Seeking info on Vintage 1970's Magnavox Console Stereo

[Red_Raider]

Greetings everyone.

A little while ago, I stumbled across some pictures online of a console series that I grew up with for many years. There's 6 pictures below, but they're not all the same unit. Only 2 are from the same unit that I'm aware of. But, they all look very much similar.

The one I grew up with was sold off by my folks about 20 years ago, and I definitely miss it.
I had no idea until recently that it was indeed an old Magnavox.
It would have been from the early to mid 1970's.
It had casters, although it was still a heavy sob to move.
And it also had a gizmo attached to the inside of the cabinet by the turntable for playing 45 rpm singles.
The units in the pics below look virtually identical (on the outside) to the one I grew up with.
The turntable looks pretty much spot on.
But, the rest of the insides are a little bit different.
I think this is probably due to those particular units probably being a few years older than mine.

The receivers (and 8 track player) in these pictures all have black trim.
The ones I grew up with both had silver trim.
The receiver I remember was silver, more wider, and had more knobs than buttons (than the one in the pic below).
The 8 track player was flush mounted (not angled like the one below), and had a side-eject well with red LED's for programs running vertically and silver buttons on either ends to toggle back and forth between programs.

Also, along the very bottom of the front of the unit, just below where the 2 front doors met, there was a tiny little red piece of plastic which acted as a red filter for a very tiny bulb inside the unit. When the room was dark, you could tell the unit was on if you looked at the base of the unit for the discreet little red light without having to open the top of the cabinet.

Can anybody provide me with information on a model or series to help me narrow down what I can about these particular variety of console stereo systems?

Thanks in advance.

.

 

[Red_Raider]

The record players in these Magnavox units were relatively impressive for their time.
The top spindle of the turntable was about 3 inches tall.
The reason it was so tall was because you could stack 2 records on top of that tall spindle.
There was an additional arm to hold them in place in place during play.
If you were careful with how you set your records up there, that arm might not scratch your records up.
It was a bit of a cumbersome design.

After the first record was finished, the tone arm would move away from the platter, move upward slightly to tap the record overhead,
at which point the next record overhead would be drop onto the platter, and the player would continue to play.
Realistically, you could only stack 2 or 3 records up there at a time before the tonearm might start having enough clearance to get over top of the record to get into the groove.
And besides that, you gotta figure the tracking was going to be off by the time you get to that 3rd record, and might be prone to other performance issues.
Some multi album releases (such as the Star Wars Motion Picture Soundtrack) had "side 1" and "side 2" on separate records so that you could play them consecutively on these type of record players. When they were finished playing, you just flip the records over, and continue to play "side 3" and "side 4".

And to play 45 RPM singles, you needed this adapter (in the bottom picture) to fit over top of the center spindle to take up the excess space.
You could still use a cheap adapter, but this was what Magnavox supplied to their customers..... although it's incorrectly mounted in the picture.
Someone was apparently in a rush and didn't line the hole in the adapter with the index mark on the back plate before pushing it into place between the 2 tabs.

 

[Red_Raider]

And in the picture below, we have a nice and complete set of castors which are normally situated under the unit at each corner. Apparently someone was having trouble with them, so they were taken off and were placed into the storage well of the 8 track player inside the unit. As I recall, the castors did seem to help a little with the unit we had in the house when I was growing up. But, the units were pretty darn heavy, and were not very easy to move around. And if you had to lift the unit to move it in and out of a house (for example), the castors were very likely to drop out, and could end up getting stepped on or possibly even lost. Plus, if you don't put them all back on correctly, the unit could tip (which is especially bad if you're playing records). So, they were likely taken off in this picture to facilitate a move/transaction. Quite remarkably there're all still there. Some people would just throw them away.

 

[Doug G.]

The changers were made by Collaro and the arm moving in to tap the record was for the changer to determine the size of the next record so you could mix 12" and 10" records of the same speed and have the arm set down in the correct start position.

