1958 Philco TV

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Countryford with the Chinese Stromberg

I was pretty sure that was you, no doubt the owner stripped the lacquer finish off, but it also seems like it was offered in natural wood or lacquer. Magnavox offered walnut and black lacquer on tvs and hi fi consoles for years, in their Far Eastern Contemporary theme.
 
Hey Justin, that is my exact same Admiral. Other members may not realize or believe it, but even though the Admiral was likely the least expensive of any of the sets pictured above when purchased new, it commands a higher price today than most of the consoles since at the time of manufacture the cabinet was the largest bakelite mold ever cast. <br
You have some really beautiful pieces. Good job saving them from becoming fish tanks <br
Ralph
 
Wow, what a beautiful bunch!

A friend of mine had an RCA Victor color set from the late '50s with the remote and the Chinese cabinet, the innards were in a garage full of other tvs and hi fis and the whole thing burned to the ground. The cabinet had been full of termites he said. I want a Magnavox with doors if I ever see one again.
 
Stromberg Carlson

Stromberg Carlson was an extremely well made product,fairly expensive for that day,my parents had a Hi Fi by S.C. they bought in 1952, it died when I was about 11 or 12, I sure wish I had it back, it had 2 12 inch speakers and a lot of good deep bass.
 
Ken, you are correct about the Admiral bakelite mold. I just don't know if it was the largest at the time, or largest ever, but apparently the sets are collectible at least partly due to that distinction. I just like the small size, which allows it to fit in my guest bedroom. Mine is currently hooked up to the rooftop antenna, an old school type that's been up there for years, and with a digital converter box it pulls in more stations than I thought it would.
 
Wow!!

There was the ivory Stromberg Carlson in the condo I stayed in this last summer. Original finish and all, I thought it was a novelty <br
The speaker was still there, but the TV had died and someone had shoved in a modern color TV <br
I had no idea!
 
Old TVs

I have a bunch of old TVs and the Admirals seem to be the easiest to get back into working order.I have the tall bakelite,but in a 14 inch rectangular screen.The ones that always need total recapping are the RCAs,they used terrible paper caps in the fifties.As soon as they get warm they go crazy.The best of all were the Dumont sets of the 40s and thru the late fifties.Capehart and some of the other more expensive brands used their chassis.The Dumont still holds the record of the largest direct-view black and white screen built,a 30inch Soverign.Two power supplies and two anodes on the picture tube.A few have survived and are quite expensive.They were built in 1950.Huge round pic tube.I see one of you with the pic of the RCA color set has a cataract forming on the face plate where the bonded safety glass is coming undone.They can be repaired very carefully.My 1956 color has the separate glass in front like the BW sets.
 
Magnavox claimed a 52 inch screen in the '50s

unless it was a typo in the company history brochure. On second thought, it had to have been. I saw a huge screen Emerson in a thrift store, it had a huge cabinet too. Here's a Magnavox TAC ad from the early '70s, with the armoire theatre I crave to own.

 
The bad deal with the Royal Sovereigns is that the CRT is the metal to glass bonded type. Certainly lighter, but also prone to losing vacuum over the years. Makes finding a good one doubly difficult! -Cory
 
Super cool TVs Justin! I have that same 1948 Bakelite Admiral and its picture is simply amazing. It was also the easiest of restores to do. I recapped it, put in a rebuilt 10BP4 picture tube and I had to modify the circuit slightly to get rid of the retrace lines.
 
