when the Conelrad early-warning alert network was developed.
BTW, if it were not for the blonde cabinet, plastic front, and vertical dial, the C845 could probably pass for a K731--the front panel control layout, dial scale (horizontal), etc. are very similar to the latter. One of the differences, however, is that your set has a pilot light behind the dial, whereas the '731 does not.
I have a '731, an ebay score last year, and the set works great--didn't have to do a thing with it or to it once it arrived here. Your C845, however, as I said, is likely very similar in terms of chassis design and the like. I always did like the sound of those old Zeniths (not to mention the looks of the cabinets--I always wanted a console, but don't have the room for anything that big here in my very small apartment, which is why I bid on the set in the first place; the walnut cabinet matches my furniture almost perfectly), and besides, the sets are built to last and last and last. With proper maintenance, many of these older Zeniths will run for years or decades, as well as they did when they were new--just look at some of the old sets we AKers have. I am also impressed with the restorations the guys on AK's antique television forum have done on old sets most ordinary people would have given up for dead years ago. I browse these forums daily and am always impressed by how well these older sets are being made to work.