A 'Vintage' question .....
- Thread starter Mikado463
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CPP
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- #3
Thanks Chris, my friend is trying to find out if there would be any value / interest in restoring it ? I haven't seen his yet but the pics (IMO) portray a pretty cool piece of audio history from 60 plus years ago. Kinda brings back memories of our families first stereo console (Stromberg - Carlson) from that era.
mep
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I don't see any value there. It's old junk.
W9TR
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Very interesting piece. Probably needs all new capacitors. The denizens @ Audiokarma will be all over this as it is pretty unique piece.
- Thread Author
- #8
Tom, thanks for reply. Yeah, while I haven't seen it yet, my buddy who's a member of our 'coffee clutch' asked me to do a little research before he decides what to do. I had to laugh at mep's reply calling it 'junk' (perhaps he's a kid and wasn't part of that era) but the fact that it retailed for $360 back in '59 tells me it was for sure not junk at the time. Again, those of us old enough to remember that transitional time (early sixties to early seventies) from console to separates know what I'm talking about !
mep
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First of all, I was born before that piece of junk hit the market. Second, this piece was never designed to be a great piece of audio gear. The company actually did make some limited gear that was meant to be at a much higher level than their standard offerings.
Randy Myers
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I think it is a cool piece of audio history. For sentimental reasons alone it is worth doing his best to restore it 
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- #11
I think it is a cool piece of audio history. For sentimental reasons alone it is worth doing his best to restore it
Randy, while I've yet to see it in person my buddy brought some pics to coffee this AM and it still looks very nice, beautiful mahogany veneer still looks good in the photo. He has all paperwork including schematics and one of are other buds is pretty skilled with a soldering iron(he's a longtime HAM) so I think I've convinced him to re-cap and re-tube !
brad225
Well-known member
Before retirement I also did antique restoration. It could be very valuable antique to a piece of virtually no value.
The no value pieces were always a family memory. I would tell them do this because, you love the piece, not because you think it will be valuable to someone else.
The answer was always the same. Thank you for telling me that but, we want it repaired.
atmasphere
Active member
Asking for a friend eh?
I've worked on a lot of the old VM stuff. Most of it is junk as @mep indicated. This one is unusual and far less junky then the usual fare. Its unusual to see a PP amplifier used in their gear or for that matter, separate speakers. I'd say go for it- although its likely not worth much it is very unusual as far as VM goes. I'd be very concerned if not for the 'sentimental value'. Its going to cost $500-$700 to do it properly IMO/IME. A fun thing to do would be to set up a Bluetooth receiver in it on the auxiliary input so you can play your phone through it- that might at least make it useful.
You can get a replacement idler or have the old one rebuilt from/by Russell Industries. Russell Industries, Inc.
You can likely find a filter can combination that will work at cedist.com
I would not trust any resistors and coupling caps in the unit. You'll want to check all of them.
W9TR
Active member
This will be a fun project for a piece with some sentimental value. Especially because it sounds like it is in good physical condition. Everything else can be easily fixed. Let us know how it all works out.