Motorola console stereo

[zenithfan1]

I hope this thing is old enough for this forum. I was at Value Village in Racine when I found this. They wanted 80 for it but it was half price day, The guy made out the ticket ant the lady up front read the 80 as 30 and charged me only 15 bucks! who am I to correct their mistakes! I believe I am the first person to remove the back cover as this thing has seen very little use. The amp has 6 6V6s and is a a 3 channel amp. It has a 15" woofer, 2 8" mids and 2.5" tweeters. This thing is amazingly loud and clear. I am at work now and can't remember the exact tube count but wanted to post anyways. The model number is: SK77W-2Z I guessed it was from '60 or '61, my friend told me it was a '62 because he has one also. He also said they are quite rare. Whoever said that Friday the 13th is unlucky is crazy!!!

[Urizen]

That is super nice. Post a pic of the amp if you get the chance?

[zenithfan1]

Sure, I'd be happy to. I am going to detail clean the inside very soon. I also forgot to mention that it has the "Vibrasonic" feature. It is like a reverb echo and sounds awesome!

[myrgatroyd]

Congratultions! Have much fun with that thing! It looks nice and that vintage sound is just from another world.

[Snade]

That is a nice console.

Great job snagging that one.

Snade

[Tom Bavis]

A friend just picked one of these up along the road... a heavy beast...

I think the chassis numbers are HS-968 and HS-969, plus the multiplex chassis HS-996 - you can find schematics online here: http://techpreservation.dyndns.org/s...s/Motorola.htm

[radiotvnut]

That's a nice console! I had one with the same features and control layout several years ago. Someone had "antiqued" the cabinet green. I would have loved to have gotten my hands on the person who did that. Mine had a fairly sensitive tuner and would bring in stations that this new garbage would not.

A guy I know tried to sell me one like this about a year ago for $200. The radio played great but the TT had problems. The cabinet had major damage on the top where they had a fish tank sitting on top of it.

You are lucky to have a thrift store that actually has half off days. The ones around here act like they are doing you a big favor for having 10% off sales. There's a radio/8-track/BSR changer combo in a particleboard cabinet in a local thrift store. I think it's a Capehart or Soundesign. They wanted a very reasonable $194 for it! The only kind of console I'd pay that kind of money for would be one with a Fisher 500C or similar stereo stuffed in it.

It's a shame that you can't hardly give a console stereo of this quality to the general public. In the past year, I've junked 5 or 6 because no one would buy them. Don't worry, they were not high end like yours is. Nowadays, if it's not in a silver plastic box with a CD player on top, most people will go the other way. In the early '90's there was a guy here who owned a junk store. About the only people who would buy consoles, even back then, were the ones that wanted to make some sort of cabinet out of them. The junk store owner would usually stip the insides out for the buyer and give them to me.

[TV Engineer]

I'd be more interested in that RCA CTC9 color set behind it...

[jln1966]

I have one similar to that. Mine is a 1963 model. I paid 6.99 for it at a Goodwill. I was 180 miles from home when I found it. Luckily I was able to remove the legs and it went into the back seat. Mine has the exact same tuner arrangement as yours but styled differently. The record changer looks different too. It looks a lot like the later 60s Motorola changers. Its works good and sounds awsome. The amp is 3 channel with 6 6v6 tubes. Keep yours intact as tons of these are getting stripped and thrown away.
John

[jln1966]

Here are some pics of mine. Mine has the reverb unit and 11 speakers. I like the FM station booklet that came with it. I like the taller round 45 adaptor Voice of Music used on their older changers. They work much better than the later flat ones.
John

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jln1966

Here are some pics of mine. Mine has the reverb unit and 11 speakers. I like the FM station booklet that came with it. I like the taller round 45 adaptor Voice of Music used on their older changers. They work much better than the later flat ones.
John

Eleven speakers? How come so many speakers in that console? I could see that many speakers in a three-way console with TV, but for just AM/FM/stereo FM and phono, eleven drivers seems to me to be a bit much.

[zenithfan1]

Originally Posted by jln1966

Here are some pics of mine. Mine has the reverb unit and 11 speakers. I like the FM station booklet that came with it. I like the taller round 45 adaptor Voice of Music used on their older changers. They work much better than the later flat ones.
John

Nice! I can think of a lot I could do with a console with 11 speakers!

[roundscreen]

Originally Posted by TV Engineer

I'd be more interested in that RCA CTC9 color set behind it...

Your right, Zenithfan1 has a really nice collection.
I have 4 tv, Stereo combo sets and hook up the cd player to them all the time. It sounds much better than some of the new stuff they sell today.
Ed

[Jeffhs]

What type of reverb unit did those Motorola console stereos with Vibrasonic have? I'm guessing they had a mechanical delay line with springs, but I'm not sure. If the delay line was the type with springs (as the old car-radio reverb units had--my dad had one in his 1963 Chevy BelAir years ago), one would have to be careful not to jar the cabinet too hard, lest the springs bounce against each other. The loud "BONG!" one would hear from the speakers when the latter happened is a sound one would not forget in a hurry!

BTW: Hmmm. I don't think the Moto consoles had mechanical delay lines at that. I say this because of the variable "Vibrasonic" control on the stereo control panel; I cannot see how a mechanical delay arrangement could be regulated by such a control, unless the console had some sort of all-electronic reverb system.

[gadget73]

Motorolas are interesting with that 3 channel design. It makes sense though, bass is not really directional so there isn't much point in having big woofers on each side. Thats a nice looking console too, appears to be in very nice shape.