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Electrohome Cascade 1 M Tube Receiver from Console: Good, Bad, Ugly?

SanJoseMichael

SanJoseMichael

Active Member
Recently picked up an Electrohome Cascade 1 M (per the label) console, believed to be 1954 vintage (Dominion Electrohome Industries Ltd, Kitchener, Canada). I've pulled the tuner/amp out, and the amp sounds okay, the FM tuner is pretty noisy on stereo, however. Amp uses 6C4, 6BL8, 7025A and a pair of 6BQ5.

Any opinions, comments, observations on the quality of this? I don't know much about these guys.
 

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Whaddya think,Bolly?Should he just put it in a dumpster and be done with it?:D
Seriously,Electrohome has a very good reputation on these boards.I bet it would be a great sounding mono amp.Is that a Garrard turntable?It looks kinda sweet,too.
Jimmy
 
hard to say guys, its probably not in the same league as PA300, PA600, or PA100... but still could be worth messin around with
 
Restore it. Amplifiers that use 6BQ5 output tubes sound nice when restored. I'm not sure if this requires an FM MPX adaptor or not as there is an RCA jack marked FMX output and a power recepticle for one to be plugged in to, yet it has what appears to be an internal MPX adaptor to the left of the input jacks on the tube layout chart. You will need to replace all electrolytic capacitors and all paper capacitors. Also test all resistors and replace those that are out of tolerance or are close to being out of tolerance. I find that it is best to replace all resistors in a vacuum tube operated device. Test the tubes as well and replace those that test weak or bad. I'm not sure that I would trust the record player with any records except maybe 78's. That console was most likely made in the early to mid 60's. That's the first console I've seen with a circuit breaker.
 
Thanks for info. I'll mess with it for a while. And, we've got Jensen woofers (9 3/4 inch??) and a 4-inch tweeters in this baby! Great bass sound on the jazz station!! Maybe we'll fool with the antenna and see if the FM clears up. Looks like the chassis is "modular" with the tuner section an entire subassembly. Not bad, paid very little, more like a token thanks to a guy who was glad to have it hauled away as non-op (poor guy did not know a tube in a shield was not plugged in all the way!).
 
Just plugged a CD player into the tape in for clean source and noted pots are dirty. Yes, it's FM Stereo with MPX.
 

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Nice looking unit. I'd suggest bringing it up on on a variac if it has not been on for awhile and seeing what it sounds like. I never met a 6bq5 amp I did not like. Electorhome seems to have been a well respected company up here. It looks clean not not abused whaich is a big plus. The tonearm looks like it has the cutout for a flip sylus so the phono input may for a ceramic cartridge.
 
ya u could prolly junk the console or use it to build a smaller cabinet for just the tuner/amp. I always like the big face plates alot of the tube consoles had
 
Hi SanJoseMichael...Your unit looks like mid 60's...I just saw one today in a thrift store for $25.00,but my wife was with me! I'm not allowed to bring anymore home!!! So I gave my brother the money ,to pick it up for me....as he lives just down the road from the store!!! .....25 minutes away from me! Hopefully tomorrow... it's mine! It was an Electrohome "Lucerne" AM / FM , with a Garrard TT....it looked about late 1959 -61 ish', in a "Swedish Walnut" cabinet. Cabinet was pretty nice shape for the vintage!!
 
If you have reoom for the console then keep it as is. You may want to consider re-doing the crossovers for the speakers. I suggest finding out where the woofers and tweeters crossover and calculate what value choke you need for the woofers (unless they already have chokes) and get new capacitors for the tweeters. To test the low frequency response of the output transformers connect an audio signal generator to the input and an oscilloscope across the speaker. Start at about 100Hz and go to 20 Hz. Look for a point where the sinewave is not a true sinewave any more. If that occours at a frequency of 30 Hz the transformers are ok. Any higher and you will need better transformers unless of course you like the sound as is. I have a V-M SEP 6BQ5 stereo amp and replacing the audio output transformers provides better bass from the amp. If your amp uses a plate load on the output tubes of 5K a pair of One Electron UBT-2 transformers will work nicely.
 
SJ michaels Electrohome tuber

I now have it. the Cascade 1M (?)
It plays great and drives some old sansui SP1700 spkrs with ease. Really makes them sing.
Anyone know where I mite locate a schem. for it. Probably pretty obscure being out of country as it is. google didnt turn up much but this AK thread. Also I met San Jose Michael yesterday as a coincidance.
I may offload it one day but will play with it awhile. All I wanted to do was get a sense of what all the "TUBE SOUND" was all about. It doesn't sound any better/different than my existing system so am abit disappointed. Should I be? or shoulld I explore something else. I just wanted to get something for less than a fisher X### for 800+.
Its not that I dont like it , just didn't meet my expectations. But I gess thats my fault.
In fact it sounds VERY good and maybe thats because its tubes. I don't know. I don't have a "tube" reference to judge by. Just my existing SS system. Just wanted to add that tidbit.
 
Last edited:
SanJoseMichael said:
Recently picked up an Electrohome Cascade 1 M (per the label) console, believed to be 1954 vintage (Dominion Electrohome Industries Ltd, Kitchener, Canada). I've pulled the tuner/amp out, and the amp sounds okay, the FM tuner is pretty noisy on stereo, however. Amp uses 6C4, 6BL8, 7025A and a pair of 6BQ5.

Any opinions, comments, observations on the quality of this? I don't know much about these guys.
Click to expand...

FM stereo is going to date it to quite a bit later than 1954. The FM multiplex standard was adopted in April 1961.
 
bolly said:
hard to say guys, its probably not in the same league as PA300, PA600, or PA100... but still could be worth messin around with
Click to expand...

I think he wants to use it for Hi-Fi Gregg, not announcing. For announcing though, Stromberg Carlson made some good "PA" amps too.:yes:
 
oldhifiguy said:
I now have it. the Cascade 1M (?)
It plays great and drives some old sansui SP1700 spkrs with ease. Really makes them sing.
Anyone know where I mite locate a schem. for it. Probably pretty obscure being out of country as it is. google didnt turn up much but this AK thread. Also I met San Jose Michael yesterday as a coincidance.
I may offload it one day but will play with it awhile. All I wanted to do was get a sense of what all the "TUBE SOUND" was all about. It doesn't sound any better/different than my existing system so am abit disappointed. Should I be? or shoulld I explore something else. I just wanted to get something for less than a fisher X### for 800+.
Its not that I dont like it , just didn't meet my expectations. But I gess thats my fault.
In fact it sounds VERY good and maybe thats because its tubes. I don't know. I don't have a "tube" reference to judge by. Just my existing SS system. Just wanted to add that tidbit.
Click to expand...

any comments?
 
Are you saying it sounds VERY good, but you are disappointed?


I have one almost identical to that, except it lacks the reverse/stereo/mono switch, and the MPX part is a separate sub chassis. Mine had a hard-wired loudness contour circuit in it. When I got it the bass sounded bloated and there was no highs. I removed the loudness circuit and the tone controls, replaced cathode caps, and replaced the ceramic coupling caps with Russian PIO caps.

It sounds very different than my SS gear. The mids and highs are amazing, but I find it lacking in bass punch and control. The bottom end just isn't there. There is much better tube gear out there, but I'm surprised you say that this receiver sounds just like your SS gear.
 
Pretty dum I guess. I was expecting "the TUBE sound" to come across big time. I don't know. It just doesn't sound any better than my SS system. thats all. Of course theres better tube gear and at a much higher price. I guess an old
60s console stereo just dont cut it like the big ticket pieces do. Figures. I dont need "tube sound" that bad.
 
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