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Motorola SKR155w console?

kvining

kvining

Active Member
I've got a chance to buy a console for a 100 bucks tomorrow, its an old tube console in nice shape just like the one shown in this thread:

http://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=134948

What is the general consensus on Motorola tube amps? Is this worth taking on as a project? Are there replacement parts available for these models?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
 
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I'd be all over that for $100! I think they're nice sounding, good looking stereos. I had one, back in the 90's, and used it every day; including running my pc sound through it!

I don't think there are any proprietary parts on these, and I see the amps alone going for that kind of money on occasion; so, you probably can't lose on the deal.
 
Yeah, I've been reading up on it, apparently the "Drexel Dedication" line is in itself collectable, its Danish Modern mid century furniture popular with the loft-living urban pioneer set, this is part of a whole coordinated set of end tables and bookcases made back in the late 50s and 60s, when I looked at some of the pieces they brought back a lot of memories of furniture around my dad's house where I grew up in the 60's. Found this thread from four years of a beautifully restored similiar unit. http://snag-blog.com/drexel-declaration-in-high-fidelity/

Its all supposed to work except for the turntable. It also has inputs and outputs for extension speakers, external amps and cd players etc, something I dont see much on old consoles.

The "Compressionaire Woofer" looks like it is essentially what we'd call a subwoofer today, one of the sales blurbs sounds like it actually has a compressor of some sort to accentuate the bass, that should be interesting. There is also a reverb unit. Must have been pretty high end in their day. I'm going to go for it.
 
I think the bass is just a third channel, combining the lows from right and left. Usually with a nice 12 or 15 inch woofer; and it always sounded fine to me! So did the reverb... on the 1 or 2 setting...

The extra input is nice, and those changers aren't usually too bad to work on. I'll be looking forward to hearing all about this project.
 
I'd junk it, let me send someone around to collect it from you. Save you the effort .... :naughty: I'll even give you the $100.
 
Well, I bought this little jewel. 100$ on Craigslist.

Very surprised at the very different sound of this unit. I counted a total of 11 drivers, one 15" in the center, an 8"
midbass on each side accompanied by two 5" midranges and two tweeters resulting in a sound very biased to the mids and highs. Very pleasant on programs with lots of harmonicas and such but for all the fancy bass circuity with the compression feature and such the bass seemed lacking. If you turned the compression control much beyond 1 the sound turned to mud. If you turned the bass beyond 1/2 the bass notes turned into thuds. Listening closely, it sounds like the 15" speaker may have a problem. This looks like the first thing to trouble shoot. Otherwise the 5 speaker arrays on each side sounded terrific. All drivers are working and play very clear, you could clearly hear the deep breaths Etta James exuded between belting it out.

The first thing noticed is how loud this thing is. Anything past 2 on the volume knob is downright blaring. It's the loudest console tube stereo I've ever heard. Below that it was delightful.

Cosmetically, there are the usual scratches here and there,but the worst defect is a black stain on the wood rib right in the center of the wood grill shown in the pic below. It was gummy and sticky to the touch. I scrubbed it with Murphy's Wood Soap, which removed the gummy residue but the black stain remains. Any advice on remedying this would be appreciated.

The FM played strong. Haven't tried the turntable yet. I loved the features. The tape-in jacks allowed me to hook up a CD player. The external speaker jacks are tempting, I'd love to try my AR2a's to the left and right along with a passive sub on the Ext Bass, but I don't want to stress the unit until I know more about it. I'm assuming given the power output I'm hearing that the unit should be able to handle it.

The coolest thing about it is the AM/FM dials, they look like the rpm and speedo gauges in a 57 Vette. Wish I knew more about how to date this thing, but I've seen the exact same model with straight line gauges usually seen in the mid 60's, so I'm assuming this may be a unit made in the 50's.

All the lamps and indicators work. I haven't pulled the back panel off to look inside yet, but here's the pics so far:

IMG_1623.JPG IMG_1620.JPG IMG_1627.JPG IMG_1632.JPG IMG_1635.JPG IMG_1629.JPG IMG_1644.JPG
 
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The dials remind me of a 64 Dodge Dart I owned when I was a kid, it was my grandmother's
1963-Dodge-Dart-Odometer-Pale-Blue.jpg
 
What three channel amp does it sport? With the bass out jack maybe a sub could be connected to it. As long as it doesn't disable the bass driver in the cabinet.
 
