Your listening space

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Listening Space

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of a 'Listening Space' atm.... All available space is full of 'stuff'. The Mordaunt-Short loudspeakers, Garrard and Lenco turntables, Ferrograph tape machines, and assorted other bits are in storage here and there. The Phase Linear 700W amplifier had to go to a new home, as did the Ferrograph 'Studio 8' tape machine... They were just too big and heavy.... :-(

Still miss them, though.....

All best

Dave T

P.S. I will have to get rid of a few Tektronix 7000 series Oscilloscopes soon, if anyone in the U.K. is interested... ;-)
 
Another pic

Thank you tolivac! Here's another shot of the stereo. Love the reverb! And the "tuner eye" tube in the center of the dial ensures that your station is tuned in correctly! The turn table just says Silvertone. I never had to tear into it so i couldn't say. What I do know is that it runs smooth and at the proper speed. Did they make those turn tables for Sears?

By the way, does anybody work on tube televisions as well as audio equipment?

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Voice of Music TT's used in a lot of vintage Hi Fi systems.Too many to name.They were good TT's durable,reliable and easy to fix when they broke.
Studio tape decks-I have an Ampex 300-mono full track and an Otari MR10 stereo machine-it needs new hub adaptors-but works OK otherwise.Got it from a radio station-fixed their transmitter and the tape deck was part of my "pay" along with other studio gear-Technics TT's,Dynamax Cart machines.Have them stored in one of my rooms at home.The Ampex 300 has a tubed Rec/Pb amp.Hasn't been run in a long time-did work.Came from where I work presently-a discard.The Ampex 300 is a classic tape machine durable,simple,reliable-recording studios even want them today!!Some musicians only want to be recorded on analog equipment-the 300 is ideal.Les Paul LOVED them!!He had several 300's of his own.
I USED to work on tubed,older TV's but the supply of them has dried up to work on and the tubes used in them--most are no longer available.The tube makers focus on two main tube families-transmitting and industrial tubes-and audio tubes for Hi-Fi and musicians-guitarists.
I remember the Pioneer "99" speakers in Hi-Fi places in the 70's and such-they were very nice speakers-better than now.And like the Pioneer speaker in the Sony radio-At the Wash DC VOA plant used to check out Sony AM-FM-SW receivers to overseas correspondents-they were real workhorses-forget the model# replaced many antenna rods on them-they could break off easily.And the tuning,power controls needed frequent cleaning.They also used to use Zenith Transoceanic recivers-the Sony ones replaced the Zeniths-there were MANY of the Zeniths still in that shop as "bench" radios techs to listen too while working.Could pick up the Greenville,NC SW transmissions with ease in DC.
 
I still work on tube televisions

I grew up in the TV repair world whereas my father was an appliance engineer for Hotpoint. My primary hobby is indeed TV restoration with radios and appliances following closely. I have a bunch of tube TVs scattered around the house and I keep them running. Have a few in queue to restore or for parts.
Tubes are hard to find but I generally don't have a problem since I bought out an old high-school electronics lab about 20 years ago. Tolivac is correct that new-production tubes are generally transmitting and audio-type. Can't blame them for the limited production... Who needs a 6U10 or 17JZ8 anymore??
TV restoration is basically my primary hobby for myself. Restorations take a very long time to complete properly, have many complications and only I have the patience to wait for the repairs to get done! LOL !
 
For lights-I like flourescent,HID(Metal halide-high pressure sodium)and LED's HATE incandscent!!!!The color of it gives me a headache.I use the sodium with the Metal halide-sometimes I like the sodium-other times I don't I can use a "conversion" metal halide bulb in the sodium fixture-Venture and Philips make them-the Philips "Master color-Retro White" is the best one.Pulse start metal halide is the best!!Nice crisp color-and long life.T5 flourescents are VERY nice!!!And efficient.However for LEDS-HATE some newer LED parking lot lights-very cold,dim blue light like looking at mercury fixtures with tired bulbs.Take metal halide or HP sodium parking lot lights anyday!Hope the LED ones improve-they should go to a warmer color.Induction lights-while efficient give a cold blue color as well.But their life is over 100,000 hrs!
 
paulg: Glad you can still work on the older tubed TVs-and you have a supply of tubes.Somewhere in the attic have a box of older "pulls" TV tubes.From older days.Just keep them on hand anyway.For awhile a freind of mine and I were "restoring" older transmitters.And sometimes older tubed TV's,too.Then suddenly the supply of them dried up.He and I used to have a collection of older TV's and these were trash finds,ones someone gave to us,or even an old DuMont found on the side of the road near Baltimore.Sadly all of our sets got stolen from a transmitter site we were storing them in-the perp stole everything but the transmitter!Haven't been able to rebuild the collection-another set in it was a Philco monochrome console with remote from the dump of a TV shop-they said--"TAKE IT!!" and the set and remote worked perfectly!
 
Well here's mine.

