Zenith MN2608

[WaterWolfAz]

I am looking to purchase the above model Zenith. I am ok with their asking price. I am not a collector, just looking for a beautiful piece for my living room that sounds decent. The changer needs some work, but other than that is in good condition. Anyone have any experience with these? My understanding is it is a mid-level, solid state Zenith for the time. Thank you in advance!

 

[WaterWolfAz]

Ok. Well did some research. Going to buy this today. Will have a couple things I need to update. I will post some pics this weekend after I bring it home.

 

[WaterWolfAz]

Ok. Made the purchase. Will have it home Saturday. Known issues. 1. turntable does not turn. Motor makes noise and turns, but not the turntable. I have read up a bit on this and should be able to figure it out. 2. Th right speakers only hum in FM. Not sure about the other inputs yet. My understanding this may be more complicated. Left speakers sound great. It is not balance, tried that already. And took a cursory look at the wires and all seem to be connected. Will have to do some more research into that issue. Overall I am very excited for this purchase and looking forward to the journey to get it back into perfect working order.

 

[goodolpg]

You know there are issues so you can hopefully learn something while fixing it and then pass the repair process along on in this thread. It may help someone in the future.
Enjoy the fixing and once done enjoy the music!

 

[RWood]

I think I had one of those - the model number rings a bell. I was able to get it going and it sounded okay.

Since one channel works that means the power supply is doing what it should, as it is common to both channels. What I would do next is deoxit all switches, pots and function selectors, etc. see what that does before throwing any parts at it.

A schematic should be available. When you get it, work on tracing the signal. You can compare the good channel with the bad. Make an El Cheapo signal injector and see if you can find the stage where the signal is lost.

If i remember it right, the preamp signal goes through electrolytic coupling capacitors. The cheap, red dot kind that was popular in the early 60s. On mine, replacing those was what brought it back. Hopefully yours is something easy.

Keep us posted.

 

[WaterWolfAz]

Thank you for the pointers. I'll post pics when I get it home. Lots of dust to clean out. Also, the split out to the speakers all seems to be right in the back and def some corrosion on the connections. The right speaker does hum, so its getting some power, just not the audio signal. I'm looking forward to this project. Never worked on electronics really before, so it will definitely be a learning experience.