Watch & Listen as it plays a 78RPM record flawlessly! With all the Bell's & Whistle's this record player has, it's no wonder it was the best seller of its day.
I had one of these; I was a Zenith fan, my whole family were Zenith fanatics! I played all my all my Motown, TSOP and all the independent R&B labels of that era! It truly has a great sound and the bass alone could rock the room! It was so stylish and modernistic looking. Zenith had a showroom, 666 Fifth or Madison ave on 53rd Street. The subway entrance was under the building. The people there were so nice to me; I spent hours there playing the sample music albums they had! It was in that showroom that I saw the Circle of Sound and wound up buying one! Over the years, it fell into disrepair. I wound up in the basement the insides protected by the clear plastic or acrylic cover! When I moved out after 66 years, I left it there in the basement! I'm sure it got dumped when the new owners bought the house. I had I had the foresight, I would have taken it with me but alas it is what it is! Zenith was an innovator back in the day with both their audio and television products! I watched/witnessed the evolution of their remote controls; I had a collection of them but they got lost in the move! All our TV's were Zenith including our first color set! Zenith and RCA were fierce competitor from the get-go but when it came to color TV, it was all out war! The RCA standard won out! those were the days when MADE IN AMERICA was not a catch or advertising phrase; it was a statement of fact and PRIDE!
Very nice but there's no way that record was made in 1896. 1896 would be referring to when that piece was written. The earlier recordings were recorded without any electronics and could never produce sound like you hear on that record. But not doubt, 78rpms do sound astonishing good when not worn, clean, and played on good equipment. I picked up a Shure M78S cartridge before Shure stopped making carts and was pleasantly surprised how well 78's play. Nice player, thanks for sharing.
Awesome, I have never seen a 78 record that is the same size as a regular album. That is wild. Great reproduction sound quality. Opera is awesome. Great piece of vintage equipment. Love to see old vintage equipment working perfectly fine so many years later.
I had one of these in the 80s. It was my dad’s. I loved it. I’d listen to old 78s on it, & stack all my Duran Duran records in the changer & listen all night.
that is cool ! i dont recall them in the zenith store i worked at out of high school in the early 70s. zeniths of all breeds came in for repairs. not to say they were bad. people abused them
That 78 r.p.m record is indeed (and I ain't kidding around) the best sounding, flawless 78 r.p.m record I have EVER heard, wasn't expecting this and sounds as good as a Compact Disk or even better! Also, for a 1964 turntable with those colored lights under the rotary controls is very 'high tech' for it's time and the 360° degree 'directional stereo sound' design of those speakers!!
the screw that is on the under side of the rear of the tone arm is for stylus set down position. not ani - skating . you turn the screw to let the arm land farther in to the beginning of the record or closer to the outer edge of the record ok . thank you for sharing this great vintage record player
Wow you are right! It does adjust the set down position. It has nothing to do with Anti-Skating. There is no anti-skating on this record player. Thank you for correcting me.
you are more then welcome and I hope that you have many great years of enjoyment with this and it is amazing . the zenith company made great turntables as well as the 2g tonearm idler and belt drive combination unit . to me zenith never got the recognition they deserved thank you once again for posting and csharing this
You seem to be very knowledgeable with these older turntables. Maybe you can help with my latest problem. In the process of restoring my Zenith Circle of Sound, I notice the very last song starts to skip on every album I play. It's as if the tonearm can't swing out that far. I can't seem to find a adjustment for it anywhere.
Thanks I was going to say the same thing, this is basically just a VM changer with a Zenith tonearm VM was never quite that sophisticated to have an anti skate.
I recently bought a similar later model to this Zenith Automatic Record Changer? Do you know the hertz or watts of volts of current of electricity it uses? UK is 50 hertz and US 60 hertz US? If you can help me and what I need to be aware just to avoid voltage of shock. Thanks.
2 года назад
Congrats!!!. I had one in Argentina in the late 60´s. I had to recycle hundreds of 78 RPM, nobody wanted them. Sighs. I still have near 1 000 LPs and 45´s. Great Othello and Desdemona, who are tjhem? Thank you for the memories. Cheers!!!
Thank you for the presentation! My dad just passed away. He had the same record player. I was fortunate my brother didn’t want it so I just brought it home last night. I was not allowed to touch it as a kid. My dad had many 78s from his dad’s collection. Now I have them. Do you have any recommendations for cleaning the record player?
I am sorry for your loss. That record player will become a wealth of memories for you. Cleaning will be easy, the build can take all kinds of detergents. The cabinets surrounding the player is real wood, use the same products you use on wood cleaning. Unfortunately that won't be your biggest challenge. The capacitors in the electrical part are over 60 years old. They will have to be replaced. It can be done without much trouble as soon as I get settled in to my new ranch I will do a step by step video on the process.
Very nice stereo, and I agree, it's awesome that it's been in the family so long. I really like the rotating needle. And it's stunning that you can get such superb audio quality from a 78. One minor quibble, though: 16 rpm records are microgroove; they should be played with the same needle as 33s and 45s.
I've been reading the 4 year old comments about the Zanith Did you ever make a video of a complete restoration? I'm incapable of it, but may have someone who could. Thanks
The needle is pressed in, it kind of requires a special touch to pop it out. It's seldom, if ever needed to remove the whole cartridge. I will shoot a vid on how to remove & replace the needle ASAP
I just got one of these. It plays but the arm doesn't swing and set down on the record player and something is loose inside. Is that easy to fix by unscrewing it?
