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Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 5:21 pm
by electra225
I know this is a console stereo forum, but I like this TV. Not crazy about the blonde cabinet, but I like the basic layout. I avoid Zenith radios like the plague, but I have a lot of respect for Zenith TV sets. You can store one in a shed for 40 years, plug it in with no safety equipment whatsoever connected, and it will probably work somewhat. I don't know where I'd put it, but I would like to have a Zenith black and white console TV. When I find one I like, it is always too far away, shipping is a killer anymore....
https://www.ebay.com/itm/305118487087?h ... BM9vfbkfti
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 7:34 pm
by William
Nice looking set. If you take the speaker off the left side and put it under the picture tube you would have my RCA BW set which is available to anyone who wants it as TV's are way above my pay grade.
Bill
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 7:44 pm
by TC Chris
That photo makes me sad. 30 years ago when I moved, I had to thin the herd considerably, and I spent a lot of time giving stuff away. I had a similar blond Zenith, a curbside find, although I think the speaker was under the CRT instead of beside it. It had the same cool channel changer knob--a device with an internal weight so the channel no. appeared at the top as the knob rotated. It was working. Nobody would take it. On my last day of possession after the house sold, I called a local junk hauler and everything I could not move went onto the truck, including that TV. I salvaged knobs, tubes, safety glass, and speaker but then had the sad duty of lifting the console onto the truck. It still makes me unhappy to think about it. But if anybody has a Zenith that needs the cool knob, I've got one.
Chris Campbell
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:20 pm
by 19&41
For it's apparent age, that unit is nice! My mother bought a Zenith color console in 1962 on time. That unit lasted until 1981 when they bought a new solid state Bradford color console. The Zenith was still working then, but looked old with a round tube.
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 9:41 pm
by electra225
The black plastic Zenith TV I have has a hot chassis and is not the prettiest TV Zenith built. It was stored for eons. I did bring it up slowly, per Shango's instructions. It worked just fine and still does. The only work I put into it was testing the "jug" and dusting it a bit. It was a curb find.
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:16 pm
by walyfd
I'd KILL for a fisher Living Theatre tv/console. Like the all-in-one Maggies. I really enjoyed the progress of that 6 knob set from MM...
Let's face it, these were all home entertainment systems of the era. And you could wire in the TV audio to your audio console...
Today, we have all that and more on a phone...
Re: Zenith console TV set
Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:27 pm
by electra225
There is (or was last week) a Zenith combination on ebay. It had a black and white TV as I recall. You may have missed the topic on Vintage where I went thru a Stereo Theater than I'm still not done with. Wonderful devices, works of electronic art. Slapped together with off-the-shelf parts, but were the best of the best in their day. If you ever get the chance to do one, you should. One of the most satisfying projects I ever got involved with. I had the cabinet apart as far as I could get it, I gutted the electronics and the picture tube fell out on the floor after I removed the mask.