I was on the search for a new Console stereo, but it turns out that in the next year I will be moving out of state. So since the 62 TOL Trimline has really good sound and now the optional made especially for GE stand, I just am using that till said time. I wondered at first if I would miss having a console there, or a table top unit like my Zenith Allegro all in one....But since the GE has a sub and a tweeter in each speaker (unlike the lower end model that I have, or the 1965 solid state model, that only has one speaker in each side), it is quite satisfactory. That just shows the quality that was put into even a portable during that time....

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GE phono with matching cart?

Very cool.
I see lotsa records. That is great. Thank you for reminding me to dig out my 45 RPM records.
Sadly most of my 45s are not great but it will be fun to play those that have sentimental value.
I think I have a parakeet training record on a 45. I'll have to dig that one out... Throw on some Gisele MacKenzie, Gogi Grant and the Partridge family and "cocktail hour" will be a scream.
 
for my cocktial party's.....

or my dinner partys, it would be more like Cy Coleman, Mae Barnes, Herb Alpert, Stan Getz, and such things as that.....=)
 
Sonnydad-no, not a member of Lighting Gallery Net-never heard of it until now.
Paulg-Yes-that Philco was a very nice set--Its cabinet was in very nice condition.Too bad it got stolen--Wanted to watch the Movie (The Thing) on it-somehow that movie looks so good on an older BW TV.The movie looked really good on the DuMont.Again that one was in good shape,worked well,but was full of sawdust.That was one found by the side of the road.Strange way to discard a TV.At that time Used a Laserdisc player rather than a VCR-since it had a Ch#3,4 modulator on it the player could be used on older TV's or others that don't have video inputs.I still have that Sony Laserdisc player and a collection of discs-Still have the "Thing" movie-and have it on DVD,too.
I have a few boxes of 45's that came from radio stations-mostly 60's and early 70's songs.They have "Q" burn on them-frequent airplay-but still play OK.Trying to find a reasonably priced jukebox to store and play the favorites in.
 
I, too was a music teacher. I also have the studio

in Philadelphia suburbs. i would TRY to go to sleep and the music was still playing in my head as loudly as it was all day long. I have loads of analog and stereo equipment. I have 5 record players, etc in addition to the rack system at the house. My friend wired the walls for in-wall speakers. I have'nt gotten around to installing them yet.
 
Ah laserdisc players

I was trained at RCA to fix CED videodisc players as well as fixing Pioneer and Kenwood Laserdiscs.
What a goofy format CED was. However it was truly amazing to see the "stylus" (NOT needle) hit the record and a color pix come out. That format - as flawed as it was - was amazing to watch.
My bench CED of Risky Business always skipped in the same place. I still have it memorized. Instead of "Lana... it's what every white boy off the lake wants", the CED played "Lana, you wanna " .
But I digress, just stupid tales of the stereo bench... circa 1985 or so.
For today's purposes, videodiscs are perfect for demonstrating your TV collection. My players are gone now but DVDs are just fine.
The picture on those older B&W sets can be surprisingly good. I repaired a beat-up old 1952 Emerson whose picture was so razor sharp it amazed me. The cabinet was a wreck so I saved the CRT for another TV. That's what you do sometimes.
As far a old formats go, I have CARTRIVISION TV combo that I've got to fix. Perhaps that is another thread.
 
There was a freind I knew-he lived in an apartment building with another guy I knew in the broadcast trade-he replaced an RCA CED player with a Laserdisc.He told me that he put the RCA player in the apartment house trash room-went to get it--but someone else had the same idea-was gone.Would have liked to get it to try it.I also thought on those RCA disc machines the "stylus" had to be replaced regularly.
What I also like are the TRANSMITTERS that broadcast to those old sets-esp RCA.When I visited a TV station in Baltimore-they had three transmitters-including their original RCA they bought in 1948-even demo'ed it for me into the station dummy load-worked nicely-would broadcast monochrome only.Was 12Kw-and priced at a dollar a watt.I didn't have 12 grand on me and since I lived in an apartment at the time-no space and no way to run it-would need 3ph 220V.I have lots of stuff pertaining to those transmitters-the RCA catalog that listed that transmitter.And have lots of tubes,parts,and some other doco-inclusing brocures and manuals.I could have gotten an RCA TV transmitter for free-but again space-how to haul it and run it-this one would need 480V 3 Ph to run it.And its main plate transformer weighed in at like 4,000lbs.But fun none the less.That one was replaced with a new Harris solid state transmitter.Now lots of analog TV transmitters are sadly going to the krusher-how to save them? useless today.Guess they are being recycled to make new DIGITAL transmitters!
 
To have one's own transmitter

How cool it would have been to have that transmitter! If a wealthy relative left you money... then maybe it was doable. Yeesh, think of the power and phase issues you would have to arrange. Yikes.
I wonder nowadays about the viability of small radio or TV stations. Oddly, I turned on my 1976 Admiral B&W and up came a TV station that just did a slideshow for a local radio station on CH 6 VHF. My 1970 Admiral color brought in UHF stations from somewhere. There seems to still be some analog transmission out there....
Either that or Admiral branded televisions have some time-warp powers that I was unaware of.
 
