Classic Hifi Care

This just came into my possession. Zenith SFD111 portable from my grandmother's house. I can remember she had the "Oklahoma!", "South Pacific" and "Sound of Music" soundtracks. Last I heard it play was maybe 45 years ago. I honestly thought my uncle threw it out but now I'm cleaning up his estate.

Platter or motor seem frozen and amp is noisy. Had it on the dim bulb tester first. It'll clean up nicely but I see they don't sell for much. Still an heirloom. This is the same house I got my Edison diamond disc player from.

Nice find! And a family heirloom to boot, you can't beat that. From what I have read, it has SE 6BQ5 audio output, so it should be a good performer. The changer looks like a VM, so, that being the case, should be fairly easy to get going again. Good luck with the restoration!

Is there a shared low-frequency speaker in the main unit, behind the removable ones?

And as to Edisons, both of mine, disc & cylinder, were gifts from members of original-owner families, too. It makes them more significant, doesn't it?

Chris Campbell

I haven't found a schematic for it yet, but my guess is that there are two speakers in the cabinet, along with the two in front that are removable. Most of the table model stereos I have seen have a similar feature.

Single oval in the center between the removables.

No time to dive into it for awhile. Gary doesn't have the astatic 13t for it.

Did he recommend a retrofit? I have done several and they all worked out just fine.

Didn't ask yet. Want to get it working first. He does have the idler.

All I can find on it are a couple ads from 1959.

The Zenith has a 10 inch bass woofer, and the other 2 are mid-range
speakers.
Schematic : Sams 526-13.

The short head V-M Cobra tonearm can be fitted with a
Tetrad kit from the Voice of Music.

https://thevoiceofmusic.com/catalog/par ... th%20Cobra

Super nice post by Ed at ARF Phonographs of complete servicing a V-M Cobra:

https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewto ... ion+zenith

It will be interesting to see how Zenith dealt with the circuits for your 3 channel stereo. Every manufacturer had a different idea and for the most part they all sounded pretty good. Seeing the price tag in the ad, it looks like your Zenith was definitely a higher end model as was the table radio at $129.00. It is nice when something gets handed down in a family and a very pleasant surprise when you thought it was lost and then all of sudden there it is. Have fun with it, Walter, and I hope once rebuilt it will bring back lots of memories.

Bill

I've got 3 of those table radios (H-845). They were updated versions of the G-725. I've got 3 of those too. They manage to find me. All of them were very good radios for the time.

One of my H-845s was my grandfather's, a gift from my Dad. I've also got Grandpa's first radio, an RCA Radiola 17. Only 32 years separate those radios! I don't know about you, but 30 years seems like the blink of an eye. (Thinking about a favorite movie line: Anthony Hopkins in Meet Mr. Black-- "60 years, don't they pass in a blink?")

Chris Campbell

electra225 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 01, 2025 9:47 pm Did he recommend a retrofit? I have done several and they all worked out just fine.

Gary offers a Cobramatic kit with a great sounding tetrad ceramic cartridge, requires soldering and glue but sounds fantastic. By now Any NOS astatic cartridges likely sound out of tolerance even with zero miles on them because the yoke the stylus rests on have hardened.