Looking at the receipt, it was an "uneven" exchange. The owner bought another set less than a month earlier for $339 that he brought back and exchanged it for this $499 set. The additional cost was about $160
AC motor for the 8 Track are more rugged. Don't need to worry about motor brushes. They do tend to produce a lot of heat so need ventilation. Only thing is you really can't get a fast forward feature. Some fast forward features on AC motors are done using a mechanical gear shift.
The 8-track sounds great! I love old Magnavox consoles. I have a couple currently. Both need work. They have to get in line. The later BLR turntables aren’t quite as good as the earlier Collaro, but even the SS plastic 70’s junkers sound better than virtually anything consumer grade you can buy today.
Very true my friend. Ive got a mid 70s Bradford console, AM/FM, PHONO, 8-TRACK, one channel on the amp sounds terrible, sounds like a speaker is blown, but its not. And the 8 track needs a belt. Any thoughts on where to get a replacement belt?
@@mountain177 Of course Amazon has belts. (As you would expect) I had a VCR business back in the day, and belts were easy to buy. I'm sure Amazon is used by one or more of the suppliers now.
Thanks for this. I miss listening to my mother's 45's and LP's in our living room on her old console she received as a present from my nana back in the '70's. Mom is with nana now and dad resting in peace, but we still have her vinyl collection. I think I'll try to get that Garrard zero 100c turntable going that's in the garage and clean up the vinyl with the label saver gadget I picked up to take me back some more.
I’ve worked on many of these consoles. They actually sounded really good for what they were. The record changer auto mechanism has a switch to mute the cartridge when cycling. I would clean up the mechanism and repaint the cabinet. The auto mechanism is so gummed up that it’s causing the tone arm to bind at the end of the record.
A guy near me did something like that. Except he wasn't trying for a 'vintage' look. He painted his a weird purple with some funky zebra-stripe grille cloth, and neon lighting in the equipment well. Sounded good, though.
8track unit is probably the best one ive ever heard, built in England, really good quality, the flywheel weighs about 1 1/4 pounds and the belts still pristine after 45 years, us english sure know how to build hifi stuff
Yes looks similar to the BSR one that also turn up in American equipment at the time . The powerful motor insures the flywheel gets to optimum speed quickly
Pro tip on "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden" - when someone asks you to transfer their old wedding film from silent 8mm to VHS, don't use this song as the soundtrack - they won't like it!
Me too. I've fixed most of mine repairing/replacing the foam pads, broken splices. I posted several videos on my channel here on how to open and do repairs.
@@acoustic61 8-track had a hideous problem with head track alignment due to the floating/ shifting head, and the freq response was sub-par compared to cassette which was to follow. most 8-Track decks had a range from 50 Hz to 12 Khz. Typical basic Cassette was 35-12000Hz and then they improved on that to vastly widen the range with better tape formulas, THEN came CD... and we all know that story.
I always liked and started collecting 8 tracks and cassettes and reel to reels. 8 tracks can sound surprisingly good if you have a good deck and good tapes. When 8 tracks came out they sounded leaps and bounds better than cassettes (which were only made for speech). Then cassettes got more and more popular and instead of improving the 8 track, they improved upon the cassette and the rest is history.
@@frankowalker4662 I like playing my Stereoscope 8 track. Very nostalgic. Yeah, it sounds like crap, but it is a distinct crap sound that brings back memories...
I've never clicked a video so fast in my life! I just restored a similar Magnavox model and it's amazing. My cabinets in near perfect condition. I had to free up both motors too and touch up some solder joints on the knobs. Only thing wrong now is it won't go into fm stereo. It gets great reception though. Really hoping you do more with this
One day you could do a livestream Dj-ing on those consoles and playing all those records you have. And invite to the party the phone center callers, the airplane pilot, and the motorcycle ryder.
That's quite a beefy motor just to power a 8-track player. But after lubing it up, it sounded pretty good! I"m surprised the belt hadn't turned to goo yet. I remember my mom and dad bought a console stereo in 1970, when I was only 5 years old. It was a GE. Must have been made from real wood because it was flippin' heavy. They were married in 1961 and before the console, they had a record player (the kind that folded up into a suitcase), and a reel to reel player for their music enjoyment. They finally donated it to a thrift store in 2001. It had it's problems over the years though. They actually had a technician that would come in to fix it in home. There was one point that when you turned it on, nothing came out of the speakers. But oddly enough, stomping on the floor next to it brought it back to life! From watching youtube videos on old consoles, it seems the late 50's into the 60's produced the best ones.