I think it great that you acquired one, they are not that easy to fix. I can give you a few tips. You definitely have to change the idler wheel. There was a man that could replace the idler wheel. I don't know if he's around anymore. The Idler wheel hardens which makes everything either stop moving or some parts slow way down. The other thing is the original lubrication on these units dry up. It's not enough to re-lube the gears you must remove the old dried lubricate 1st. The last thing is by now the capacitors need to be changed. Lucky there our not many in the Amp. I found out how to do all this by google. I just started using google for any clues on repair. From all my searching I found the idler wheel replacement, the new capacitors, the right lubricant & the new stylus. Unfortunately it was all done before I started my RU-vid channel. I don't have any links. I may do a new video of a complete over haul on this soon with all my searching done over again. This time with links. Look to my channel for that video coming soon.
I want to borrow it,...put on a copy of "One Stormy Night" by the Mystic Moods Orchestra,...turn off the lights and go to sleep, just as "Autumn Leaves" comes to an end...just like when I was a kid in the 70s.
Have you ever tried playing the "hi-fi" 78 microgroove records on it? I'll never understand why the single format didn't keep the 78rpm speed while going microgroove stereo. The sound from that would blow everything else out of the water and they would be especially good for jukeboxes.
I do a little of everything, check out my page. You will be the second request on a soon to come "How To" Vid. If you need to see how the cartridge goes on. The Stylus is still available on Ebay. Let me research the actual model # for it. I suggest you alway run a new Stylus. That's where this Zenith Circle Of Sound really shines. I know I have a few extra cartridges, but like I said always go with a new stylus.
I'm not sure, I never have. I would think you need to take the bottom off. The black "bakelite". Then look for the bulb from underneath. It's good to hear yours is working perfectly. In time you will need to replace the capacitors. After years of use they dry out & fail.
4:46 That record appears to be vinyl. If it is vinyl, it's no surprise it sounds good. Microgroove 78s, rare as they are, sound absolutely superb. Microgroove 78 is probably the best sound ever released as a home format. (this record is obviously not microgroove)
How is it warped like that then? I thought only vinyl does that. Does shellac even do that? PS... that's a fine looking turntable. It's such a shame that nothing electronic can really be serviced anymore.
@@tarstarkusz I have many records from that time that have a uneven play back. I don't know if that was at the time of pressing or if that happened many years later. My research shows that vinyl "unbreakable" didn't start to appear to some time later.
OMG, Of course its not Surround Sound. It was years till technology like that came along. I was comparing it to that. If you listen closely I did not say it was a Surround Sound record player. People need to stop trying to judge and just listen to the words that come out of my mouth.
It's from the 1925 Metropolitan Opera Otello "Love Duet" Vocals our not listed any where on the recording, further search comes up with nothing on the net about who they may be. Now I'm on a quest to find out. Besides your question & my search, the new interest has made me play the whole Opera over again, in a dim lit quiet room with a bottle of 1987 Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon. A 9 Double sided 80RPM LP set. Thank You for the question which allowed me to revisit this find and hear it in its entirety. Google search has others singing this same duet (Otello "Love Duet" Vocals Gia Nella Notte Densa & Eduardo Lo Vedea). But nothing like whats on these albums. I may digitize them and post to my channel latter.
No matter what you do you will NEVER get good sound out of a record made in 1896. You will be lucky to get more than 6khz off such an old acoustically recorded record, even if it had been hermetically sealed and never played at the time it was new. That record looks vinyl to me. Records were not made on vinyl in 1896.
@@HavocSun That's a pretty cool looking system. The problem with the old acoustically recorded records is the frequency response is very poor. The problem is not with the system, it's with the original recording. Your example does sound clear and fairly quiet though, kind of like a well modulated strong AM signal played through a high quality receiver. Yeah, it will sound the best it can sound, but the best it can sound is pretty limited. Do you happen to know the history of this record? One assumes it saw limited play on old heavy reproducers. Even early electric phonographs still used a nail on a pretty heavy tone arm.
@@tarstarkusz I'm a collector of anything old, cars, trucks, computers, record players, just about anything. For records I usually collect in person. Meaning it would have to be local, where I could visit the seller and hand sift through the records. Hopefully get a history of the product. I remembered this collection real well, I was excited to see the condition of the older records. The grandson who sold the records told me the history. Originally bought by his grandfather who lived with them, He took meticulous care of them. I was surprised to see what shape they were in. I could see that most of the older albums were in fantastic condition. My thoughts were they were never played on the intended type of phonograph like a Victrola, if you close enough you can see the long term damage a heavy stylus will do to shellac records. This album set was actually of a very good recording (of that time). The names of the two singing eludes me now.
@@HavocSun The grandson must have been an old man for his grandfather to have purchased the record new in 1896. But people are still regularly finding NOS items from the 60s and even 50s. NOS tube TVs are still around, though obviously not exactly an everyday find. But one can understand keeping a brand new TV that was 500 dollars in the 60s around in a warehouse. I don't think there is a single video on YT of the first play of a NOS turn of the century record, even of fairly rare stuff like longplay Edison records (which would be less likely for there to have been the equipment to play it, though there is nothing to stop some fool from putting it on a victrola, even though it will either not work or sound absolutely terrible due to the different cut) . Though, to be fair, if you have a NOS record from 1900, you're probably not going to play it (though I myself would, especially on a modern turntable and cartridge. A shellac 78 is not going to experience any wear at all from a 3gram modern cartridge and stylus. Even the Zenith in this video would not put any wear on such a record) To me, collecting stuff you won't use is kind of dumb. Every old radio I own gets listened to. Every old computer gets used. Every old record gets played. If I had an old car, it'd be driven! They aren't knick-knacks.
@@tarstarkusz i agree completely, in most cases I restore my collections to use. The Grandson at the time of purchase had to be in his late 80's. The house was a 3rd generation purchase. I spent a few hours & a lot of money purchasing this and that. I had just missed the sale of a old cabinet sound system that had a wire recorder.