I recently had the retrace line removal done on my '50 Admiral (the exact same TV as the '48) and I'm really happy with the results. I don't have any electronic theory experience but if you do, it's an easy fix. The picture is so nice now that when I had a fellow AW member here and showed it to him, he got bit and is wanting a B&W set of his own now <br
I do have a question for those who own early B&W sets. I find that if I use the fine tuning for sharpest picture and clearest sound, I end up getting a loud buzz whenever there is superimposed lettering displayed. I have to back off the fine tuning to reduced sharpness and volume. Is this just the way it is, or is there a way to eliminate the buzz while still adjusting for sharpest possible picture and clearest sound
 
Retrace lines are not caused by a VCR Bobby, retrace lines are caused by the beam of electrons that is moving from the bottom to the top of the phosphor coated screen to become visible. They were common in sets with more simply circuity such as the early Admirals. Vintage television sets generally cannot play video from VCRs, I'm not sure why but its something in the horizontal circuit I believe. DVD players on the hand do not have this issue and play absolutely beautiful on the earliest of tv sets <br
Ralph my sets generally do the exact same thing. Its probably the set "alignment" getting out of wack due to the aging components. The sets are aligned in the factory with 100% new parts, but as the resistors and capacitors age they tend to drift in values. I did fully align my 1951 Zenith Porthole, it took quite a bit of study and equipment to learn how to do it. Now generally with this set the sound and picture zero in together with the fine tuning, but its not exactly 100%.
 
Thanks for the info Robert. I tend to chalk it up to the novelty and charm of watching a vintage TV. It's all about appreciating it for what it is, which is not a 46" HD rig.
 
Robert hit the nail on the head. Standard procedure on some of the early sets was also to bring the brightness up just to the point of retrace (not exactly ideal). Some collectors have been known to add a blanking circuit on sets without to take care of that <br
For your buzzing problem, what you're hearing is the vertical component of the video signal spilling over into the audio. It happens when you overload the set's front end (easily done these days) as these babies were designed for aerial reception and great sensitivity. What you need is an in-line cable attenuator. -Cory
 
Alan:

<i>"Magnavox claimed a 52 inch screen in the '50s"</i <br
I wonder if that could have been a projection TV? For a little while, they were offered to get screen sizes up beyond the 25" CRT, which was considered huge for a CRT then, and was expensive <br
If you think '80s projection TV was bad, '50s projection TV was worse. There just wasn't the brightness needed for good viewing, and the lines in the enlarged picture were pretty visible. When my dad was with RCA, they'd get an oldie projection model in for repair once in a blue moon, and I never could figure out how anyone could be happy watching such a thing. None of the ones I saw were anything like 52", either.
 
Sandy, I'll check the literature today,

I have a booklet printed in 1971 with a sketchy Magnavox history, I'll re read it and post the results. Frankly, even with what little I know of electronics, I can't see such a thing either. The early color big screen tvs look awful to me too. Forget the design of the cabinets and awkward proportions. I watch a giant screen Japanese tv at the library once a week for movie day, and the picture is great. It has to be at least 20 years old.
 
Magnavox

My other Grandmother had a 27inch in around 57.It was huge also had the automatic brightness feature,it adjusted to the brightness of the room.To get rid of the buzz on some sets adjust the AGC control usually found on the back of the set,that will take away some of the sensitivity.It stands for automatic gain control.Thanks Bobby
 
Duuuuuuhhhhyukyukyuk

Who has to learn to read and stop relying on a fractured memory? That would be me.
1952-27" (diagonal measure) Televisio
Famous Magnavox Milestones 1911-Electro-Dynamic Telephon
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What you need is an in-line cable attenuator.

Is that a Radio Shack item? I'll also check the AGC. I would think the guy who added the vertical blanking recently would have tweaked things, but maybe not.
 
Alan:

I would still suspect a 27-inch Maggie of being a projection set, if such a huge screen size was available from that company in 1952. DuMont's Royal Sovereign was considered enormous at 30 inches at that time. I've done some Googling, and I have found references to 27-inch Maggies as early as '56, but not earlier, at least not yet. <br
Since Maggie was very much a luxury brand, they did tend to have sizes and features sooner than other makes, so this is hardly the last word, and I should stress that the info available on Google appears to be a long way from complete. It would be interesting to see exactly what Maggie was offering as a 27-inch set so early. Those Royal Sovereigns were sort of like Packards were to car owners - so expensive, even other luxury-make owners couldn't always justify the expenditure.
 

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