Im so glad you flimed in 4K 60frames so I can enjoy it in a 13 inch laptop with an internet connection that barely allows 720p .... Sounds legit. This museum grade item deserves to be document at that resolution.
I see so many TVs and stuff in the garbage all the time in today's electronic and this unit still working great! Just goes to show that old audio is still the best
@@suzakule Probably not a bad woofer, but debris caught between the cone and the grille cloth. Or the glue on the voice coil dust cover has partially failed. Maybe a bit o' both?
@@bonemar66 It's possible that the dust cover could be buzzing on all around, but it's more likely for dust and debris to become lodged in-between the woofer cone and cloth cover. In my early days of being the 3rd-4th owner of my eBay Zenith Trans-Oceanic D7000Y, it had dust in front of the speaker due to a foam gasket having disintegrated into nothing over the period of 45+ years, and it sounded exactly like that "bad" left woofer driver. Actually, I made a video on it demonstrating just that a few hours before I dug into the receiver and vacuumed the dust all out: photos.app.goo.gl/ctr5Ychmze5DXxL26
I don’t care if the wood isn’t real, it’s still beautiful and they still had to carve the plastics and stuff. These things were meant to be a beautiful piece of furniture and looks better than record players made now.
Wow. My parents had one of these. The console was different, but everything else is exactly the same. My dad loved it. He ran speaker wire through the whole house and to the patio outside for a single speaker and an in-ceiling speaker in our sunporch. My parents also had questionable taste in music listening to Ann Murray and The Carpenters.
i cant believe how good that 8 track player sounds good lord...especially considering its powered by a washing machine motor and it soundsl like its still playing the proper speed...i love your videos
Lovely look at the old Magnavox. It may have been built to a price but it sure sounds good. It looked like the returned a product and bought this console unit paid the difference. The speaker domes in polystyrene sound better than they look.
Yeah I wondered about that. Not even the far more expensive 60s consoles had enclosed woofers. I wonder if it's a true acoustic suspension or just to dampen resonances. The tape transport looked solid too, there are far worse 8-tracks. Apart from the turntable and extensive use of polymers on the outside (lol) this is a neat unit.
I hear Sylvania was famous for those and the TV technicians I worked with really liked them. I was told there was a top-line Sylvania combo that had a high power amp and honeycomb speaker baffles and a flying spot scanner built in for displaying slides on the television. I'm imagining how heavy that must have been.
@@johnnytacokleinschmidt515 Yep, I had a Sylvania that had those, Looked like a Bee's Nest and sounded pretty good!, Magnavox used a Square type foam Cube before this one, Had a '12 Woofer and 4x8 Horn
My aunt and uncle had a console stereo but no 8 track, they weren't invented when they bought theirs. It was solid wood with slider tops instead of a lid, and actually a beautiful piece and both the radio and the turntable sounded so good. I am actually amazed that anything is working on this one you are videoing and considering it's condition it sounds pretty damned good!
I was amazed about the sound quality, especially after it being left outside to the elements. It was a miracle it even powered on!! For you to get annoyed that the turntable wasn't spinning correctly, annoyed me. I am in awe of you though, for having the ability to restore these wonderful pieces of audio treasures. Save them all!!
I'm not surprized the "Blue Gloved , "can't touch this", one has a Rupaul trinklidink platter in possession. You go friend. Rather a lovely Saturday afternoon hit!
No wonder the 8 track had such a good motor, made in England. Just needed a bit of a lube after so many years. Much better than the nasty cheap Chinese DC motors. Considering the condition and sound over the net, it did seam to sound reasonable. I wish I was closer, New Zealand's a bit far to pick up for a proper restoration.
Love that faux wood finish, NOT. Any competent artistic person can redo the finish with modern paint pens. Ooo, an 8 track cassette with truck driver songs. It has a very good collection of vintage trucker tunes. Baritone voiced Dick Curless is probably the best truck driving singer on this collection. AM radio works great. Dirty pots of course cause it spent time outdoors. Impressed by the amplifier! 45 year old electrolytic capacitors still fine.Old grease is keeping record player motor from turning properly. Working the Shango magic and it now it is a sellable piece of vintage equipment.This was an awesome resurrection Mr. Shango ! Party on!
@@eaglewi I refinished my old Fisher I found by the side of the road. The electronics were shot. The receiver used tubes but as a cabinet for my other stuff, it looks pretty good. Those chalk paints at Ace hardware can really turn a piece delaminating crap into something nice.
That old 8 track actually sounds decent, usually the wow and flutter on a unit of such age would make it un listenable. As a kid I do remember successfully taping a Pink Floyd 8 track back together after being lightly eaten by a Soundesign 8 track transport mechanism.
