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Vintage Grundig Majestic Stereo Console

Saw that dutch schematic link on the asylum, kinda fuzzy for working off of but it does give you an idea of what's involved with a restore. The underside picture on that site shows the caps that need to be replaced, they are sorta putty colored and there's a big gaggle of them on the upper left side of the unit. Most seem to be easy to get to, some of the ones around the EL95's might be a little tighter squeeze. Between those and the big can electrolytic you're probably looking at $30-50 of parts, a few hours of labor, and at least another 30 years of trusty service.

I'm envious, your unit is much higher quality than mine. Did yours come with the Reel to Reel? Is the woodwork really as pristine as it appears in the photo? Is it 6' long like it looks? Enquiring minds want to know.....
 
Mine didn't come with the tape deck and it is in fact in pretty good shape. There are some dings and dents on the side panels but those are not varnished but stained. They will be easy to take care of. The varnished veneer on the lower record cabinet storage area has some scalloping on the lower edges which doesn't show in the photos. It doesn't really show that much in person. The rest of it is in such great shape I'm toying with the notion of having that fixed by a professional cabinet maker. The central varnished panel that is the real eye catcher is just stunning. It draws your eye away from all the other little warts.

There's a little issue with the balance/volume control but I think a little deoxit will take care of that. I'm not sure how to hook up an antenna for the SW bands and I'm hoping the manual I've ordered will help me with that. I'm also hoping it will tell me how to get the guts of the receiver in and out with out wrecking anything. I am given to understand that the record changer operates a little slowly. I also think it has a ceramic cartridge and is too heavy to do anything but carve up vinyl. I don't have any vinyl anyway and no plans to get any, so that is not a big deal. Still, if I stumble across a better Grundig labeled record changer I might drop it in.

As for dimensions, it's 54" long, 34" tall and 17" deep. On the whole, I'm pretty pleased.
 
DaLarry said:
I'm not sure how to hook up an antenna for the SW bands and I'm hoping the manual I've ordered will help me with that.
Click to expand...

The easiest antenna for shortwave is just a long wire with a banana connector at the end. My SW antenna spans the attic then runs through a duct and the banana plug goes into the AM antenna plug on the back of the unit. The other plug goes to my main cold water line into the house (as a ground).

You can pull in Radio Havanna at 9pm(?) most nights to hear your country bashed in old school communist verbiage. Nothing like the '80s Soviet propaganda, but still fun. All of the major European broadcasts (Holland, Germany, England, France) are interesting on occasion. I haven't done much DXing with the old Grundig but the last time I fired her up I was able to pull in a couple of english language programs from Africa. All in all quite fun although completely redundant in the internet age.

Nice to hear your cabinet is in such good shape. It's easier to fix the receiver than the cabinet.
 
I bet that console sounds nice :thmbsp: and will sound even better when the electronics are restored. Yes this console is audiophile grade IMHO :yes: I don't own one, but if it's anything like the RCA 9-INT-1 radio I have that was also made in Germany then the sound is excellent. One thing you should do is replace the audio coupling caps with a good quality audiophile grade cap like Solen-Fast for instance which will improve the audio quality of the console. Also replace any out of tolerance resistors especially the ones on the control grids of the output tubes as an out of tolerance resistor here will ruin an output tube fairly quickly.
 
Tube Radio said:
I bet that console sounds nice :thmbsp: and will sound even better when the electronics are restored. Yes this console is audiophile grade IMHO :yes: I don't own one, but if it's anything like the RCA 9-INT-1 radio I have that was also made in Germany then the sound is excellent. One thing you should do is replace the audio coupling caps with a good quality audiophile grade cap like Solen-Fast for instance which will improve the audio quality of the console. Also replace any out of tolerance resistors especially the ones on the control grids of the output tubes as an out of tolerance resistor here will ruin an output tube fairly quickly.
Click to expand...

The sounds is decent right now. I remember it being spectacular back in the day. When I figure out how to remove the receiver I'll be posting back looking for advice as to what to remove and what to choose as replacements for long life and great sound.
 
I have one of those

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No postings for sale items in threads..
 
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Schematic for SO-162US is on the radiomuseum.org site. I'm a member, so I'll get you a copy tonight. email tbavis(at)rochester(dot)rr(dot)com
 
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