1962 Magnavox Restoration

[rinso]

OK, so it's not an appliance, but it is vintage. I was able to find a 1962 tube-type Magnavox AM, FM, phonograph stereo console. Some years ago, I rebuilt a 1960 IronRite rotary ironer. The stereo console I procured had spent many years in a barn, so I brought it home for a hobby project. The first thing I did was clean the outside, which had only a couple of small nicks, and a water mark on one of the sliding lids. This is a twenty-watt per channel with a separate pre-amplifier and power amplifier. Fortunately, the cherry wood matches the wood on my other furniture and my baby grand piano. It has well-known British-made Collaro record changer, unique in that it uses the tone arm to measure the size of the record before dropping it. The speakers consist of two side firing 12 inch Jensen woofers and two front-firing 1000HZ exponential horns. The crossover frequency is at 1000HZ, something I expect to increase when I get into the works.

 

[ea56]

What a great find Eugene! The cabinet looks almost like new. These old tube console stereos had really warm sound and great speakers. I bet you have it working great too.

Eddie

 

[supersuds]

One of my uncles had a Magnavox of this vintage, and similar styling, but also with a B&W TV. I think you'll like it. The record changer was fun to watch. My uncle had a lot of 78 rpm records, and the changer cycled much faster than with 33s, of course, so I loved to watch that! Micromatic Magnavox!

 

[jakins]

Very nice

Does yours have the multiplex. for Stereo FM. mine does not. I do use a blue tooth adapter on the aux. the rca plugs are inside the cabinet.

 

[mattl]

Growing up my folks bought a similar console but traditional styling about '62.  It was an OK system for the time, when we got rid of it I did save the turntable - still have it tucked away in a closet somewhere. I remember enjoying how it managed to drop a 45 out of a stack of them, I think 7 or 8 of them was the max.

 

That system may have got me started on my way to spending 10's of thousands of $ over the decades on audio equipment.

 

[rinso]

Jakins, this looks exactly like mine except for the turntable. Back in 1962, if you wanted FM stereo, you'd have to purchase an optional FM stereo decoder, which plugged into the preamplifier. I have re-built the separate power amplifier, but am updating the crossover network. The original one crosses over a 1KHZ, which is a bit too soon for my taste. Those very efficient horns, can be very shrill if a person likes the sound of percussion as they increase the treble control.

 

[rinso]

Update

One of the first things I did after cleaning everything is to replace the crossover network with a newer one. The original had the crossover frequency at 1KHZ, but I like hearing percussion without the shrillness of the ultra-efficient horns. Crossing the treble frequencies at more than 2KHZ, eliminated that issue.

 

[rp2813]

Our 1962 Ward's (surprise!) Airline stereo console had a multiplex button as well as an "FM Lock" button, which I presume was the same as AFC.  I've forgotten who the actual manufacturer was for Ward's electronics of this type back then, but it certainly wasn't a high end maker like Magnavox.

 

[rinso]

RP2813: My girlfriend's family owned a Wards stereo console back in 1964. It was all solid state, it had side-firing bass woofers and front firing exponential horns so I always assumed that it was made by Magnavox. The record changer, however, was not a Collaro but resembled most ordinary changers of the day. It had the characteristic of most solid state consoles of that time, having boom-y bass and dull treble.