This weekends estate sale finds........

[drh4683]

Finally I found some nice color sets at an estate sale this weekend. I found all 3 sets at the same house, all in the basement. Luckily a nice clean dry basement of a non smoker home. I picked up an RCA combo from 1960. Couldnt say no, it would have been trown out if I didnt take it. Had all the manuals etc with it. (pictured in the b/w forum). Also found a 1968 sylvania color set. Great shape and it even worked! Last but certianly not least was a beautiful 1964 zenith roundie! I moved it away from the wall and there was all the paperwork for it underneath it! Finally a local roundie find! The zenith had a sticker on it for $5.00! The sylvania was $5 and the combo rca was free. Its funny, these old women are watching how excited I was to find these. They were telling me that they are all junk and should have been trown out before the sale to make more room. "you cant find the parts, they probably dont work, you're waisting your time" It was really funny when I had to bring the sets out into the open to see them and power them up. Everyone was mad because I was in the way and I heard all the comments "it doesnt work, its a peice of junk" I must have told 3 people that I repair TVs and I specifically look for these. Well, the zenith didnt work unfortnatly, but it was an easy fix when I got it home. It was a great weekend for tvs.

[drh4683]

This is probably as much hybrid as it will get. only 2 chroma tubes. Horizontal and vertical sections are still all tube. Everything else solid state. This is a pretty well made set.

[drh4683]

I was so happy to find this set! Its like brand new. Still have every single original tube in it! Powered it up and the picture was a big blurr. Took the back off and noticed that the focus lead to the crt socket came off. Hooked it back up and beautiful picture without touching a single thing, even the color was perfect. I couldnt believe that the 6JU8 was still good! I replaced it anyway as they are a troublemaker in the zenith color sets. This set even had the manuals.

[drh4683]

A 25MC33 chassis is in this set. Nice and clean too. Had the nice dry fluffy dust on the chassis. A sign that it was in a good clean enviroment all these years.

[Eric H]

What an extraordinary weekend you had!

Three great sets for almost nothing.


The CRT's look great

[Rob]

Doug,

Great score! You just got the same Zenith I have. Here's a picture of mine. Funny, mine has a focus problem and it too is from/related to, a badly corroded focus connection pin in the CRT socket. Mine also is in very nice condition.

[Rob]

Here is the back of mine. Do you know the year of this model? I'm thinkig 1965-66.

[drh4683]

thanks for the comps eric+rob!
My set has the dull grey screen, and its an original Zenith tube! Its a 21FJP22. All of my other zeniths have the BP22? A 25MC33 chassis makes it a 1965 model year, but production wise, it was built in 1964, atleast most were. I knew I saw a pic of this set before on ak! My remote set with the same chassis was built in 64. This set came with the manual and says "purchased December 8, 1964" The back of the manual is really cool, it talks about the future of premium channels, subscription television known as "phonevision" a 3 month trial in hartford, ct. Its pretty intersting as they talk about how now you dont have to go to the theather you can stay home and watch movies on your tv! I was going to scan the section about it incase nobody has seen it. Its in the operators manual on the last page.

[bigmacc]

Great weekend. I'm not a TV type but l really enjoy the posts in this forum. You TV guys sure have a passion for your hobby. Wait l just had a thought ( that happens once in a while).

Question are TV types more inclined to like tube based stereos; or SS? Mine quess would be tubes but you never know.Anyways drh4683 pleased with your success.

[drh4683]

Thanks for the comps bigmacc.

I am Definitly TUBE!!!! I like tube tvs as Ive tinkered with them for most of my life. I tend not to be into audio as much Ive got a sansui 1000A and thats as good as I'll get. I love it and dont plan on upgrading anytime soon!

[Eric H]

Hi Bigmacc

I would have to say I'm a SS guy when it comes to Audio, unless of course there is a 6.1 Dolby Digital Tube Amp I can use with my DVD player (I bet there is for a price!)

Much more of a Videophile than an Audiophile.

I do enjoy listening to 45's and 78's on my old (1955) Magnavox
with the (4) 6V6 amp, but that's more about nostalgia than it is about sound quality.



