Hello,
Recently picked up a Zenith X940 Stereo Console. It's in great shape, all original and sounds great to me. Still need to clean up the finish (fill-in a few small dings, polish, etc). I posted images from when I purchased it. I will post new once clean-up is complete. I am now very well-versed on the 1295 Voice of Music turntable it has. I ended up rebuilding it multiple times. I likely didn't need to...if I would have just read up on how the manual vs automatic play cycles worked. I was convinced there was an issue due to the tone arm not dropping in 12" position. For those of you familiar with VoM turntables, you will know what I'm talking about. At least now it's clean and well lubricated. The one issue it did have was a slow-to-start platter and the occasional hang-up which was due to a hardened idler wheel. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to address this and even have a vmail/email out to Gary in Michigan to order a new one. I ended up finding a forum that mentioned that "Goof Off" paint remover contained the same chemical(s) as an old-school rubber softener. I soaked the wheel in there for a couple hours and it became nice and rubbery again....cleaned the inside of the platter with IPA and it has plenty of grab now and works perfectly.
Couple questions I'm hoping this forum can help me out with:
1. The phono has a slight hum when on and idle. I don't think it was there when I first started using the unit, but noticed it at some point during the multiple iterations of removing/re-installing the record player. I also happened to cycle the internal/external speaker switch a few times. I read that these can get dirty and cause audio problems. Should I tear into the switch or is there a more plausible explanation or better actions to take to look into this?
2. I want to be able to play bluetooth through the unit. I see that many of the Console Hot Rod'rs like to display their finished products with an integrated hybrid preamp w/built-in bluetooth (Dayton/Monoprice). They also look pretty cool. Is there a simple way to integrate one of these units? Could it be as simple as plugging output of the hybrid preamp into the Console Tape-In RCA connections?
Thanks!
Recently picked up a Zenith X940 Stereo Console. It's in great shape, all original and sounds great to me. Still need to clean up the finish (fill-in a few small dings, polish, etc). I posted images from when I purchased it. I will post new once clean-up is complete. I am now very well-versed on the 1295 Voice of Music turntable it has. I ended up rebuilding it multiple times. I likely didn't need to...if I would have just read up on how the manual vs automatic play cycles worked. I was convinced there was an issue due to the tone arm not dropping in 12" position. For those of you familiar with VoM turntables, you will know what I'm talking about. At least now it's clean and well lubricated. The one issue it did have was a slow-to-start platter and the occasional hang-up which was due to a hardened idler wheel. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to address this and even have a vmail/email out to Gary in Michigan to order a new one. I ended up finding a forum that mentioned that "Goof Off" paint remover contained the same chemical(s) as an old-school rubber softener. I soaked the wheel in there for a couple hours and it became nice and rubbery again....cleaned the inside of the platter with IPA and it has plenty of grab now and works perfectly.
Couple questions I'm hoping this forum can help me out with:
1. The phono has a slight hum when on and idle. I don't think it was there when I first started using the unit, but noticed it at some point during the multiple iterations of removing/re-installing the record player. I also happened to cycle the internal/external speaker switch a few times. I read that these can get dirty and cause audio problems. Should I tear into the switch or is there a more plausible explanation or better actions to take to look into this?
2. I want to be able to play bluetooth through the unit. I see that many of the Console Hot Rod'rs like to display their finished products with an integrated hybrid preamp w/built-in bluetooth (Dayton/Monoprice). They also look pretty cool. Is there a simple way to integrate one of these units? Could it be as simple as plugging output of the hybrid preamp into the Console Tape-In RCA connections?
Thanks!
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