Cool $20 flea market HiFi find!

[Cybrvanr]

I found this nifty little Stromberg-Carlson today at a flea market for $20, and he plays great. The only thing I can find wrong with it is that the right hand audio circuit does not have quite as much bass as the left side at the same setting. This appears to be a tone amplifier issue that I'll look into.

In these pictures, I took, I was just using my little I-pod shuffle to provide tunes to it, but the real fun began when I hooked up the old Garrard turntable. Not seen in the picture, but I've got this unit connected up to an old set of Advent bookshelf speakers in my bedroom.

I tell you what, it pays to have properly matched gear. The Pickering cartridge in the turntable is defnitely made for a tube pre-amp, because it only sounds ho-hum on that...but on this S-C...WOW!!! I put on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", and the square-wave synthesizers just put shivers down your spine they were so crisp and sharp! I also played the Doors "Light My Fire" on it. If one listens closely, you can hear the key clicks in the organ Jim Morrison is playing as the relays switch in and out with each note...never heard that before. The bass isn't bad either. Although the little 8 inch speakers I was using wern't going to cause cracks in the drywall, they certainly make for a nice warm sound that you can just loose youself in. Let it be said, there's nothing like vacuum tubes audio!!!

 

[Cybrvanr]

Here's another shot from the top. The unit is actually a separate pre-amp, and power amp, with the inputs in the middle. It uses 7355 outputs, and 7199 pre-amp tubes in the power amp. The pre-amp uses 12AX7, and 12AU7 tubes in it...pretty standard stuff. I plugged all the tubes into the tube tester, and they came out good. Many of them are the original stromberg tubes.

I have looked up some info on Stromberg Carlson, and can't find much on their Hi-Fi line. They made a ton of radios, and were bought out by General Dynamics in 1955. Not sure the vintage of mine, if it was a post G-D unit or not. Stromberg also made telephones into the seventies. Still, this appears to be one of their few and only Hi-fi stereos

This unit though certainly shows many signs of being a high-end, if not professional grade unit. For one, it has individual volume and tone controls for each channel, hum adjustments on the rear, and a phase switch up front...I've seen that balance signal switch before on old gear...It puts a click in the speakers like a metronome so you can adjust the balance for optimal sound.

The unit didn't have a cover, or at least it was missing. Don't know if it was removed from a console stereo, or if it was always a stand-alone, and the cover was lost. Not a big deal, since I like having the tubes exposed anyways!

 

[Cybrvanr]

I had to take the cover off the bottom...Yipee..I found schematics on the bottom plate (not shown) For any of you folks here that ever deal with antique electronics, you probably know you just don't go and plug these things in without checking things first! I took the bottom cover off to at least check and make sure everything was intact and wired up...yep, everything looks like it's here and hasn't been touched. One of the things that can wreck a piece of antique electronics fast is if the old wax-paper capacitors have shorted. Luckily these are all ceramics, and they are all good. Very well made piece inside. I can certainly see how printed circuit boards made electronic construction faster and cheaper. All this stuff had to be hard-wired by hand! Not so much a big deal on a little 5-tube tabletop radio, but a complex hi-fi stereo like this, it can get kinda daunting!!!

 

[tolivac]

WOW!! Very nice amp.I too can remember the DETAILS like what you heard in your music when it is played thru a tube system.I could remember that when I used my tube amps.The audio inputs on the top of the preamp section is very different.Makes it easier to patch components into it rather than the back inputs.Just to think "Audiophools" today pay thousands of dollars for a new intergrated amp like what you got at the yard sale.Will take a vintage one anyway-much less expensive-and you can fix it up yourself-the other companies I know of charge hundreds if not almost a thousand dollars to refurbish a vintage amp.Lots of luck with it!!The tubes it uses are still available.Try musical instrument dealers-Many guitar amps use the same tubes.

 

[Kevinpreston3]

Love that control panel....

and I bet those knobs have a quality feel to them that they had back then. Electronic goods are so flimsy and disposable now. I took my wife's Sony laptop apart to troubleshoot the PCIM/CIA slot and the power switch snapped off, it is nothing more than about a 1/16", or less, of plastic. Just freaking junk.

The switches on my big Motorola hi fi ALL work and click and clunk into place so nicely. Hmmm, 45 year old hi fi and three year old computer.

Occasionally I see a hi fi console that some numnut took the components out of for a freaking guitar amp. You could tuck that baby inside with big speakers and have yourself a custom mid-century modern delight.

