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1961 Magnavox ST 611 or 610
- Thread starter ledd4u
- Start date
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It looks to be on the lower 1/2 of the Magnavox lineup. nothing wrong with that. The smaller units can sound as good as an Imperial or Concert Grand, just not as loud. Don't expect wall shaking volume.
Once you get it, DON'T POWER IT UP by plugging it in to the wall. Use a variac or at minimum a Dim Bulb Tester. This will help re-form the caps and help alleviate the use of a Fire Extinguisher due to a shorted cap.
Open up the back and write everything you can find down.
www.vintageaudiomanuals.com has a boatload of Magnavox manuals in stock. Good chance Mike will have one for your setup. You're gonna need the MODEL #, the AMP #, Tuner #, and Phono model#. His manuals are damn near as good as Rick @ Stereomanuals.com, but rick doesn't have anything for Tube Maggies. Tell Mike you need the complete Service Manual including Amp, Tuner, and Phono. Should be about $18.00 or so plus shipping.
Go over to the Turntable Forum and pull the thread called "MICROMATIC TEARDOWN and REBUILD. It goes into how to teardown, clean, lube, and rebuild your Micromatic Turntable. The Cartridge # is on the top of the Cartridge, you'll need that to get a new stylus. Turntableneedles has a good selection and has a pretty comprehensive search engine for all makes.
Test all the tubes. change the caps, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!
That's it until you get it in your house. TAKE LOTS OF PICS you're gonna need them.
Larry
Once you get it, DON'T POWER IT UP by plugging it in to the wall. Use a variac or at minimum a Dim Bulb Tester. This will help re-form the caps and help alleviate the use of a Fire Extinguisher due to a shorted cap.
Open up the back and write everything you can find down.
www.vintageaudiomanuals.com has a boatload of Magnavox manuals in stock. Good chance Mike will have one for your setup. You're gonna need the MODEL #, the AMP #, Tuner #, and Phono model#. His manuals are damn near as good as Rick @ Stereomanuals.com, but rick doesn't have anything for Tube Maggies. Tell Mike you need the complete Service Manual including Amp, Tuner, and Phono. Should be about $18.00 or so plus shipping.
Go over to the Turntable Forum and pull the thread called "MICROMATIC TEARDOWN and REBUILD. It goes into how to teardown, clean, lube, and rebuild your Micromatic Turntable. The Cartridge # is on the top of the Cartridge, you'll need that to get a new stylus. Turntableneedles has a good selection and has a pretty comprehensive search engine for all makes.
Test all the tubes. change the caps, CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN!
That's it until you get it in your house. TAKE LOTS OF PICS you're gonna need them.
Larry
Even tho it's functional, with 40 year old components in there, it's a crap shoot for running when you do power it up. Bring it up slow on a variac or a dim bulb tester until you are satisfied that everything will hold together at least until you overhaul it(sooner than later, hopefully). I've seen Maggie's that work perfect when you get them and go up in smoke a week later. Better to check the caps, resistors, tubes, and make sure before you get it in normal rotation.
There aren't that many caps on then so it's fairly cheap for a maggie to re-cap it.
Larry
There aren't that many caps on then so it's fairly cheap for a maggie to re-cap it.
Larry
Thespeakerdude8
Super Member
Please don't tell me you paid what they were asking for that unit. Its sick when they post them at such high prices. Plan on replacing all can caps in the amp and tuner, as well as coupling caps-these consoles are very fidgity and have little gremlins in them before doing this. It IS in very nice shape, but no magnavox is worth that price except possibly the concert grand.
if you're lucky you will get a PP 6v6 (I got that with on of those low end looking tuners). The SE 6bq5 is fine as well.
They use a LOT of disc caps in those tuners, as well as couplates. There will prob be a dual electrolytic cap on the preamp tube that should be replaced, as well as the can cap (50/50 chance it will be ok, but nver hurts to restuff it.
