Opinions on a Penncrest model 7719 Tube console

[djw99mn]

Saw a vintage early 1960's Penncrest tube console today at a thrift store. It was made for JC Penny's. It was a rather small unit measuring only about 3 feet across. It opened from the top and had the standard AM/FM tuner and record changer with 45 adapter. I plugged it in and it seemed to work. Had all the original documents with it also including the schematic and parts list for the console.

Is this worth picking up? Had to turn the volume knob up quite a way to get any decent sound out of it. Probably not very high watt.

Any knowledge or opinions would be very much appreciated.

 

[radiotvnut]

It depends on what's in it. If it had a power transformer driven amp, I would grab it if the price was right. Some of these used a series string "hot chassis" design and were usually not as robust sounding as the better power transformer counterparts. Although I have heard some cheaper series string consoles that sounded better than one would think. The power transformer sets will usually use tubes starting with "6" (6BQ5, 6BM8, 6BE6, 6BA6, etc). The series string sets will have tubes beginning with other numbers other than 6, such as 35C5, 50C5, 50EH5, 19T8, 12BA6, etc. The only exception is with tubes like the 12AX7, that can be found in both transformer and series string sets because that tube has a center tapped filament and can work on 6 or 12 volts.

The main issue with the series string units is that they can be dangerous, since the chassis is usually "hot". They are fine if you want to use the console for it's intended purpose, just don't expect too much output (usually 1 to 4 watts).