tube console stereo pulled from the trash today!

[stereorob2.0]

today on my lunchbreak TH member floridasam scooped me up from work and we went th the traditional lunchbreak two to look for gear (the local GW and SA) sam has been having REELy good luck lately, -he has scored 4 RTR decks in the last week, sadley he dosent post here much and is still more a AKer than a tapehead, but im trying to get him to convert, since i turned him on to RTR to begin with. anyways, hearing score stories from pretty much every other stereocamp local to me i figured i was due to find something epic! we hit the SA and he found a panasonic TT for $10 but i didnt find shit, then hit the GW where neither one of us found a damn thing eather.*fit* i only have about a hour to hit the spots, get lunch, and head back 2 work. only had 30mins left in my lunchbreak, (i hit the thrifts hard and fast) and we were on our way to wendys but there was a big nasty wreck on lantana rd so we took a detore threw a neighborhood to avoid the mess. we only got about 3 blocks deep when suddenly i saw a old rundown house with a bunch of moldy crap on the curb, and saw what looked like a console. "OH SHIT SAM STOP THE CAR STOP THE CAR" I Yelled and we came to a screeching hault. i jumped out and found a very grimey very dirty very beat up tube zenith console sitting there next to about 50 bags of god knows what and a stinky trashcan full of rotting food bloating in the 90 degree sun with flys bussing all over the place. he was really stunned as was i to find this relic but he drives a 2009 hyndai accent hatchback and there was no way in hell he could fit it in the car, i begged and pleaded for us to atleast try to stuff it into his little car but it just wasnt gunna happen. so i got on the horn and started franticly calling everyone i could think of with a truck, van, or suv. only person i could get ahold of was my co-worker john mitchell that was home enjoying his lunchbreak eating home cooked food relaxing with his wife. he really really didnt wanna come get me and the console cause he uses his lunchbreak time as decompression time much as i do but instead i relax by hitting as many thrifts as possible in a hours time. i begged, pleaded, bribed, and bitched my way into convincing him to get me on the way back to work. sam wished me luck and drove off and i sat there, in the sun, starving hungry cause i didnt have time to get lunch, guarding my find. i sat there for what seemed like forever, smoking cigarettes, siting ontop of the console so some other scrapper or flipper didnt get to it first. finally john showed up with only 5 mins to get back to the office, and we were 5 miles from work. my boss warned me not to be late getting back from lunch or he would take my bonus from me. john pulled up, dropped the tailgate, "HURRY UP MAN WE GOTTA ROLL, YOU OWE ME BIG TIME AND YOU BETTER HOOK ME UP WITH GAS!" HE GROWLED. on ony 2 hours of sleep from the night before and weak with hunger i bear hugged the console and lifted it into the back of the truck -im glad im still strong and young, that thing is HEAVY! i closed the tailgate and hopped in the truckbed with the console with a shit eating grin on my face from ear to ear! -i got my console!!*Hi5* we were running out of time and suddenly the sky turned black and was about to pour, he nailed the gas peeling out and we went screaming fast threw the neighborhood hauling ass back to the office, we were doing 70 down congress ave in midday traffic, weaving in and out, trying to get back to work on time, and trying to beat the inevidible storm encroaching on us, as he was weaving in and out of traffic, i was sliding around the bed of the truck holding on to dear life and trying to keep the console level and in one piece. suddenly the temp dropped 20 degrees, the sun went away, and lightning cracked across the sky! we got back to the office JUST IN TIME, he backed in to the overhang infront of the strip mall where we work, "HURRY HURRY" I SHOUTED, i dropped the tailgate and he went running to the back of the truck, i slid the console to him as fast as possible and we got it under the overhang just as baseball sized raindrops were starting to fall! we ran into the office, got to our desks and went right back to telemarketing wile all hell broke loose outside. itthe rain came down, lightning cracked and the wind howelled for 10 mins and then as soon as it started it was over, the sun came back out and everything dried up! 2 hours later, i got to finally go outside smoke a cig and examine my score..







it was rough but it was all there, a late 1950s-early 1960s zenith, with the famous cobra-matic turntable -idk why but ive always loved the old cobra-matics. the tuber-pre had alot of controls, more than usual, with midrange control, and enhanced stereo settings, i peered into the back and saw some pretty decent looking speakers and ice metal horns, as well as what looked like a hefty tube power amp with big tubes. at first i thought it may have been there TOTL model cause its large size, fancy controls, and nice looking gutz, but i found out later it wasnt.