Doug

 

[Red_Raider]

I seem to remember reading about that somewhere. I don't remember seeing any other turntables that do that. But, between the way that arm would clamp down on those records up top, and then how the next record would drop down on top of the previous record on the platter below while it's turning.... yeah I'm sure a lot of records got scuffed. Great concept. But, the execution was a little bit sloppy.

 

[Red_Raider]

UPDATE!!!!!!

Solving this mystery has been a lot of fun so far!!!!!

Oddly enough, despite the outer cabinet being fairly common from the early to mid 70's, the insides didn't match any catalogs from those years.
It wasn't until I looked in a catalog from 1977 that things started making sense.
The cabinet itself can't be found anywhere in the 1977 catalog.... but the insides are!

So, basically, instead of the cabinet being an Astro-Sonic (slide top) it turned out to be a Decorator Stereo (lift top starting around 73 or 74 apparently).
They apparently had a surplus of the old cabinets when they made this important change, so they kept using them for the Decorator Stereo.
By 77, the old Astro-Sonic style cabinets (retrofitted to be Decorator Stereos) were probably gone.

The insides apparently are what helped date the cabinet and likely the time it was sold to my parents.
The newer components started being put into the "old cabinets" sometime around 1975.
These particular variations of the cabinets were probably available until they ran out probably a year or 2 later when the 77 catalog came out.

Two of the 3 inside components can actually be found in the 1977 Magnavox catalog, which I've included below:

- Magnavox Stereo AM/FM Tuner-Amplifier (possibly chassis # R34403 BA ... or if anybody has better identifying info, that would be great!)
- Magnavox Stereo 8 Track Tape Player (model # 3500)

Finding the correct version of the Collaro Micromatic record changer that I grew up with however seems to be a wee bit more tricky.
But, the pic I've included below is virtually spot on as far as I can tell.
The pic is just a bit grainy, so if I saw more pictures of one like it, I think I'd be more confident to call it for sure.
It's just hard finding images of that particular model since I don't actually know what it's called yet ... so any help would be absolutely great!

Thanks in advance.

 

[Red_Raider]

This picture is great too, but it cuts off the very forward edge of the player.
But, it also look like the one I grew up with.

 

[Red_Raider]

The changers were made by Collaro and the arm moving in to tap the record was for the changer to determine the size of the next record so you could mix 12" and 10" records of the same speed and have the arm set down in the correct start position.

Doug

Do you know where I can find service manuals for these record changers? I tried Googling, but the more I look, the more dead ends I seem to find.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

To add to your mystery. And why the Decorator Stereo line used up older leftover Magnavox cabinets. In 1975, the Magnavox Company was purchased by North American Philips. So, the older leftover cabinet inventory was remaining for the previous 19 months before the NAP buyout. Which meant the establishment of the Decorator Stereo line, to use those cabinets up with new Magnavox receivers, new Collaro record changers, and tape units. 1977 was the last of this line intended to use up old cabinet inventory (which made sense for those customers who wanted older style cabinets). These units were a transitional item from old Magnavox to the new Philips owned Magnavox, and the last to bear the old logo.

 

[Red_Raider]

To add to your mystery. And why the Decorator Stereo line used up older leftover Magnavox cabinets. In 1975, the Magnavox Company was purchased by North American Philips. So, the older leftover cabinet inventory was remaining for the previous 19 months before the NAP buyout. Which meant the establishment of the Decorator Stereo line, to use those cabinets up with new Magnavox receivers, new Collaro record changers, and tape units. 1977 was the last of this line intended to use up old cabinet inventory (which made sense for those customers who wanted older style cabinets). These units were a transitional item from old Magnavox to the new Philips owned Magnavox, and the last to bear the old logo.

People like my parents who probably bought it between 75 and 77 when I was still under the age of 5. Some of the older married folks had their old Astro Sonics, and then these new puppies started coming out. Sounds about right. It makes more sense now as to why older cabinet designs like the one I grew up with were modified to lift tops and given newer receivers and record/tape players .... and why I had such a hard time in recent years trying to figure out what the hell it was because it didn't match up very well at all with anything else from any of the catalogs. It was like a Frankenstein Magnavox. But it was definitely a very cool beast to crank up just to let it roll.