Best Console You've Ever Heard?

ScottTamale

ScottTamale

New Member
I saw the best boombox thread and discovered some cool stuff, so it inspired me to do this. The best console I've ever heard was a custom cabinet with a Bogen DB212 amp, Bogen tuner, and Garrard table with Philips made in Holland coaxials. Next was a Telefunken Sonata. If someone replies, I'll post a pic of the Sonata. I like to be on the lookout for things and a thread like this inspires us to keep our eyes open and be on the lookout for long lost treasures. If we can save our consoles from being broken or neglected, we preserve our hobby and pieces of audio history.
 
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Had an RCA TV stereo combo built in 1966. Had about 10 WPC OTL solid state amp, 15" X 9" woofers, 4" X 6" midranges and 3½" tweeters. Had an exceptioally good FM. With the AFC on there was no spot on the FM dial without a station. It picked up out of town stations just with the built in antenna. The phono cartridge was self weighted, floting and a felt piece that cleaned the record as it played and the design really protected the stylus well, pushing down on it wold only put pressure on the felt piece. Had a really unusual 45 RPM adapter. Sounded really good for a ceramic. I remember getting a replacement, IIRC it was equivalvvent to an Astatic 353D. I think the D meant diamond stylus.

I was about 13 I think when I modified the thing for four times the power by using a split supply and a DC coupled outpput stage. Well that was the end of that.

Perhaps better than that was a Packard Bell that got serviced where I worked. I never worked on it, the boss did it hiself, I guess he knew the guy. The speakers were on hinges so they kinda stoe away at the sides but could be swung out for listening. May have been detactable as well, not sure.

Had one of the Magnovoxes with the stryofoam enclosed speakers. It was pretty good, though I think the RCA had a bit deeper bass response.

And the really best one I've ever seen was built by my Uncle. A pair of 100 watt monoblocks using 6550s for outputs in a Williamsoin/McIntosh coinfiguration. (had the cathode taps as well) Someone here has a picture of the preamp either in their sig or avatar, it's copper color and black. Don't remember exactly what it was.

I'm not sure of the tuner but it had an Elac Miracord turntable. I don't know what cartridge. All the electronics were of course in a cabinet but the speakers weren't. They were in matching cabinets that could set alongside the main unit and it would look like a regular console, or be moved practicallly anywhere. He built it and gave it to my other Uncle for a wedding present.
 
I had two consoles that I would rate as best I have heard. I used to restore these when I was much younger and had pretty much the range of manufacturers to work on and listen to.

The two I kept were:

A Grundig cube Majestic 3D and that was it for the name on it. I have not seen another of these exactly as the one I had but some similar items over the years.

The second and IMHO the best a Telefunken Hyminaeus HiFi with curved wood remote speakers. (The spelling is not correct but as close as I can get from memory of about 25 years ago).

This beast had a turntable and a wire recorder (mono) player in it. Everything worked after a quick repair of the power supply caps. It was quite a loud unit on par with the fisher and other American models out at the time. I would estimate it put out somewhere around 15-20WPC give or take.

The sound was great but by no means comparable to my Accuphase stack. IT did however have a tuner that was a sponge and it seemed to be able to receive AM/FM/SW with the built in antennas. Adding an outside hook up allowed it to be capable of receiving most if not all of the SW stations from the major transmitters. FM was beautiful and AM had no noise even on weak stations.

The American consoles were different as they used separate pre-built units and installed them in a console cabinet so it isn't a direct apples to apples comparison between the two types. For the early Magnavox, Curtis Mathis and those vintage units the two above won hands down at least to my ears and everyone who heard them in comparison agreed.

Hermit
 
Big problem with the old consoles was that back in the day there wasn't too many decent sources of music. AM radio mostly, had one FM station that we could receive, classical music. Scratchy 45s. Turn the treble down to mask the noise, no real quality sound regardless of equipment.
 
Besides those mentioned by Kent, the big 900-series Zeniths of the late 60s have excellent sound.



tom3 said:
Big problem with the old consoles was that back in the day there wasn't too many decent sources of music. AM radio mostly, had one FM station that we could receive, classical music. Scratchy 45s. Turn the treble down to mask the noise, no real quality sound regardless of equipment.
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A problem for you, but maybe not for many people. There were lots of excellent LPs pressed in the 50s and 60s, open reel tapes were available, etc.
 
In the 50's and 60's my dad would get consoles made by Churchill Cabinets. They were absolutely beautiful and his last one had an oyster shell top. Bell electronics, RCA TV, Gerrard changer and Jensen speakers.They were very long and massive, 6-7 feet wide. I really enjoyed listening to them.
 
The best one I ever heard was a higher end Magnavox that I bought from a friend of our family. It was a 1963 or 64 Astro-Sonic with a separate preamp/tuner and power amp unit. The woofers had much larger magnets than the typical ones found in most Magnavox consoles and it really cranked. I converted the Collaro turntable to a magnetic cartridge and installed a little RS phono preamp, was able to get it to track nicely at around 2 grams. Great console, used it for years in the house a bunch of us rented back in the day.

