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WOW! what some great pictures! Those old systems really look nice! I remember one of the members here had found a new, in the box Motorola with a reel-to-reel tape deck in it too! When you see equipment like that, it really makes you sad that the American electronics industry is pretty much gone. There's an old Silvertone console stereo at my church that is in the choir room. I'm gonna hafta take some pictures of it sometime!

Those Victorolas are quite remarkable, especially the fact that they can produce a significant amount of volume without using any electrical amplification!

I've got one of those Pioneer 8-track decks too Bob!
 
Voice of Music

Here is a picture of my voice of music console that I had completey restored. When i got it at a estate sale it had had a hard life. The lid prop was frozen and the turn table didn't work and it would hardly pick up any stations. I had it completely refinished with the original stain and matching high gloss shine. The amp and turntable were completely rebuilt and all tubes replaced. As you can tell she is a very nice console and she sounds better then some of the solid state ones I've heard before. I had the work done by a man who owns a company called Joe4radios and he does TV's as well. He rebuilt my Philco Predicta for me and it is stunning!
 
Clairtone Stereo

I've had this stereo for 10 years. It is a 1966 Clairtone Project G2. It was made in Canada.

This sat at an estate sale for 3 days and was one of the last pieces left in the house - nobody could figure out how to turn it on. A little contact cleaner on the buttons and 500+ records later, it has turned out to be one of my favorite purchases. I listen to this every day.
 
Since people are sharing...

Here's Marilyn, my Silvertone console. I really love that the emblem at the bottom front lights up.
The speakers on the ends swing out and can be removed and placed farther apart. The speaker cords have automatic rewind!
This also has a socket for a remote control, but danged if I've ever seen one or what it would do.

veg
 
Veg---

I would venture a guess that your remote control acted like the "reset" switch on your changer, basically stopping the current record playing, moving the tone arm out, and dropping the next record down.

In addition, if there is a motorized baffle in front of your speakers, there may be a rudimentary "volume" control.

The remote control on my Seeburg jukebox does the above.

Nice consoles everyone!

:-)
 
Everyone's console is gorgeous!

Veg, yours is amazing looking as well as yours kevinpreston!

One day I will find one in a honey wood color... sigh...
 
SILVERTONE CONSOLES

Well, my Silvertone console is just about like yours Veg, only my emblem does not and never did light up, but now that I've heard yours does - maybe one day mine will too!~ I obviously repainted this five dollar beauty and now it kinda looks like it belongs to Barbie.
 
SILVERTONE INNARDS

Here's the receiver and turntable inside which both work just dreamy. Kinda like a nightmare, actually....well maybe not THAT BAD......the shot is a little low, but the receiver says Custom High Fidelity across the top of the dial...so I figured a custom paint job was not TOO far out of the question.
 
I recently saw a 60's Magnavox at an estate sale and I was dying to take it home, but alas, it won't fit into an Audi. The thing was in beautiful shape and needed only a phonograph needle. Since the homeowner's daughter hasn't sold the house yet, there is still a chance if I can figure how to get it home.......
 
Gary, that Clairtone is very nice. They weren't a high end maker and usually sold their stuff at furniture "marts" , K-Marts and Woolco's rather than tv and appliance stores or better department stores. BUT they did put out some very "moderne" looking stereo's and tv's which are collectibles now.

Here's my Westinghouse console with "custom crafted cabinet" Garrard turntable and sliding front speaker covers. Sounds ok but nothing to write home about. It was because of these things that my father, a true audiophile, wouldn't have one in the house but rather built all his own equipment and was an early convert to Japanese components systems. We got our first component system by the late 60s, a Kenwood receiver, Dual turntable, Sansui tape deck and can't remember the speakers.. It's all still down in moms basement rec room I believe.
 
WOW!! some really neat console hi-fi pictures-love that pink silvertone.Some other thoughts I had about Hi-fi in general over my weekend-One of the big boosts to modern Hi-fi console and componet-was the invention of the beam power tube by RCA in the WW2 period.That device alone made for more compact and efficent Hi-Fi amps for consoles,radios,Tv's and of course hi-Fi component amps-these tubes are still used and available today-Guitarists love them-the tube family of 6V6,6L6,6CA7-EL-34,6550,7027,8417.Lots of these bottles found there way into Hi-fi's of all sorets-yes they still needed an output transformer-that is a necissity for any tube amp feeding a speaker.remember high tube plate load impedance of several thousand ohms has to be stepped down to 4-16ohms for a speaker.The beam power tube has high gain per stage so less stages are needed-with 6CA7,6550's you could build a 50-60W amp with only 3 amplification stages for the 60W out. with an all triode amp would be many-and yes some "audiophiles" use all triode amps today-they are big,inefficent and expensive.and also the invention fo the minature tube during the same era also made for more compact in less expensive equipment.Another boom that came during the WW2 era was the Perminent Magnet speaker-no energy draining electro-magnet coils that had to be energized separately.Movie houses LOVED that.You had to have a separate DC supply to energize the magnets.This helped for home Hi-FI as well-both consoles and components-it even made the "bookshelf" hi-fi speaker system possible.
 
Was looking again at the pictures --and yes the Califone unit-in the Bobofhollywood pics-with the pink Silvertone reminds me of school and the square dance lessons and sessions I was in as a small boy.The square dance caller had one of those-almost like the Caliphone machine in the picture-loved how it sounded-and the caller could mix his mic in with the records he was playing.Our family went to those square dance sessions every weekend when I was in elementary school.Was fun.
 
Didn't Zenith..

make a model similar to that Claritone? I seem to remember a unit similar to that with either ball type speakers or those round ones with the upturned white cones in them near the top.
Anyone else remember this? Circa 1968
 
Cool consoles guys! I had a GE that I got from an employer for $25 and couldnt believe the sound quality. It only had a record changer and tuner but had hook ups for reel to reel. I added a CD and enjoyed it for many years until its size became a factor in selling it. Used it ten years and then sold it for $35 to a friend who loved it. Pretty good investment!
 
The only other "modern" stereos I recollect were also Canadian made by Electrohome. Theres was a round saucer shape with a plexiglas dome sitting on a fluted pedestal and two remote "balls" for speakers.
 
I had a set of those speakers at one time. Ehh, they weren't great. I had a set of Zenith Allegro speakers the kicked azz. I almost picked up a Zenith "Wedge" a long time ago but good thing cause I would've lost it in the hurricane.

I did have a Zenith allegro system with that cool radio dial that lighted numbers that switched between am and fm.

That Zenith record player is a catch! VW record player with the cool Zenith T-shaped stylus.
 

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