TV

I say it would be awesome to have that transmitter! My friend has 3 phase in has garage to run his welders. I asked him one time and he said it wasn't too difficult to get. The power company loves money! Anyway, I do love repairing old tube radios and TV's although my knowledge is limited. I can read schematics and find them pretty straight forward but sometimes it can be confusing tracing stuff down. I also lack the proper equipment to thoroughly service a set(tube tester, oscilloscope, etc.). I just finished a recap on this set and I was in the process of replacing the selenium rectifiers when my daughter was born. Since then I couldn't find the time to tinker with much of anything. The set is in a storage unit due to the lack of space in my apartment. 1955 Motorola

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Nice Motorola

Great set. Cosmetics are very nice. A glass top too?
I so understand how life takes one away from projects. However, it'll still be there when you are ready to get back to it !
.... I totally agree, those selenium rectifiers must go....
 
Thank you! The top isn't glass, just really shiny wood! The outside is in great shape except for that missing plate that covers the knobs. After a good cleaning, the inside is pretty good too. The selenium in this set are terribly leaky. Nothing a couple of diodes and a drop resistor won't take care of! I'll eventually get back into the set, in time. Maybe my daughter can help one day! Here's the underside of the chassis after the recap.

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Selenium Rectifiers

I have an old textbook on T.V. repairs, which says of Selenium Rectifiers-

"Failures in this type of rectifier are characterised by a remarkably unpleasant smell"

Boy!! did I find that out, AND what an understatement it was!!
It was many years back when I was still living 'at home' with my parents. I powered up a set, and there was a tiny puff of smoke from the rectifier... Minutes later, my parents were most unamused to have all the doors and windows open in the depths of Winter, trying to get rid of the Godawful Stench which had pervaded every room in the house.
It was a lesson well learned... From then on, anything with old 'metal rectifiers' in it got powered up outside first!!

Thanks for the memories...

Dave T
 
TV and other broadcast transmitters---Yes- I really like them.But they are NOT household fixtures.The 3 ph supplies they need are large--even that 12Kw RCA low band Ch#2 model would need at least 75Kva of 208-220V 3 ph to work.This rigs are LARGE and HEAVY!The transmitter would have to be put on a concrete floor.A home type wood floor would buckle under their weight.And the power bill!!Even just to run it a few min onto a dummy load is going to cost you.For those old rigs-the tubes and other parts are no longer available.You have to try to find them from other stations or EBay.And DON'T even think about trying to broadcast without a license!!You will hear from the FCC in short time-and pay a large fine.The RF output of these rigs is DANGEROUS--can cause body heating and burns.The HV supplies in transmitters are DEADLY-not for someone who won't take safety precautions!
The "free" transmitter was another RCA-later model from the 1980's.Ironically I fixed this rig and made it airworthy-the station management decided on getting A Harris "Platinum" 40Kw solid state transmitter until they could get a Harris "Sigma" digital one.The poor RCA went to the scrapper.I got some of the parts from it.Was sort of sad to me.You get something working --then its scrapped.This rig was 50Kw out on Ch#8.The power costs for running TV rigs is high-becuase of the wide bandwidth of video signals-the RF power amp stages have to run at Class A and AB1.So the power and tube costs are high.The Aural or sound section can run at Class C. This rig ran from 480V 3ph-and would require about 150Kw.To cool those visual power stages-each tube--there were two 25Kw stages-and each had its own 7Hp blower.The driver/Aural cabinet had a 5Hp blower.Rig was RCA.The tubes for it are still made but cost about $12,000 each.The driver and aural ones are about $6,000 each.The dummy load was water cooled.Was fun to work on-rebuilt the tube sockets-but a transmitter of this size would be impractical to have at home.The two power transmformers weighed in at over 2 tons each.Lots of copper and iron there!I enjoy working on these but not so good to have one at home.Would be nice in a way-just don't run it-or at least have the tubes light up.You would have to run the blowers for that.I knew a fellow that collected 1Kw AM broadcast transmitters-yes these could be for free-and much lighter to move than the TV rigs-and you can run the 1Kw AM from a 240V 30A dryer outlet.A dummy load is built into the roof of the cabinet.
Selenium rectifiers-some RCA transmitters used these in the bias and LV power supplies-many times have had the STENCH of them burning out-just replace them with silicone diodes and change the transformer taps to a lower output voltage setting.
Those older transmitters were indeed beautiful-something most people never see.Their chrome and glass veiwing windows to see tubes and other parts in operation.All those lighted pushbutton switches-and tuning controls.They are fun-but not at home.I enjoy the rigs in their station habitats.The SW transmitters at the place I am at now-some are as big as a small house!!
 
hi guys

i have this lot lurking on this side of the water first is a Bush stereo radiogram you can just see a Grundig radio hiding behind a pile of ironing

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ITT

stereo from 1971 i use this a lot to play all my old K TEL compilation albums that were so quiet you need the volume up full to hear them this thing plays them well probably because its from the same era

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doors

open it has four speakers in the bottom two 10 inch woofers and two 3 inch tweeters and it sounds amazing although the stereo effect is limited having all the speakers in the same enclosure please disregard all the mugshots on the top

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