Magnavox 1500 Receiver......Not Bad!

[Franksta]

I had a magnavox 1500 receiver back in the early seventies. Mine was enclosed in a cube shaped modular cabinet that had a slide out turntable in the same cube below the receiver. There was a matching table that the cube sat on. There were two matching speakers the exact size and finish of the receiver TT cube that had 15 inch woofers and a large horn at the top that sat on the table at either end of the receiver module. The whole system was really quite beautiful! The look was great and the sound was very nice too. I can't remember what eventually happened to that system. Although I always loved the sound of the system I eventually got tired of the furniture look and I wanted to get something more component like.

I do remember that Magnavox had a pretty high build quality back then and they were trying to compete in the component stereo market and still keep their upscale decorative look that had a high WAF.

A few weeks back I found a 1500 receiver with a pair of speakers and a mint condition 8 track player at a church flea market that came from somebody's nice living room and was in very lightly used like new condition. It is a good looking unit and it sounds very nice. It has around 35-40 watts per channel and a very hefty power supply. It has a nice "tubey" sound and a nice tuner section.

I don't think that Magnavox stayed in the component business very long but the 1500 is a very respectable unit and it is quite attractive. I wonder how common the 1500 is and if anyone here has any experience with it.

 

[mhardy6647]

No experience, but I've always assumed that the early-1970's Magnavox receivers were somehow related to the US-made (KY? TN? someplace like that) "Philips Hi-Fidelity Laboratories" receivers of the late-1970's. The latter were quite nice.

Your 1500 certainly has a hefty-looking power transfomer in it.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Most from that era were made in Indiana, AFAIK. During the 70's, Magnavox also made Ampeg amps.

 

[Brian]

Thanks for the interior view. I've been looking for 1 of these to see the guts. The interior does have the layout arrangement of the later Philips badged Lab Series and the ps board looks like the later series may have simply lifted it with little mod from the 1500. I've heard some good things about the unit and as the interior looks like an earlier parentage of the Philips badged units would suspect possibly from the same design team. If it sounds as good as th Philips, you have a rare winner. The Lab Series came form the TN plant. From what I can dig up, by that time it may have been the only production line still in operation. It seems the other locations were sized down to inventory, design, admin, warranty and other service but this info could be wrong as no one seems to have survived the transition and Philips appears not to have retained any information or at least I've not been able to locate either as of yet.

 

[mhardy6647]

Indiana... I was close!

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

I want to say Elkhart, Indiana to be precise. (Or was it Fort Wayne :scratch2: ) At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

[Damage]

LoL at the jambox levers.

 

[Randy Bassham]

I was working for a Magnavox dealer when that series came out. They are great performing receivers but they did have a few quirks. They used direct coupled quasi-complimentary amplifiers and they didn't have DC blocking capacitors between the outputs and the speakers. Never, Never, Never hook speakers up to an unknown unit without checking the DC voltage at the speaker terminals first, it should read no higher than .2 volts, if it does you stand a good chance of blowing your speakers, I've actually seen speaker cones that had caught fire. I think I've got about 5 or 6 of those units in the attic over my shop including one of the 1500 DTI with the digital display that used incandescent lamps to light the segments of the numbers. One of these days I'm going to try to make at least a couple of good ones out of them. Magnavox actually built a console stereo with a chassis based on that series in 1976.

 

[djw99mn]

Hello,

I have a Magnavox 1500 receiver also,but mine is totally different in looks than the one posted with pictures. I believe mine is of an older vintage (perhaps late 1960's). I can provide pictures if anyone is interested.

 

[kermit z]

Hello,

I have a Magnavox 1500 receiver also,but mine is totally different in looks than the one posted with pictures. I believe mine is of an older vintage (perhaps late 1960's). I can provide pictures if anyone is interested.

Absolutely :thmbsp: Those look very hefty. How does it sound?

 

[avguytx]

I have one in the garage just sitting on a shelf. No worky, though. It's a heavy beast....

 

[BrocLuno]

Hello,

I have a Magnavox 1500 receiver also,but mine is totally different in looks than the one posted with pictures. I believe mine is of an older vintage (perhaps late 1960's). I can provide pictures if anyone is interested.

Interested - post here so we can keep this a 1500 thread ?

 

[Brian]

There is a 1500 with the digital readout on you know where. Sounds like it may be very salvagable with a good cleaning. I'll not post the url in fear it will get the thread moved. It is interesting but I think I prefer the looks of the analog better. I wonder how many versions of the 1500 exist.

 

[tgunner]

There is a 1500 with the digital readout on you know where. Sounds like it may be very salvagable with a good cleaning. I'll not post the url in fear it will get the thread moved. It is interesting but I think I prefer the looks of the analog better. I wonder how many versions of the 1500 exist.

Wow, that does look interesting. Is this one of the first digital readout tuners? If anyone else wants to see, a good search would be "Magnavox Stereo Amplifier receiver" :thmbsp:

 

[Kicn1111]

I just finished restoring a Magnavox 1500 DTI with the amazing digital display.
I'm posting the pictures of the light boxes opened up showing the array of analogue light bulbs behind the cubes. It does sound tube-like. Very smooth and powerful.
One gate was sticking and we baked it... it works now, but it now only takes about 30 seconds to warm up. It's one chip that governs the numeric FM display range. Unfortunately I couldn't find a replacement chip. One day...

 

[maglenoge.20]

Hi!
I just became a member today. I read your 2009 blog on restoring the Magnovox 1500 DTI digital display. I just received a nice one the other day. A lot of the light bulbs need replacing. I'm willing to purchase a nice photocopy of the service manual & schematic from you or another member. Any help or advise would be appreciated.
Thank you. William

 

[geiman]

A neighbor of mine had a Magnavox 1500 in 1970. No digital display. I was impressed. It weighed at least twice as much as my 40W Pioneer and it sounded great. It was a complete magnavox component system with turntable with magnetic cart and speakers all Magnavox branded. I remember thinking that Magnavox made consoles that sounded bad, this system sure changed my mind.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

The Philips High Fidelity Labs electronics and speakers were made in the old Magnavox factory in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Ampeg was at one time a division of Magnavox so building Ampeg amps in the Fort Wayne plant was logical. The Magnavox 1500 was the top of the line receiver Magnavox made then. Very excellent performer and well built. They sounded nice. Very underrated gear!

 

[maglenoge.20]

Magnavox 1500 DTI Digital Pictures

Hi!
I'm a new member looking for a schematic for this digital beauty so I can replace the digital light bulbs. How do I retrieve your pictures of the digital display that you posted on your blog in February '09?
Thanking you in advance.
William

 

[hoaryhag]

Just picked up a 1500 at the thrift for fourteen bucks. Everything works including the lights and it is in great cosmetic condition. It sounds good but it is acting a bit funny with my speakers (woofers popping a bit and speakers distorting at high volume). Good clarity though and smooth at mid volume. Definitely a different sound than the Marantz I'm running, quite a bit brighter, and the bass seems to be more defined but not as expansive. It probably needs to be matched with the right set of speakers. I think I am going to do some cleaning on it and check the dc from the speaker terminals as one of you advised as it is making me skittish as far as my speaker health goes, something's acting up there. Made in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Nice looking receiver and very hefty, I couldn't pass it up.