Yeah, that isn't all that bad, just don't try to get ten years of daily use out of it.
Now if the picture blooms (gets bigger) when you turn up the brightness that 3A3 might be weak. If so it needs to be replaced because that set uses a shunt regulator and a weak rectifier tube leads to too much voltage at the secondary of the flyback. But as log as you can turn the brightness up and down and the picture geometry is stable you are in good shape. Now if it bends around, not just grows, that could indicate a bad shunt regulator, IIRC it is a 6BK4. Also results in more voltage on the secondary of the flyback.
Keep your hands the hell away from that thing, but you should be able to see it glow when you turn the brightness down and then when you turn it up the glow should subside, provided you got a strong CRT. These days, if you can see it it is usually strong enough.
Anyway, back to the stereo. Do you have any equipment ? I mean like a generator so you can get at least a rough idea of the thing's frequency response ? Ours had some really nice bass, and on those15 X 9 " woofers, the magnets were barely larger in diameter than a US silver dollar and about as thick. But damn, we had an album of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, the cut Magic Trumpet has some pretty damn low bass in it. I am sure it is under 60 Hz just because I can tell. you can probably get it on youtube but if the quality isn't good enough I can send it to you or Dropbox it. You can also download simple frequencies now from what I heard.
What I am getting at is with those cabinets and all, with those shitty paper woofers, some of those things had seriously good bass. I mean rivaling subwoofers of today, just at a lower level. Ours wasn't quite that, though it was good. I remember seeing some like yours back then and they sounded good, but I never got a chance to play my selected material on them.
Some of them sounded boomy, but from the looks off it, your isn't one of those. Out of curiosity, is it closed back or does the back have holes ? Ours had holes and I tell you what, that back radiation bouncing off the walls gave it a pretty good ambience or whatever. Dr Bose eat your heart out LOL.
Later, in some brands in the console stereos they did seal the back, but then left the bottom open so the woofers could shake the floor. Some people really like that.
You know, I wonder why these things are not so popular anymore. It is like everyone wants a spartan appearance in their house. Look at the issue of WAF. Back in the 1960s it was not an issue, like - "Honey, I bought a new stereo, get that kid of ours, what's his name to help me unload it". People expected stereos (and TVs) to take up some space. Now they want it all out of sight.
But that is not entirely true. Many times the Wife would be at the store and the selection would not be made just on sound, but the style of the cabinet. Look at the trend today, it is like people don't want anything in the house. Spartan is not the word, it is way beyond that. They want it like living in a damn motel. Like the whole house is brand new every day. Something that big and heavy has no place in most modern households.
I don't know how old you are, but tell you what. Get you a BIG pillow, or like 7 normal pillows and pile it up in front of that thing, while it still works. For like maybe $30 you can get a PC to TV convertor to plug in to a laptop or whatever, convert to NTSC, and then for maybe $20 a modulator to make it RF for the tv. Go to youtube and find an old ep of Star Trek or Get Smart or even Green Acres. (the first ep of Green Acres is a hit !) Get that hooked up and lay on the floor with the pillows and really watch some TV. That's what that thing is for.
I used to have all the gear to feed an old TV like that from a PC but I gave a crucial part of it to a friend of mine because I got all drunk and broke something on his car. Regardless, the value of stuff like that is waning because of lack of demand. The VGA (or DVI) to NTSC, and then the RF modulator, hopefully you should be under fifty bucks.
I remember, and I was frikken like seven years old, when they delivered out new RCA they said you can plug it in and watch it or whatever, but DO NOT connect anything to it until the serviceman got there. He would connect the antenna so as not to void the warranty. But it worked, picked up stations and we watched it with no antenna.
Also, the FM antenna was part of the package. Usually stapled to the back of the cabinet, people usually never gave it a thought, let alone a second thought. Almost like an AM antenna, which was built in to most radios by then.
Dammit, you got me in a time zone here ! Not that I didn't want to go but this is alot of remeniscing (and I ain't letting spellcheck fix that). People just don't know what is was like to lay on the floor and watch a brand new Star Trek every week, on, what Wednesday ? And it was shut up or get out because there were no VCRs. You got one chance to watch it. And there were other shows. But really, do, at least once, play something age correct on it. Maybe a 1970s ep of Batman ! (in those costumes, where the hell were their... ... nevermind)
i was blown away by how good it sounds. the only thing is that i have to turn the volume down on my iphone to about 50 % or it will distort the sound. it plays wonderful with my iphone volume on 50% i even cranked up the volume on the stereo & it did not distort none. what do you think causes this? can it be a resistor going bad? it plays evenly across both channels.
