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Stromberg-Carlson Penthouse.

spaceman

spaceman

Registered Lunatic
Just scored this off CL, not really dirt cheap, but well worth what I paid, I think, especially when it was delivered. ;) It's a Model RP-871WO, with a tuner/preamp, seperate power amp (stereo), turntable, & a 5-way speaker system for each channel. Each channel has a 15" downfiring woofer, 2 mids that look like 6"x 9" car speakers, & 2 similar oval tweeters, but a bit smaller. The output tubes are 7408s, with the bases stamped Stromberg-Carlson, no other markings other than #s, but I can come back to that. The best part is, this thing's minty, no scratches in the cabinet that I've seen yet, and the walnut finish is in great shape, & will probably look even better when I clean her up a bit. :smoke: The seller plugged it in after we brought it in, wanted me to see it works, and it sounds great, though new caps will really help, especially the speakers. The only issue is, the TT needs some tweaking, probably in the speed changer linkage.
 

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Nice....

Looked at one of those recently...

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$225 on E-prey....I'll bet you did OK....:thmbsp:
 
And people say they didn't know how to make good stereo systems back then. She sure does look sweet and I bet sounds nice with those big 15 inchers. I'd say you did pretty good.
 
I see from that auction that these are 6V6 tubes. This is my first experience with them, & I definitely like their sound. :yes:
 
Is that the AS-120 amp? I remember Tom Bavis having the Sam's folder for that one. I have an AS-110 (single ended I think?) that I still need to get around to recapping and putting the new parts on I've already bought for it. One of these days...

Nice looking console!
 
Bingo!

spaceman said:
I see from that auction that these are 6V6 tubes. This is my first experience with them, & I definitely like their sound. :yes:
Click to expand...

The 7408 is the "industrial strength" 6V6. H/K used them a fair amount, along with Magnavox. The nice thing about 6V6/7408 tubes is that there are a lot of them around, including metal cased ones, and that they are generally cheaper than comparable 6L6's or EL84's.
 
What record changer does the console use. If it is a Voice of Music you can still get parts for it. If the speakers just use capacitors and no chokes it would be beneficial to find the crossover points and add the proper value chokes to the crossover although that might require changing the capacitor values and/or the crossover frequency slightly.
 
Sorry I'm so slow, guys, I'm learning about this as this thread progresses, lol. Yes, that's a tube rectifier, according to the schematic. The changer has a Stromberg-Carlson "coat-of-arms" logo, but I have no idea if they made it, or if it's rebadged. :scratch2: I can look under the hood again sometime, but I'm not sure where to look yet to find proper identification. analog addict, thanx very much for all the help, I really appreciate the info. :thmbsp: BTW, roughly what's the wattage?
 
If it is Voice of music you should see the number 857 somewhere on the underside of the record changer. BTW if you see Made in England anywhere on the changer it is not V-M.
 
Well, I got inside again, but forgot to write down the info on the TT. :stupid: There was a longish number that started with 807, I'm pretty sure. As far as a crossover for the speakers, it's nearly non-existent. I've never seen a network like this was, the wires came from the output transformers to the midranges, then directly to the woofers with no chokes/inductors, and to the tweeters by way of a 150VDC 3MFD cap. The 2 mids on each channel were wired in parallel, halfing their volume, as well as the tweeters, so I unhooked one of each, to balance out the already too strong bass. That helped quite a bit, but it seems like I should be running the lines to the woofers first, shouldn't I? I have a good rough idea of how to make up crossovers, just not sure if anything's supposed to be different, because of the output transformers. :scratch2:
 
Can you give me the ohms of each speaker in one channel as well as how the speakers are connected. I can plug those values in a formula, get capacitor and inductor values and draw up a schematic for you if you would like. Keep in ming this will by no means be a professional crossover, but it will get the job done and sound nice. There are a few possibilities on how the speakers can be used. I just finished my DIY speakers using a home made crossover and they sound great. Ideally you would want to use Lpads on the midranges and tweeters to adjust their levels to where you like them. Makes it easy to match the speakers to each other. Take a look at how I built my DIY speakers http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=158465
 
The speakers aren't listed in the Sams folder, except by Stromberg P/N. I'd guess that they're 16 Ohms though (3x5 tweeters could be 8 Ohms...). The amps in the models with 15" woofers have quite a bit of bass boost in the amp's feedback network - remove the .01 caps (or parallel it with a large value like .22...) to flatten the frequency response.
 
Heh heh, thanx for the offer, but I just finished tweaking/changing the speakers, and they're REALLY nice now. :yes: The 15" woofers measure exactly 6 ohms each, and after playing with the stock mids & tweets, I decided to use some Klipsch horns I had around. The Klipsch are K-105-Ks, and measure 2.9 ohms each, and I just tried a 10 uF cap for now, since I had a new pair here, & it works great. I still need to plug the specs into a calculator, & might use different ones if I'm way off, but it sounds pretty darn good so far. :smoke: The baffles that the mids & tweets are mounted on came right out (not the wooden grilles) , by removing 6 screws, & I just screwed the Klipsch on where the baffles top edge mounted. That helped the sound from the woofers quite a bit too, allowing the sound to come through the front grilles, instead of mostly aimed at the floor. :thmbsp:
 
Oh, I know it seems a bit backwards, messing with the speakers 1st, but it actually helped quite a bit, getting rid of the rat's nest of speaker wires. I also unhooked everything for the TT for now, & coiled the wires up out of the way. Now it doesn't look "as" complicated, so I can get onto the more important things, like recapping the amp & preamp. :yes: Oh, the TT is stamped MRS 4059 (1st line), 148-000-108 (2nd line), 6701424C (3rd line). I forgot to mention before, but it came with a spare stylus, new in the package, a single 6EQ7 tube (stamped SC, but in a RCA box, looks new), and record cleaning fluid with a really old disc cleaner.
 
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