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Full blown vintage tonight: 1972 Pioneer 828, my most tube-like solid state receiver, pushing my 1965 Magnavox S-8756 (15" woofers and 10x4 horn) jacked into the 1959(?) Motorola console via the tape in jacks for it's maiden voyage at my house. The combination of the deep bass Maggies with the 5 speaker arrays on each side of the Motorola console is very pleasant, very high quality sound, very detailed. It took about 30 minutes for the tubes to warm up, after which I am getting an absolutely operatic frequency range from mid-bass to the high octaves combined with the fine bass put out by the SX-828. The only thing less than 40 years old is the Samsung Blu-Ray playing the CDs. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade", out of this world. Sade's "Jezebel", you can hear her sucking in a breath between notes. Magnavox and Motorola, all American made. I will rate this console as one of my best vintage finds.
 

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These units are really efficient; but I don't know that one would power a pair of AR's very well. My AS-2's (Heathkit AR-2's) always seem to want more power... I've had good luck with my electrovoice Wolverines, and Klipsch Hereseys, plugging into console stereos; though the latter might not boost the bass enough for you!

It is surprising, the volume these bad boys can generate!
 
Ojamajoe said:
These units are really efficient; but I don't know that one would power a pair of AR's very well. My AS-2's (Heathkit AR-2's) always seem to want more power... I've had good luck with my electrovoice Wolverines, and Klipsch Hereseys, plugging into console stereos; though the latter might not boost the bass enough for you!

It is surprising, the volume these bad boys can generate!
Click to expand...
The guy I bought the AR2As from was playing them on a Maggie console pull that he said put out only a couple of watts a channel and they sounded great, so my thinking was they would probably be ok for the externals on this unit, but I'm so impressed with the sound I'm getting using the SX-828 as the main brain jacked into the tape-in jacks on the console I may just abandon the idea and keep running it the way I have it set up, I get far better FM and the deep bass produced by the 15" Maggies running off the SX-828 really complements the mid-bass/mid/tweet arrays on the console, the sound of the tube amp pushing those arrays are the star of the show, I'm getting a unique soundstage I've just never heard before even if it isn't "pure tube all the way". The sound is downright hypnotic. I'm thinking of pulling the amp and having a retired electrical engineer friend of mine rebuild it for me, reinstalling it and having it end at that. I now need to figure out how I can wire the turntable into the SX-828, I'm assuming it will just be a case of finding the RCA jacks coming from the TT and routing them out the back. I'll then replace the Maggies with the AR2As and run them off the 828, because they are a much better match looks wise, the grills and the wood tone of the ARs are light walnut much like the console while the Maggies are red mahogany with dark brown grills. Of course, then I will have to start buying the actual 1960's Drexel Declaration furniture, which runs about $2,000 a pop. I know the wife will just love it.....
 
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Definitely get it recapped, and looked over: it just makes for 50+ year old electronics!

The Motorola's turntable is probably using a ceramic cartridge; and although the output is pretty close to line level, my experience is that plugging one of these into a regular input doesn't sound very good... seems to lose a lot of the bass. I have an old radio shack amp that lets me switch between ceramic and magnetic carts, and I use it as a pre when I play with tables that have ceramic cartridges.

It's awesome that you're enjoying the sound that you've found! I think that's what we're all about, around here... though there seems to be a fair amount of tinkering, too.
 
Service manual doesn't say a thing about cartridge type. Pre-amp photo shows RCA connection point, I'm assuming I just disconnect there if I want to jack it into the receiver. Pioneer 828 manual says plug ceramic cartridge TTs into AUX jack. I suppose I could always pull the TT and put in a newer unit.

Edit: Found cartridge, its an ASTATIC 760 CERAMIC RECORD PLAYER PICKUP
 

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SKR155W. A nice petite console. In my opinion the last of the great all-tube stereo consoles Motorola put out in the Drexel Declaration line. That's a 1964 unit. There should be a date code on the amp - typically Fall 1963 through summer 1964 (models were introduced in the Fall, much like the auto industry).

By the way, there is an electrolytic capacitor leading to the 15" woofer. Replacing that should help your bass response.

Greg1a1.jpg
 
Hmm, there should be no capacitor on the 15inch speaker and it should have a direct connection to the bass output transformer.
 
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