Rca victor solid state new vista

[Darrelltarte]

I found a solid state replacement thingy, but I'd rather use the vacuum tubes but I would use the ss replacement if it is recommended.

 

[Darrelltarte]

I still can't believe that it still plays as well as it does. It's amazing. I would take this over a flatscreen any day. Also, the interference was the cable connection. I played with it & got to quit doing that, but it went right back to doing it again.

 

[JURB]

"the only thing is that getting me is the arm won't hold the cartridge"

These RCA's had the "Feather Action" floating cartridge. The cartridge is held in place by a little prong or clip, usually white or grey in color. The clip is inserted into the front of the tonearm headshell, the cartridge is
on hinges at the rear, and the clip holds the front part of the cartridge and allows it to float. There is also a tiny felt pad on the clip that rides on the record to clean dust away. This arrangement would not allow any force over four grams on the record even if the tonearm was pushed down or dropped. This was to protect the record and stylus. Zenith, Silvertone, Philco, GE and Airline had similar schemes.

This clip has a tendency to fall out when the console is moved or bumped abruptly and is almost always found inside the console. RCA's generally had a plastic pan under the changer and the clip is usually there
or inside the console somewhere else. I hope you didn't throw it out thinking it was trash.

The posted frequency response of the models with the 15" oval woofers and open backed cabinet was 45hz -15,000hz. The response of the models with the 15" round woofers and sealed cabinet was 35hz-15,000hz.
This was the response of the speaker system, the amp was posted at 20-20,000hz.

Those picture tubes come up nos once in a while and you could also check with VDC (Video Display Corporation). Moyers Electronics is a good source for 60's RCA flybacks, it would be prudent to have
a spare if they have one. The folks over at Videokarma have cleaned them out of some of the rarer ones, mostly early 60's models.

WOW, you know WTF you are talking about. More than me I think, and I had one of those and I know how they sound. Alot of people think hifi was all the sudden invented in like 1990, this is not true.

The RCA model he has might not have quite as good an amp as ours had, or actually it might have been better. But the bottom line is the speakers. I liked those 15 X 9s.

Anyway, one problem about those TTs was that the felt piece it the front of the arm that held the cartridge in would fall off. Then it would make a scraping sound.

One thing I distinctly remember about ours though was the FM. There was no place on the dial you did not get a station. Yup, it just went "plop" to the next station when you turn the dial. You could find static if you turned off the AFC, which was accomplished by pulling out the balance control.

I am just about getting wishing I had a pickup truck and the facilities to work on these. But I might get a bug up my ass and instead just decide to build a new one.

But that's just me.

 

[Darrelltarte]

Well, for a console, it has great bass. Of course, the cabinet vibrates when the volume is up, & anything on top of the console will also vibrate. & i have a big warehouse type shed in my back yard, that I'm going to clean up & close in, lay some concrete down, & make it into a stereo museum/repair center. That's my dream lol. On mine, the afc is in the tuning knob. After you find your station, you press the middle, & afc is on. Once you turn the dial, it turns itself off. & it is missing that felt pad.

 

[Darrelltarte]

& both of y'all know what y'all are talking about I really really appreciate it.

 

[JURB]

"After you find your station, you press the middle, & afc is on. Once you turn the dial, it turns itself off. & it is missing that felt pad."

WOW, I completely forgot about that feature. So cool. Ours didn't have it but I did work on a few units that did.

 

[Darrelltarte]

Yeh, it is pretty cool I love it, just wish there was better stations in my area. I mostly use the tape input to play vinyl rips on YouTube

 

[JURB]

I wonder if the tape is like on the RC1227C. It was resistored out of the speaker wires during record, which means the tone controls affected the output, not proper hifi, and then were an input through the same jacks when switched to tape.

But really, quite a few consoles had decent bass, especially when the solid state ones came out. Of course there were elcheapo ones like Electrophonic that gave them a bad name, but there were alot of quality units out there, of varying quality of course. Some were super good, I've heard of tube jobs that were biamped ! Get the wood and polish it, put in the speakers, an ELAC Miracord and a Viking Of Mineapolis, pair of ultralinear monoblocks sporting 6550 output tubes. Oh yeah, I don't say "for a console" anymore.

