1967 Astrosonic 100

[stbasil]

Well, my attempt to procure the other 2-piece Maggie has not born fruit--I think the seller may have been offended by my offer!

But, I have found an Astrosonic high-end unit, according to the 1967 catalogue, it's the Corinth Astrosonic 100 #3901. The price is right at $50! Going to look at it tomorrow afternoon, I hope. Here is a pic from another listing, but I think it is walnut and the one I will look at is pecan (which I would prefer).

astro100.jpg (9.7 KiB) Viewed 7006 times

This model has horns and 15" woofers. One question I have, though: I assume the woofers fire out the sides, horns out the front. This year had unsealed speaker enclosures, I think. I wonder if there is any opening, like a tuned vent or something, on the front of the unit for the sound from the woofers, or are they strictly on the side? A drawback of this design is that you really have to leave the sides of the unit wide open to the room--one of the locations in our living room would put it between two walls, in a cove the is only a little wider than the unit itself (cove is 74", unit is 66")

Also wondering if it has germanium transistors--looks like interstage transformers for sure, based on pictures in the catalogue. This thing probably weighs a ton!

[William]

That would be correct, Bill, the woofers fire out the ends and the horns are front firing. Also, the speakers should be open to the inside of the cabinet with no bass port in the front. The other thing to keep in mind is that the horns start their frequency at 1000 cycles, which means the woofers go from their lowest point to the 1000 cycles mark. Somewhere in the future Magnavox switched over to their sealed speaker systems but I believe that did not happen until the 70's.

Bill

[stbasil]

Went to look at this unit, and found all the speakers missing when I removed the back panel to check. The seller lied to me on the phone when I specifically asked if anything was missing, and I drove an hour each way to find that out! This guy could lie with a straight face, even when his lie was exposed, "I didn't know" he said. Yeah, right.

Oh well, onward and upward!

[maxidyne]

I have a set of speakers that came out of a stereo theater that had the 100 watt Amp if they would help you ....

[TC Chris]

Went to look at this unit, and found all the speakers missing when I removed the back panel to check. The seller lied to me on the phone when I specifically asked if anything was missing, and I drove an hour each way to find that out! This guy could lie with a straight face, even when his lie was exposed, "I didn't know" he said. Yeah, right.

Oh well, onward and upward!

Ouch. It puts me in mind of the old saying that character is how you behave when nobody is looking. If a person can misbehave under scrutiny, he must be really compromised.

It's possible, and maybe even likely given the price, that he was just a flipper--a guy who bought the unit, plugged it in, and no sound came out, so he assumed it "needed a tube" and priced it low because of that.

Chris Campbell

[stbasil]

Nope, no innocent flipper, he's just a bald-faced liar. Several other things he said were outright lies. But, I have learned my lesson--before I drive any distance, I will have the seller send me a picture of the insides with the back removed!

[William]

I am sorry you were misled, Bill. Unfortunately, that happens but it is a good thing that you removed the back before you loaded it in your vehicle, got it home and then discovered the problem. Keep looking, and if you are not stuck on Magnavox, please consider Motorola, Voice of Music, RCA, GE, Zenith, or any other brand for that matter. They all made high end stuff and will sound great.

Bill

[electra225]

It's hard to deal with a liar. Sorry you had to drive a distance, just to be disappointed. The one you do score will make all the difficulties seem to be worth it. Good luck!

[wparks]

Caveat emptor . . . Yes, good for checking.

Depending upon the layout and condition I probably would have talked him way down in price and bought it for parts. Depending upon which chassis it has, probably still worth it. Did it happen to have a separate amplifier chassis, or was it all integrated into one? A separate amp chassis would still be very worthwhile.

[William]

Being an Astro-Sonic 100 it would have had a separate amp.

Bill

[stbasil]

When I saw it was missing horns and woofers, I did not bother to see if the amp was still in there, but quite likely it was also stripped. I was so disgusted with the guy, I just left. I'm not looking for parts, especially from a scumbag seller. I should have paid more attention to some of his marketplace seller ratings, several of which stated he was dishonest!

Thanks for everyone's encouragement, now I'm ready to put this episode in the rearview mirror!

[TC Chris]

And make sure you post a rating....

Chris Campbell

[hermitcrab]

Thats crazy.... the seller should be up front about it... there are restorers that could use it for parts or even restore all the missing parts to make it complete.

[Brettzky99]

Blessing in disguise. a big solid state coffin is a nightmare to move and to work on. The name of this forum is a nod to their magnificent tube era equipment, which is what you want.

[William]

I like your new Avatar, Elton.

Bill