 

[tolivac]

In looking at the picture of the front control panel-love the seperate tone and level controls for each channel-that unit was built in the days when "Hi-Fi" was more serious.The controls could let you compensate for tonal diffrences and level diffrences in those early stereo recordings.I also like having the tubes in the open-but if you have pets or kids around--you need the "cage" or cover to prevent little paws or fingers from getting burned--Those 7355 output tubes can get hot enough to take off skin!The patchpanel design of the SC unit would prevent using a cage or cover-the cover would block the input connections.Do the speakers connect to the rear panel of the amp?Many ampmakers in those days didn't have cages for their amps to cover the tubes.They had in mind you would put the unit in a cabinet.

 

[Versatronic]

Tubes rule

Technically, Ray Manzarek played keyboards (and bass) for the doors, but I'm with you on the sound tubes give you all the way.

 

[customline]

And also technically..........

Ray Manzarek played BASS KEYBOARD (a Fender product) along with a Vox organ. Morrison played no instrument at all.

 

[Versatronic]

Duly noted

Yeah, it was keyboard bass, although in the studio, they'd occasionally hire a real bass player for the songs and then he'd play the lines on keyboard live. He's quite a talent.

 

[maytagbear]

When Jim Morrison wore

those leather pants, that was talent enough!

Great find. Stromberg-Carlson was an under-rated manufacturer, in my rancid, corroded opinion.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[Versatronic]

Well, technically,

Well, technically, Jim was playing the organ once in Miami, but apparently it wasn't too good and he was arrested for it.

 

[maytagbear]

It was just the--

wrong audience.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[kenwashesmonday]

I've never seen a Stromberg Carlson from the stereo era, but it looks they built quality untill the end.

Stromberg Carlson- the Rolls Royce of radio.

Ken D.

 

[kenwashesmonday]

The Doors

All this time I thought Manzarek played bass with his feet, like on a Hammond B3.

Ken

 

[Cybrvanr]

Jim Morrison & keyboards

interesting thread on the Doors. I've always found Jim Morrison intriguing because he has such a big voice for such a small dude. I've got an advertisment for Vox keyboards I clipped from an old magazine. It states "Jim enjoys the Psychadellic sound from the New Vox Continetal" It has a picture of him playing the keyboard with all sorts of tie-die swirly colors in the background. The funny thing about it is if you look at the organ, none of the stops are down. In that state, the organ will not put out any sound, no matter how many keys you play! I guess the psychadellic sound was coming from all the drugs he was high on! From that ad though, I thought he was playing the keyboards in the music.

 

[drmitch]

Steven that is such a cool find! I love those old tube`s! I remember those old keyboard bass`s too. I used to play bass gutiar. In 1974 I special ordered a natural finish Jazz Fender with maple fingerboard and long neck. Wish I had it now! this is my earlie 70`s Sears Silvertone Medalist, class A tube amp and reciever. It also has the tuning EYE tube that displays in front.

 

[tolivac]

Yes--tube amplification is making a comeback for muscians--Look up the "Mesa Boogie" website and look at all of the newer amps available.They also make a line of tubed "hi End" Hi-Fi gear.And Orig Hammond B3 organs are VERY VALuEABLE nowadays-most recording studios get these gems for their "musical instrument" wardrobes to rent to musicans recording in the studio.I am kicking myself for not buying one offered to me years ago for $100.

 

[tomturbomatic]

I remember being shown the chasis of an SC television. There was a cage or holder for the picture tube with two or three flat steel bands with cross members forming the cage around the tube. This was in the late 50s and the man was lamenting how that construction was already a thing of the past.

Friends had an SC console stereo. It was the only one I remember seeing.

 

[im2sxy4mywasher]

HI,

Someone mentioned that tubes are making a comeback for guitar? They never ever left. You couldn't get me to play an amp if it wasn't tube. Nothing and I mean nothing comes close to a real tube amp for a guitar.

By the way, you can get tubes easy. www.thetubestore.com and I also get some from this guy, www.eurotubes.com I've met him and been to his place before, he's not in europe actually, hehe.

mesa-boogie is over rated...at least nowadays. It's hard to find a good "new" tube amp for guitar now, but man, the old stuff is sweet. Give me a late 70's JCM800 by Marshall and I'm good. That was my favorite, the JTM45 was sweet too.

Killer find on that stereo