Actually my Uncle built a serious nice console and then gave it to my other Uncle as a wedding present. A solid hundred watts per channel. He hired someone to make the cabinets, the speakers matched the console perfectly, you could line it all up or separate the speakers as you wish. Many years later is got scrapped ad I got the electronics, and I mean back in the 1980s. It was about last year I sold the iron out of it to a guy in Chicago.

I know it is hard to find..., well WAS hard to find mass market consoles that were a real quality build, but they are out there. There are big boxes that make the best Magnavox quake in its boots.

I remember when they advertised "modular" stereos. Back in them days, most people bought those big box jobs. And unfortunately there were the Capeharts and others which were total piece of **** that left a bad taste in the mouths of those who like good sound.

And then there were the others. Real innovation - we are talking the 1960s/1970s. Cars still had ignition points. Nobody had a computer, and even the head of IBM said he could not see why anyone would want a computer in their house. There was no rap music. Most people did not have air conditioning in their house, let alone their car.

****, now I am depressed. The good old days.

 

[Darrelltarte]

I've had 2 electrophonic stereos, one with flashing lights, & a really small one. They sounded okayish, but the speakers sucked. I had a truetone stereo, it was in the cheap side but wasn't as bad as electrophonic lol. But on mine, it appears that the phono input & the tape input are wired together, I suppose it is also an output too, I can hook my phone up to it, & it plays loud & distorted on tape, but I can switch it too phono & it plays fine. I've checked the connections & it seems okay but I heard somewhere that the tape input has higher gain cause the tape players back then wasn't amplified, but I'm not sure about that.

 

[Darrelltarte]

I remember at my grandmas house, she told me that she had a fan in the attic & when you open the windows about an inch, the fan would bring in the air from outside. I've never seen it in action, but it sounds pretty cool.

 

[Darrelltarte]

Hopefully I can find a bulb for this it illuminates the changer.

 

[Darrelltarte]

i checked with moyer electronics, & they don't have any flybacks that would work. the tv still works beautifully, i just want to go ahead & find one now instead of waiting.

 

[JURB]

That will be a tall order. It has to be NOS of course. If you call Henry at Asti he would probably laugh. (but they been bought out and I have no idea what is going on with them now)

I think the original horizontal output tube was a 6JE6. We used to replace them with IIRC 6MJ6 which is a much more powerful tube. I now recommend not doing that. I would still recommend the solid state rectifier if you can get your hands on one. Reason being that the HV rectifier tube filament is fed by the flyback and until it warms up there will be more voltage on the flyback. The 6BK4 shunt regulator has its filaments running off the same supply as the horizontal output and damper so it will be there to trap the extra voltage right away. Something like an ECG-3A3R it was called. They used to be like $12, but now ? Be sitting down. There are other solutions which require a little bit of modification, but none of them are really cheap either.

What about the stereo ? I can tell you for sure that I have good mods for it as soon as I see the print. I have made many of these things sound much better. See, they did certain things to make it sell in the store which are not really hifi. We can correct that. This generally involves modifications to the tone and loudness compensation circuits. Every now and then an adjustment to the negative feedback helps. But until we got the print, I can't say anything.

 

[JURB]

Hopefully I can find a bulb for this it illuminates the changer.

Wow, I completely forgot about those.

 

[Darrelltarte]

yeh ive emailed a few more companies, i doubt they will have any. im kinda scared to operate the tv now, cause i dont want to mess it up. & you mean like a schmatic? sams should have that right? & yeh i was wondering why it didnt work lol. ive never had one that lights up the changer. but yeh those mods sounds awesome. ive found some soild state replacements on ebay, i can hopefully find one. & what i was saying was that someone (i cant remember who) said online that the tape input is louder because the old tape players didnt have an amp in them back then. but, i have some more stereos from the 60s & ive never seen one like this, so idk how true that is.

 

[Darrelltarte]

That is where the phono input & tape input is.

 

[Darrelltarte]

The gray piece on the bottom is for the phono & the top is the tape

 

[Darrelltarte]

There is more bass in the left channel than in the right. At first I thought it was my ears playing tricks on me, but it isn't. Of course, a recap job is definitely needed. Does anyone might know where I can get a service manual?

 

[Darrelltarte]

I got the tint control free, but the UHF knob is it locked up.

 

[Darrelltarte]

I never posted this my apologies