Been awhile for this topic - this gets my vote!

[Firedome]

OMG! maybe the ugliest console of all time!
Looks like Symphonic from what I can read.
It's hard to imagine jamming more tacky plastic crap into just one console.
Whoever designed this travesty of a console should hang their head in shame!

[electra225]

I hope my wife doesn't see it!

Red grille cloth is her weakness. If she had her way, everything would have red grille cloth....

Can you imagine that that setting on orange shag carpet? Boy, howdy......

[Dr. Radio]

Do my eyes deceive me?

I looked very closely at the name on top of the AM/FM tuner.

Does that say ELECTROPHONIC ?

Who or what is that?

[electra225]

Morse-Electrophonic. Sold in dime stores and places like that. Some of them didn't sound too bad. They had some unfortunate cosmetic features, though....

Maybe this helps?....

https://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_herstel ... ny_id=9815

[Dr. Radio]

Morse-Electrophonic. Sold in dime stores and places like that. Some of them didn't sound too bad. They had some unfortunate cosmetic features, though....

Maybe this helps?....

https://www.radiomuseum.org/dsp_herstel ... ny_id=9815

Thanks Greg.

[19&41]

You can't deny it does make an excellent stand for a drive-in sized flatscreen. For a darkened room, of course.

[electra225]

[walyfd]

YIKES!!! That IS NOT French Provincial!!! Zero class or elegance or the simplicity of modern. That's a blend of Mediterranean, moorish and boorish with a splash of Dali.

[19&41]

That's Spanish colonial. Watch a few episodes of Mannix to cop a load of it in his office.

[TC Chris]

YIKES!!! .... That's a blend of Mediterranean, moorish and boorish with a splash of Dali.

You captured it best! And there's no necessary connection between inexpensive and bad taste. My little curb-find Home-Mark console was a store brand, low end, but it's a handsome little thing. Here's a pre-restoration, pre-speaker replacement photo with bad lighting and it still outclasses that monstrosity.

index.png (36.98 KiB) Viewed 3164 times

Chris Campbell

[Dr. Radio]

As far as the console pictured (the one with the LCD tv on it)....is it wrong of me to use the term....

'Halloweenish'

To describe the, um, rather unique style?

[TC Chris]

As far as the console pictured (the one with the LCD tv on it)....is it wrong of me to use the term....

'Halloweenish'

To describe the, um, rather unique style?

Yeah, you're doing a disservice to a fun holiday. Nightmarish will do. Or hallucinatory.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Did you get the speakers fixed and grille cloth installed in your little stereo, Chris?

[TC Chris]

I have some more work to do. I need to trim down the masonite panels very slightly. Then there's the issue of figuring out the record changer wiring. The wires pulled out of the stupid Molex connector. All three are the same color--blue--so I'll have to figure out what each one does and which one on the changer base they connect to.

The work is mostly "on hold" because we have been working on clearing out my Mom's house, a big task. Remember that she saved the window sticker from the '61 Chevy (among many other valuable items). The little console is living in the garage there. I need a pole barn.

Chris Campbell

[Conelrad]

Best to gut that thing and use it as a casket for a vanquished enemy...

[walyfd]

Or use it as a safe. Nobody could look at it long enough to rob it.

[Firedome]

"use it as a casket" ... well if I were the deceased it'd be a good argument for cremation!
Yes that thing is in a style class of it's own... thankfully!
I saw the "...phonic" logo and Symphonic came to mind,
but Electrophonic it does appear to be!

I guess every company has their fail, just ask SpaceX... but at least they had a good excuse!
This console should have had a "planned disassembly" lol

[Motorola minion]

Symphonic was a brand sold by NY-NJ retailers, so it's no surprise this is literally made-to-order for some of the most outrageous tastes and decors in the Tri-state area. Enough of it had migrated down this way I can tell you, though proof of that is rare these days

This would have been right at home in a buy now/pay later or furniture rental operation.
By the mid 1970s, consoles were bought as some obligatory furnishing or to replace a too-gone unit without a tape deck, rather than selected from among a wide variety of styles, packages and price ranges (think late 50s RCA)

[electra225]

This stereo was made at a time when people drove Starsky and Hutch Torinos, Dodge Darts with a tornado on the quarter panel, we wore mutton-chop sideburns and afros, bell-bottom pants, shirts with ruffles on the sleeves and wide lapels. Shag carpet in the house with coppertone or avacado appliances. Life was gawdier back then, so that stereo fit right in.........

I won a GE console stereo in a contest at an auto parts store in the early 1970's. My wife informed me that if I brought "that thing" home, she was leaving.....

[Firedome]

I kinda miss those long sideburns & tight bell bottoms, I had both but missed out on a silver & red Monte Carlo to go with 'em! lol.

The red speaker cloth doesn't bother me so much, it's the rest of it that does! It even added a bit of flair to Altec's Flamenco (pic 1) with their Spanish Colonial look, fine for those who live in a California or Mexico hacienda I guess.
These came out in the early '60s and must have served as the inspiration to the cheesier console designers, but the Altec speakers, unlike them, were fine components. We had the same speaker in the slightly toned-down Valencia style (pic 2),super efficient and amazing sounding at very high volumes, but huge and way too big for certain interested parties.