Please let us know about your Zenith consoles!

[Firedome]

I've had just 1 Zenith console, that looked more like a glorified phonograph on legs, light enough that I could pick it up by myself. The cabinet was modern-ish styled, and it had just a Zenith labeled record player (a VM 1200?) and a plain 3-knob amp control panel, very minimal. It had a SE amp, I forget what tubes, those here look too short to be 6BQ5, 6AQ5 or 7695 maybe? with a hot-chassis, very small xfmrs, and a selenium stack rectifier, again, a real bean-counter special. Don't have a pic of the cabinet, but the amp was a lot like this one, an audio equivalent of a '62 Falcon with 3 spd column shift, R & H...cheap!!

Let us know about your experience with Zenith consoles, past & present! Hopefully better than this cheesy thing!

[electra225]

I wouldn't hazard a guess on those output tubes. My first guess would be 35/50EH5, but those are too short/fat. Looks like the socket holes in the chassis are bigger than the tube sockets. 3KO2 is the chassis number. Do you have the Sams?

[hermitcrab]

Schematic puts them as 7695 beam amplifiers producing 4.5 watts

[Firedome]

I checked radiomuseum, yes it's the 7695 alright, an audio output tube that I've never seen before on paper or in practice! Used in portable record player and TV audio output stages?

[hermitcrab]

It is about the simplest amplifier I ever saw , I would replace the selenium rectifier if anything...

[Motorola minion]

I checked radiomuseum, yes it's the 7695 alright, an audio output tube that I've never seen before on paper or in practice! Used in portable record player and TV audio output stages?

The Westinghouse console I have, larger than the mini your uncle had, uses 7695s. The bass is surprisingly good too.

[Motorola minion]

Zenith was a fine console manufacturer alright, with best build quality in the business IMHO. They had Voice of Music supply great record changers, offered a lot of modern Danish styles in the late 60s, made quality solid state designs through the "Allegro" series of components in the mid-late 70s. The only down side to their longevity in HiFi equipment was the use of BSR record changers after V-M was no longer available in 1975 .

The 59-63 tuners are super duper performers using tubes, but I have too many Zenith consoles, just like my Motorola excess!

SF183

and Canadian model SF177 both missing companion amp/speaker cabinet

SF177E.jpg (108.64 KiB) Viewed 1505 times

ML2505, MK2635 with SE 6BQ5s which both had same chassis as this MT1971 I restored and sold.

For solid state, X940 wildly rated 140 watts, Z966 outrageaosly advertised with 320 watts but with a fantastic Zenith-made belt-drive record player like the MK2635.

Z966 ad.jpg (39.43 KiB) Viewed 1505 times

[Motorola minion]

It is about the simplest amplifier I ever saw , I would replace the selenium rectifier if anything...

...and that "firecracker" electrolytic underneath. Even Zenith used lousy parts on occasion

[TC Chris]

What on earth is a "professional record changer"? Record changers were never used in "professional" applications (radio stations, recording studios, etc.). And "320 watts" was most certainly instantaneous micro-second peak power @ 125 VAC input. Everybody was doing that, of course (except Heath et al.) and it's why the FTC stepped in to regulate power claims.

Chris Campbell

[SeniorSteve]

Zenith used "Professional" to designate their in house belt driven changer in the TOTL consoles, and used "Precision" to describe the consoles that used the VM 2G changer used in the rest of them. I don't think they used the Garrard or BSR changers until somewhere in the early 1970's. I believe the last year the belt driven changer was in was the 1969 model years, and then they changed to the Garrard 3500 series for the TOTL line for the next couple of years.

[Firedome]

"professional" was just marketing BS, as was "laboratory", a term quite a few used, and equally specious.

[TC Chris]

It's always beneficial to be reminded of advertising malarkey, because it goes on today. It's easy to be suckered....

Chris Campbell

[hermitcrab]

I still want to know what the Zenith "Allegro" moniker was all about... never heard any difference in them...according to definition it is just a tempo in the music ... I guess other reproducers could not reproduce music tempo

[Motorola minion]

Here are some more of those very familiar looking models, attached on this post is a 1960 SFD2565 console I just picked up for $100 on Ebay, fortunately just 2 hours north, so I picked it up on Friday on the way home from a jobsite The pictures are from the seller. I opened it up and found replacement tubes on the 6BQ5 PP stereo amp chassis, so there are hours on it. The extended stereo should be interesting next to the Motorola 3-channel.

Next post will be pictures are of a 1963 MH2635 which is the version of the single-ended 6BQ5 amp with slightly more power, FM stereo tuner reverb tank/3-tube chassis with a silly control location in the record compartment , not on the front panel like RCA or Motorola. It has the Zenith-made cobra tonearm changer.