Zenith MJ-1035...

[Sandy G]

Yeah, I know...We ain't sposed to talk about audio stuff here...But hear me out. This radio was one of my extreme Objets D'Lust for a long time. Finally got one, & to say the least, I was underwhelmed. This radio, on paper, oughta be a World-Beater...It was Zenith's TOTL table set from 1965, an 11 or 12 tube-Depending on version-of a proud company's cumulative knowlege of 40 years of radio-making. It needed new caps, so I took it to Terry, & I got it back ystrday. It still stinks. Basically, it is, despite having 12 tubes, NOT a very good radio. It is NOT sensitive at all. The FM section picks up one station rather badly. AM is not much better, but OTOH, I'm used to R-390As that can pick up Finland on a clear day. Also, the execution of the whole set is just second-class, especially compared to the German Grundigs, Telefunkens, et al of the day. The cabinet looks like a 10th grade shop class project, done by the "slow" class, compared to the beautiful, glass-smooth finishes on the German stuff. It has rinky-dink plastic knobs, w/cheesy chrome plating. The Germans used a creamy, heavy ivory color plastic that doesn't look like Kiddie Nite at the fair... It doesn't receive very well. It only has AM & FM, whereas the Krauts gave you that, plus a couple of shortwave bands. The German sets look, feel, & sound "Luxurious", whereas the Zenith just comes off as cheap & tacky, despite its $200 price tag, a LOT of moolah for then. American mfgers cried & complained that we quit buying their wares, but is it any wonder ? Virtually everything the Americans made for "Consumers" was obviously made for bare-bones cost, fine, but at what point do you quit taking out "cost", & start taking out "Value" as well ? The American companies would have you believe that we wouldn't listen to shortwave anyhow, well, boys, you didn't OFFER anything that HAD it, how could we ? I guess what I'm trying to say here is that by collectively being so short-sighted, by NOT offering TOP-QUALITY products, by ALWAYS building down to a price instead of raising the standard, the American consumer electronics industry did a lot to kill itself off.. Another thing, when Sony came out w/the famous TV 5-303 in '62, you can't tell me that RCA, Zenith, GE, et all didn't have the wherewithall to have a matching product...a 5" all transistor television. Hell, boys, call their bluff 'n' raise 'em..a 5" COLOR all transistor set. THAT woulda been something, & yeah, it might have pushed the envelope technologically, but dammittall, WE practically INVENTED color TV...."Cheap 'n' shoddy" groupthink killed off American consumer products-in virtually ANY industry you care to name- as much as The Unions or The Japanese, IMHO.

[d-ray657]

Yeah, I know...We ain't sposed to talk about audio stuff here...But hear me out. This radio was one of my extreme Objets D'Lust for a long time. Finally got one, & to say the least, I was underwhelmed. This radio, on paper, oughta be a World-Beater...It was Zenith's TOTL table set from 1965, an 11 or 12 tube-Depending on version-of a proud company's cumulative knowlege of 40 years of radio-making. It needed new caps, so I took it to Terry, & I got it back ystrday. It still stinks. Basically, it is, despite having 12 tubes, NOT a very good radio. It is NOT sensitive at all. The FM section picks up one station rather badly. AM is not much better, but OTOH, I'm used to R-390As that can pick up Finland on a clear day. Also, the execution of the whole set is just second-class, especially compared to the German Grundigs, Telefunkens, et al of the day. The cabinet looks like a 10th grade shop class project, done by the "slow" class, compared to the beautiful, glass-smooth finishes on the German stuff. It has rinky-dink plastic knobs, w/cheesy chrome plating. The Germans used a creamy, heavy ivory color plastic that doesn't look like Kiddie Nite at the fair... It doesn't receive very well. It only has AM & FM, whereas the Krauts gave you that, plus a couple of shortwave bands. The German sets look, feel, & sound "Luxurious", whereas the Zenith just comes off as cheap & tacky, despite its $200 price tag, a LOT of moolah for then. American mfgers cried & complained that we quit buying their wares, but is it any wonder ? Virtually everything the Americans made for "Consumers" was obviously made for bare-bones cost, fine, but at what point do you quit taking out "cost", & start taking out "Value" as well ? The American companies would have you believe that we wouldn't listen to shortwave anyhow, well, boys, you didn't OFFER anything that HAD it, how could we ? I guess what I'm trying to say here is that by collectively being so short-sighted, by NOT offering TOP-QUALITY products, by ALWAYS building down to a price instead of raising the standard, the American consumer electronics industry did a lot to kill itself off.. Another thing, when Sony came out w/the famous TV 5-303 in '62, you can't tell me that RCA, Zenith, GE, et all didn't have the wherewithall to have a matching product...a 5" all transistor television. Hell, boys, call their bluff 'n' raise 'em..a 5" COLOR all transistor set. THAT woulda been something, & yeah, it might have pushed the envelope technologically, but dammittall, WE practically INVENTED color TV...."Cheap 'n' shoddy" groupthink killed off American consumer products-in virtually ANY industry you care to name- as much as The Unions or The Japanese, IMHO.