Eric

[Rob]

Originally posted by bigmacc


Question are TV types more inclined to like tube based stereos; or SS? Mine quess would be tubes but you never know.Anyways drh4683 pleased with your success.

Some of my thoughts.

I have no interest in collecting transistorized TV's as a hobby, but the one(s) I watch on a regular basis have to be solid state because those are just so much more reliable from a MTBF standpoint. Imagine the tubed equivalent of a modern 61" RPTV. That set would have 300 vacuum tubes in it. It wouldn't run long enough before a tube or other component failed to watch an hour long TV show. I do not enjoy repairing SS TV's though and except for a set that is really valuable to me, won't take the time. Vintage vacuum tube TV's are fun to play with as a hobby. I cannot see where SS TV's would be fun to play with in the same way.

When it comes to stereo equipment, if I fabricate it myself it will be tubes only because I can get the best sound out of that topology given my engineering skillset and capabilities. If I'm just looking for commercially available equipment to listen to I will give both SS and tube a chance and settle on the one that sounds the best to me. I've heard good sound from SS, but for the most critical listening I'm convinced that my tube amps make better tone. For background music I deliberately use SS to save electricity as these amplifiers are more efficient of power use and tube components have a finite lifetime. When I sit down for a critical listening session where the best sound is key, I turn on the tube amps.

Summary,

normal use time = SS TV, SS sound

playtime = tube TV's, tube sound.

OK so I like to spend my quality time living in the past.

[rca2000]

I like the tube audio stuff, also. I have always liked tube stuff. I guess after more than 16 years of repairing the modern tv's and stereos, i am getting more of a passion for the old, well-built stuff. (I REALLY do not like the cheap, flimsy design of most modern audio equipment, with all of the flashing lights, big readouts, BUT NO DECENT AMP (usually ONE stk ic).) My favorite solid state audio equipment is 60's- 70' stuff, when there was actually a metal chassis that components were built on( like the old germanium transistor amps, in the old console stereos. I know many of them do not have a lot of power, but, i like their heavy-duty design.)

As for tv's I like the roundie color sets best, but the old solid-stast sets(pre 1975) are desirable to me ,also.I also like the pre-uhf bw sets, especially the cold chassis(power transformer powered) models. I just wish I could afford some of the good audio tube equipment,, but, right now, I can't.

By the way, an all-tube 61" projection set would need a lot more than 300 tubes, if you count all of the digital functions. It would probably need several THOUSAND tubes to duplicate all of the computer chips in the system control ckts alone. ( remember ENIAC had over15,000 tubes, and had only a few kilobytes of memory, no display, or character generator, digital -to -analog converters, etc.)Imagine the power consumption of such a device. You would probably need 50 amps at 230 volts of power, to operate it.(about what a dryer, and central a/c use, together). So, in our modern lifestyle, solid state definitely has its place, but I still love the old tube stuff.

GREAT score on the Zenith 25mc33!!

[Rob]

Originally posted by rca2000


By the way, an all-tube 61" projection set would need a lot more than 300 tubes, if you count all of the digital functions. It would probably need several THOUSAND tubes to duplicate all of the computer chips in the system control ckts alone. ( remember ENIAC had over15,000 tubes, and had only a few kilobytes of memory, no display, or character generator, digital -to -analog converters, etc.)Imagine the power consumption of such a device. You would probably need 50 amps at 230 volts of power, to operate it.(about what a dryer, and central a/c use, together).

I stand corrected!

Actually I used to own an Eidophor 3-light valve color projector. I was hired to use it to do the 1993 CBC Gemini Awards show. That rig weighed about 3000 lbs and had almost 200 vacuum tubes. No digital display generation circuitry, just the basics needed to make a very, very good picture. Oh yeah, it needed a 60 amp, 230 volt feed to run.

[jstout66]

Great sets, and I'm jealous! I NEVER find anything like that at estate sales. I'm laughing on how the "estate ladies" were. It's the same on my end. Everything I'm interested in they are amazed that someone would have interest. However..... the estate companies in this area tend to mark EVERYTHING high. I've seen some sets and I'm like "What the hell??" as some are marked really high, or priced at a dollar. I have yet to find a color roundie tho. You wouldn't want to sell one of the Zenith's would you?