[stereorob2.0]

suddenly it was time to go back inside for another 2 hours till it was time to go home. every second felt like a eternaty! -i hate finding a really good lunchbreak score and having to wait hours to play with it *devil* i work in a very busy strip mall and i saw the console threw the front window between the cracks of the blinds, siting under the overhang infront of the office, and in those two hours it got alot of curious lookie loos walking past it, some slowing down looking at it smiling, a few even stopping to examine it. one guy even whipped out his I-phone and snapped a pic of it. i wasnt too worried about anyone hurting it cause it was so beat up and fugly, i was more intrested in trying to find some lunch cause by 6:00pm and having not eaten anything but a single frozen waffle since 9:30am i was absolutly starving, the guy sitting next to me was chowing down on a box of churches chicken inbetween phone calls, and i lloked at him with "poor child starving in africa eyes" and he tossed me 2 pieces of fried chicken, i munched them down in seconds. anyway after what seemed like forever it was FINALLY time to go home and check this thing out. john agreed to drive me and the console home since i only live 2 blocks from the office. -figures the one day i walk to work and not drive my grand cherokee to work i find a big ass console stereo in the trash. *grin* so we loaded the console back into the truck and went to my place. i gave him $15 for gas and his time, sat the console on the patio infront of my apartment and decended into the unknown. my neighbors were outside when i got home and were out smoking blunts and drinking by the pool. -must be nice to not have to work. anyways they are younger like me and are always curious about the strange crap i drag home so they all got out of the pool blunts and beers in hand "whoa dog thats the oldest shit we seen yet" "that shit looks antique! they all said, they all grabbed lawn chairs and sat down to hear about the thing and hear it play, (this is kind of becoming a tradition now. everytime i bring something new home they are home when i do, they all run over like facinated children to a campfire to roast marshmellows and tell ghost stories), and they bring out there CDs and wanna hear there music come out of something old and wierd they never saw or heard of before., so i ran inside and grabbed one of my 5 variacs and a cd player to hook into it, as well as a screwdriver to get inside of the thing. as im hooking up the console to the variac and slowly turning the voltage up they are in the backround making loud buzzing and zapping sounds trying to scare me. "oh shit dawg that bitch is on fire!!" rudy said, chuckling. i got the voltage to 110 and the lights and tubes came on and the console started crackiling to life! they all sat there quiet just waiting to some epic terrible thing to happen, like smoke, flames, blowing caps, terrible electrical sounds, etc. -yes thats happened a few times *grin* and nothing. it seemed stable so i tossed a screwdriver to my buddy george and me and him pulled the back panel off -seems to be another tradition, george is always the one that wants to see whats inside and wants to be the first one to see it. we pulled the panel off and fond alot of dust, a few bugs, and very dusty tubes smelling like a heater being turned on for the first time in the fall. -that moment is always special to me, when a tube piece comes to life for the first time in decades! the smells the sounds it makes, the 10 minutes of suspence hoping nothing inside the unit fails and it freaking out. it must have not been used in many many years. the cord is still and brittle, it has ALL of its original tubes etc..



turntable with the iconic cobra arm, missing cartrige and styli, but with the paper tag still on it?


tubes lighting for the first time..



there was alot of static in the controls at first but working them back and forth it went away somewhat, -ill shoot it with de-oxit tomorrow. the tuner is screwed up, it pulls in stations fine but with the volume wide open it sounds like a wisper, the turntable is perfect mechaniclly, it was locked up tighter than a drum but i hit the shaft with some 3-in-one and now comes right on and goes threw its cycles great. i just need to get a cart and styli for it. witch i have but its on another cobra-matic changer i have that dosent work in storage up north. -fooey! anyways, moving on to the tape input or aux. i clicked to that selection and noticed a soft 60-cycle hum. -it obviouslly needs caps. and hoked the cd player to it.

it gets loud and is very clean sounding, actually suprisingly crisp and not scratchy at all like how most tube consoles of this vintage behave when i attach a digital scorce to them and blast rap music threw them. unfortunatly the second i start to increse the bass the sound quality deteriates quickly and sounds terrible. -maybe it needs fresh output tubes? the first selecton of the evening was bone thugz thug world order album. followed by some rick ross and jeezy (very popular down here right now) and they were impressed with just how screamingly loud the thing got even though distorted and not very good sounding. i think with some work this could be a really sweet console. it is full blown tube type without a single transistor or solid state device anyware in sight. nice big 5U4 rec. tube, 4 12ax7 preamp tubes and a quad of 6BQ5s. it has nice long throw bass reflex 12" woofers with large coils and magnets, and decent metal horns that are almost JBLish looking. the cabinet needs some work. the white paint is peeling and the veneer undernieth is peeling, and there is evidence of water damage with green mold here and there and the brass speaker gards being corroded green and rusty in spots. its gunna take some work to get it right but its probubly worth it! the nice graphic display for the tone controls is cool enough alone. along with the cobra-matic changer it could be a real class act if restored. one of the chrome dials for tone (the midrange one called presence in this model) has fallin off and is laying in the bottom of the dialglass, but it should be a easy fix. these old consoles are far from audiophile sounding but ive always enjoyed them and have alot of fun working on them. they almost remind me of working on a classic car. -i dont know why but they do.

[BlueStreak]

You are one of the most excitable people I've ever met. But, it's cool.

If it were me, I wouldn't bother restoring the whole thing, I'd pull that amp, clean it up, recap it, Install some RCA jacks and binders, then build a sweet wooden base for it. Those 6BQ5 based amps are crazy sweet!

Enjoy it, Man!

Dave

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

You are one of the most excitable people I've ever met. But, it's cool.

If it were me, I wouldn't bother restoring the whole thing, I'd pull that amp, clean it up, recap it, Install some RCA jacks and binders, then build a sweet wooden base for it. Those 6BQ5 based amps are crazy sweet!

Enjoy it, Man!

Dave

If it were me, I'd bring it to your house and ask you to do all that while I was buying you beers.