Don't get me started on a throw-away consumer culture. As far a "green" technology goes, wouldn't the greenest be making things that we don't throw away. That's my dad coming through again. He was always fixing things. Hell, he even welded funnels out of old oil cans.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Boreas]

What can I say, Sandy. You're right. When my dad bought a freakin' VW Beetle with a Blaupunkt AM/FM/SW radio back in 1960 I began to see just how inferior our consumer goods were becoming.

I realized that it was all the fault of the unions.

John

[noonereal]

+1 :)

[d-ray657]

I realized that it was all the fault of the unions.

John

I hope you just forgot your smiley, cause them's fightin' words.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Sandy G]

If Zenith/RCA/Motorola/Admiral/GE hadn't been so hidebound & insular, had taken a risk or 2, & offered a radio that had knocked the gawdam Krauts 'n' Japs outta the park vis-a-vis looks 'n' performance, offered an all-transistor small color set, maybe a few more SIMILARLY innovative products, they woulda sold the home sweet hell outta 'em, & wouldn't have had to worry about The Unions or The Japanese...Hell, WE invented a LOT of the stuff...The transistor was a Bell Labs invention, but who took it & ran w/it ? The Japanese. Same w/VCRs...They were developed by a California company, Ampex, in 1956. OK, Ampex's machine was primarily aimed at industrial use, but still...RCA was working on a similar machine at the time, didn't ANYONE see the tremendous potential market for HOME use of thease things ? And NONE of this had a damn thing to do w/the union, it was ALL virtually the fault of American management doing their usual thing, tripping over dollars to pick up nickels...

[merrylander]

Yet as someone who has had German sets in here for repair I find their chassis to be an open invitation for electrocution. YMMV

[Boreas]

I hope you just forgot your smiley, cause them's fightin' words.

Regards,

D-Ray

Originally Posted by Boreas
I realized that it was all the fault of the unions. :mad::mad:

John

Fixed it fer ya! ;)

John

[d-ray657]

If Zenith/RCA/Motorola/Admiral/GE hadn't been so hidebound & insular, had taken a risk or 2, & offered a radio that had knocked the gawdam Krauts 'n' Japs outta the park vis-a-vis looks 'n' performance, offered an all-transistor small color set, maybe a few more SIMILARLY innovative products, they woulda sold the home sweet hell outta 'em, & wouldn't have had to worry about The Unions or The Japanese...Hell, WE invented a LOT of the stuff...The transistor was a Bell Labs invention, but who took it & ran w/it ? The Japanese. Same w/VCRs...They were developed by a California company, Ampex, in 1956. OK, Ampex's machine was primarily aimed at industrial use, but still...RCA was working on a similar machine at the time, didn't ANYONE see the tremendous potential market for HOME use of thease things ? And NONE of this had a damn thing to do w/the union, it was ALL virtually the fault of American management doing their usual thing, tripping over dollars to pick up nickels...

I could not have said it any better. Even if I could say it as well, it wouldn't be nearly as fun to read.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Boreas]

WE invented a LOT of the stuff...The transistor was a Bell Labs invention, but who took it & ran w/it ? The Japanese. Same w/VCRs......

And we're still doing it. Where's your PC/Mac come from? Worse is emerging technologies like photovoltaics. We invented that too. Where are all the developments coming from? China and Germany.

We're a nation of freakin' middlemen.

Life imitating art.

If you're familiar with Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (book or BBC production, not movie) you'll remember that the "Golgafrinchans" who were the first human inhabitants of Earth had been tricked into leaving their home planet when the rest of the populace decided to get rid of the useless third of their population, all the middlemen. ;)

John

[merrylander]

We even legislate middlemen, what other country has mortgage brokers?

[Sandy G]

I dunno guys, it just BUGS the hell outta me that other than some hi-end audio equipment, you basically CAN'T buy any US-made consumer electronic stuff anymore...And the last stuff that you COULD-"console" TVs back in the '90s were pure crap-fake plastiwood, rinky-dink electronics, barely lasted after the payments book ran out. Gen. Sarnoff, Paul Galvin, & Cdr. McDonald are prolly spinning in their graves...