Second best was a little KLH Twenty-Five console unit that I picked up at a local garage sale. Nice lil' console, was basically the Model Twenty-Four phono system in a cabinet with speakers built in behind doors on the sides. Small console but sounded quite good.

HH Scott made what CU considered one of the best sounding console units on the market in the late 60's but it was damn expensive.
 
My grandmother had an old console in her office that had a Pilot tube receiver and a Garrard turntable. I still cry when I remember that that was supposed to be mine but ended up sold at an estate sale as I had no way to transport it and nowhere to put it.

The Magnetbox console in her living room was almost as good, too...
 
I have not had the pleasure to hear it, but this console is for sale in my home town right now. Have to expect it's above avereage. :yes:

 
I have a 1966 grundig console that sounds fantastic. This must have been one of the last tube consoles. The exterior looks like crap, I had to glue two of the legs back on, It has chipped corners etc... But i have done no maintenance to it and it sounds awesome. I did swap out the telefunken 12ax7's for some GE's just to preserve the tele's
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Now i am always on the lookout for german consoles. There are tons of them around but they are almost always expensive
 
Probably the best one I heard was a custom with an H.K. Citation 1,2,3 Pre amp,Amp (deuce)and tuner respectively along with an Concertone Tape deck and a Thorens table connected to a huge pair of Electrovioce Patrician horn loaded monsters in each corner of the room.

The TOTL or nearly TOTL Magnavox , Zeniths ,Packard bell and Some of the RCA were decent ready mades that I have heard


I'm sure the Pilots ,Fishers ,S.C. and Ampex were more than decent also . Parents had a big Curtis mathes all in one stereo and color TV
real nice cabinet with a CTC12 clone in it stereo wise it was nothing to write home about (not horrible though ) although it did have 6 speakers.

I eventually tossed the BSR record grinder out of it and put in a Garrard model 50 and Stanton 500E and wired up a switched phono pre amp in it for the folks .
it was replaced years later with a Magnovox 25" color combo with an arguably better stereo (and TV) in it by that time I was cobbling better stereos together for my room though .
 
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Had a 1966 Zenith with the Microtouch record player. It sure was nice sounding. It is now at the ex-wife's house, but since she has all the 78's it only made sense. I kinda miss it. It was a tube/solid state hybrid type of thing, with louvres in front of the 15" speakers (with horns) for muting. It was excellent for dinner parties or just throwing on a record to dance a little. But the best thing was how good my jazz records sounded on it. And the radio reception was great.
I did listen to quite a lot of those things before buying that one. Here in Phoenix you see them for sale all the time. I didn't know how good the record player was until after I got it home.
 
Big difference between separate components in custom furniture and what most everyone else had back then which was factory built. That RandyFloyd76 custom ensemble without speakers in 1960 cost as much as a new 1960 Ford, Chevrolet, or Plymouth basic standard car. Meaning around $1600 new. Just pre-recorded tapes for that Ampex were $6.95-$9.95 each and not discounted when LP discs were very discounted. That was often 2 mono standard priced LP discs, already a luxury item for most average families relative to their income.
 
Have not heard a good one yet because all of them I have seen have been for sale at thrift stores etc. I have a couple that are nice including a blaupunkt that I still need to fix up although I doubt it will sound great since it is shortwave radio. It just looks cool with a built in bar!

Saw a Trutone tube unit yesterday at St Vincent dePaul for $45 that was full of original tubes.
 
My grandparents had a 1957 Magnavox Continental 295H finished in light maple. I will always remember how good that sounded
 
Had part of a Voice of Music tube console from the 50's up in my bedroom. One of the sweetest amps I've owned. I got into solid state & the VOM got shoved out into the garage. It didn't survive one of my Dad's annual garage clean out's along with a nice vintage working floor standing Philco radio. Yes ........ I was young & foolish 45 years ago. I wish I had them both back today.
 
Some of those VM tubers were decent.

I had a mono amp pull out of a VM hifi console With 2 P/P 6L6 GT and variable phono EQ selection and decent iron the thing was more than decent !
 
KentTeffeteller said:
Big difference between separate components in custom furniture and what most everyone else had back then which was factory built. Just pre-recorded tapes for that Ampex were $6.95-$9.95 each and not discounted when LP discs were very discounted. That was often 2 mono standard priced LP discs, already a luxury item for most average families relative to their income.
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I Would agree I only saw a few customs and component systems or any consoles with RtR tape growing up.

Most folks had ready made consoles, and TV Stereo all in ones or table top or portable type stereos on a stand (if they had one at all) and tape reels were pricey compared to a lot of LP's not to mention consumer RtR not only required maintenance like any RtR and wasn't all that reliable then .

Most of them were Admirals,RCA,Motorola ,Magnavox,GE ,Zenith ,Curtis Mathes,or Airline and a Packard Bell now and then (in the town I grew up in) because those were at the local stores and dealers there. IIRC the RCA ,Zenith and Magnavox were the most popular with exclusive dealers in town followed by Curtis Mathes and Airline and an Admiral,Moto ,P.B. or G.E now and then .
 
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