Magnavox Imperial HiFi Console

Matt11

New Member
Recently discovered this at a neighbors estate sale and had to buy it. It's in great shape currently but to restore/replace a few of the cartridges, bulbs, and capacitors along with realigning and re-lubing the machine it will run me about $800. Wondering if anybody can tell me if this is a fair price for the restoration or what the value of the player is otherwise?
 

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Matt,

Welcome to the forum!

It all depends on where you are. Any of the better old consoles have a following. But their worth is very much a local condition. Different brands are more popular in different places, and popularity determines price.

Your refurb price seems high, especially if it excludes cosmetics. You may want to shop around. If you were local to me in NJ I would expect the work to run no more than half of what you quoted, from a guy with experience doing tube consoles. But again, each local condition is different, and consoles don't ship easily.
 
i'm sorry, but that price is crazy!!!

I had my '56 Bell and Howell done for $550 and that included (7) filter caps and some tubes.

I own '59 Imperial as well, believe me, there is not a lot involved to recapping the amp and testing the tubes.

As far as the tuner goes, I would test the tubes and go from there.
 
It is a tubed unit. Take a look at the amplifier inside and confirm the model number. I would guess you have a 93XX series based on the looks of the console and tuner.

There are many threads here on AK about using older tubed Magnavox amplifiers as stand alone amps.
 
Yes way too high. Personally if I had to spend $800 I would not spend it on restoring that console, but would spend it on a more modern used tube amp and a good used turntable.
 
This is all very helpful, thank you everybody.
Now if anyone knows a good repair guy in the Detroit area i'll be all set
 
Nice console but restoration price is way too high. It wouldn't be worth anything close to $800 after it gets restored. You could do it yourself with a few tools and some guidance from here and save a lot of money.
 
Crazy price.I have had two Magnavox consoles restored,by a guy who works out of his house,but used to work in his dad's TV/radio repair shop,in the 50s,60s,and 70s.They cost $200-250 to restore.Oh and that console is not an Imperial.This is an Imperial.
 
What Matt11 has is an Imperial (named by Magnavox) also. It's called a small Imperial by many but it doesn't have anything in common with your Imperial except that is a Magnavox.
 
Small Imperial isn't an official name but it's called that by many because there is another Imperial (like the one in post 11) that is bigger and has more power. The larger Imperial is bi-amped and is a step up from the smaller Imperial. The smaller one like yours is definitely worthy of restoring.
 
The bi-amped Imperials were made in 1959, 1960 and 1961. Could have been other years but I'm not sure. I think the other Imperials were made in the same years and probably others.
 
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