If you have the SE amp, I think there are two paper caps, if so don't even use the variac until those are replaced. The 6v6 PP will have a few papers and the can cap of course.
Hopefully you have the MPX chassis, if not the stereo FM will not work.
Also hopefully you got horns to back up the full range speakers. 15" full range are best, but you may have 12"'s
If the tuner is insensive check the 6DT8 and the IF tubes.
If you have the mpx chassis it will need to be recapped as well. there is a 2 and a 3 tube version. The 3 tuber has a 5uf cap on a coil that will most likely need to be replaced, and there is a single cap in a can that will prob need to be replaced.
They use a LOT of disc caps in those tuners, as well as couplates. There will prob be a dual electrolytic cap on the preamp tube that should be replaced, as well as the can cap (50/50 chance it will be ok, but nver hurts to restuff it.
If you have the SE amp, I think there are two paper caps, if so don't even use the variac until those are replaced. The 6v6 PP will have a few papers and the can cap of course.
Hopefully you have the MPX chassis, if not the stereo FM will not work.
Also hopefully you got horns to back up the full range speakers. 15" full range are best, but you may have 12"'s
If the tuner is insensive check the 6DT8 and the IF tubes.
If you have the mpx chassis it will need to be recapped as well. there is a 2 and a 3 tube version. The 3 tuber has a 5uf cap on a coil that will most likely need to be replaced, and there is a single cap in a can that will prob need to be replaced.
It has the amp with 4 6v6 tubes chassis 88-02-00 all original tubes. No hum with volume at max with no input. FM MPX seems not to work? FM with AFC works, FM works, AM works and turntable works also. It has the Imperial Micromatic TT and is in excellent shape. This unit looks like it was taken care of by someone who also did not use it much.
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Pull the platter off and then the spindle bearing with all the washers. Lay them out in order. CLEAN, and relube the bearing and washers with a mixture of WHITE LITHIUM GREASE and Light Machine Oil. Mix it 4 to 1(grease to oil). Then put it all together, oiling the spindle shaft while installing the platter with 3-4 drops light machine oil. Set the turntable to run at 78 rpm for an hour or so(just running without a LP on it. When you turn it off, time it. I've found, Anything under 60 seconds to full stop is dragging. Make sure the inside of the platter is absolutely clean of grease, fingerprints, etc. Wipe it down with a green nylon scrubbie, and 91% alcohol, and install it without getting fingers on the inside. Same with the idler, but use hot water and DAWN. NO FINGERS ON RUBBER once cleaned.
Larry
Sir, you are a master and a very talented individual! Thank you for that, I was hesitant at first (not a believer) but after I cleaned and oiled as you sugested, bam back to operation. The next thing is working on the 12AT7 in the FM MPX section. Someone advised to replace a 4.7 uf cap on the MPX and my FM will come back to life. I did a couple of dc bias checks on the outputs and I recorded 5.6 mv dc on channel 1 and 6.2 mv dc on channel 2. I also adjusted the "hum pot" for a minimum diff between both channels. I scoped the outputs and found no 60 hz at all! Very quiet out of the two channels. Not bad for a forty nine year old set. I would hope that the FAA RADAR systems I work on, will behave just like that in the next twenty years I need to find the three rubber gromets on the motor assembly online somewhere. I used some model airplane fuel stoppers for now but as soon as I find them I will replace them. I guess I could use my freq gen and allign all my AM and FM but they seem to be right on. And if it works then don't touch!
Larry thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.
kydog
Super Member
Check to be sure all of the tweets are functional, I had to replace a few on mine and the sound really improved, Love my consoles
Nice pickup:thmbsp:
Yep, all speakers function, I only had to replace one 16uf non polar cap on the left speaker but since I bought two, both got replaced. Now I have a 60's system in my living room, a 70's Marantz 2325 with 6300 turntable in the Florida room and a my Focal's 1028 Be with VTL amp and Technics 1200 manual with Denon 103R upstairs in my music room
You can get the Motor grommets from Voice of Music . com