I did have the song Rose garden on record when a kid :) I have made alot of speakers trough the years, and i am starting building paper speakers again, i love paper in mid's and low's, one of the absolute best materials to make mid's and low's speaker elements of, stiff and light weight.. the modern plastic cones wont sound as good as paper does. Silk for tweeters to get it light weight there too for a cheap price.. Add some berylllium high frequency tweeter domes that has the best material for replicating high freequency without distortion and with a high freq super-tweeter crossover and they will work really great for those that want every hertz the human ear can hear. Add a bluetooth recieiver and a DAB+ radio and its ready for the future :) The round shapes of the bass speaker enclosure in this furniture hifi piece gets rid of reflections in standing waves that suare cabinets have, i bet this sounds good :) It may need a small isobaric subwoofer too to get the techno trance music players satisfied with the modern bass music. My favorite speakers i has found is the Yamaha NS 1000/1000M from 1970's (closed cabinet, beryllium tweeter and beryllium midrange and 12" paper woofer) this will satisfy fast detailed music becourse it is transparent crystal clear. And Yamaha NS 20 from 1967 . Open baffle cabinet everywhere exept tweeters i think, paper tweeters and midrange, and a strange very large square shaped perhaps 20 inch styrofoam bass element, (probably sounds fantastic for classical music). NS stands for natural sound. Yeah, they really made things better back in the days, it was HIFI wars back then, so people did go to listen what sounded the best before they did buy things.. so it was get better or get bankrupt for the companies. Today the competition is all about getting the right advertisement with the right spec of things and added unneccesary features and the lowest price and cheapest parts to get the most profit, where everyone is trying to scam everyone a little.. its kind of sad, noone needs reputation anymore in their brand name becourse average people look for price and specs on the internet and order it. Yeah one gets crap that way. They used 1'st order crossover back in the days with +/- 2db, today they use loads of capacitors and coils to get the crossover curve on paper to get +/- 0.5db.. becourse people ask for it and think a real flat curve is better than a somewhat less flat curve with less compromises. Simplicity is often better than over-engineered so they kind of make the perfection of mediocrity that way loosing the fine details in the music for a flat computer curve that looks good. People can not build real good speakers anymore becourse they priotitize the wrong things, they let microphones and computer software curves decide instead of the human ear. All these things is the reason you think this wood furniture piece of art sounds good an you has totally right, it is better than todays crap sold cheap :)
Oh man.....sweet unit, seriously; still somewhat of a memory catcher. My parents had one n their living room next to the reel to reel and console Packard Bell TV....those were the days. Green shag carpet and orange counters and olive-green appliances.
Some issues you can have with phono cartridges are if there are colored wires sticking out the back then one wire can come loose. Another thing is the wire connections can become dirty over time and need some contact cleaner on them. If your phono cartridge does not have colored wires sticking out of the back of it then the phono cartridge just plugs into the tone arm and if you pull the cartridge off of the tone arm then you can spray some contact cleaner directly into the tone arm. Another thing to do is take the stylus out of the phono cartridge and spray some contact cleaner into the phono cartridge then put the stylus back inside.
Most electronics built in the 70's, with rare exceptions, had compromised quality. This was due in large part to a significant decrease in the purchasing power of the U.S. Dollar during that decade, as the Federal Reserve was up to their BS. Manufacturers had to cut costs on materials to remain profitable. We had a pretty serious energy crisis back in those days.
@@channelsixtysix066 As I remember, 45 years ago many people had different tastes in what they would consider desirable. After all, avocado green refrigerator-freezers, ranges, dishwashers and shag carpets were very much _avant garde_ back then -- but most people today wouldn't be caught dead with home furnishings sporting those colors.
@@Mike1614b The gas lines were real and quite inconvenient. Retrospectively, it was really a *contrived* shortage; although, none of us alive at that time seemed to realize this. We just believed what the TV and radio "news" media told us. Inflation caused by the Federal Reserve was very real, and affected the high prices of goods and services back then, including gasoline.
I'm honestly astonished that it came back to life so readily - especially considering it hasn't been used since probably the 1990s and as you said, sitting in the weather. Many of these units had a feature that would 'mute' the output from the phono cartridge when the changer is cycling, so you wouldn't hear the noises from the mechanism through the speakers. The switch for that is in the changer itself. That particular changer mechanism isn't really all that bad, but after they've been sitting you absolutely do need to clean and relube them before they'll work right. I think you could order these with a 3-speed BSR changer, as well. The reason for the AC motor in the 8-Track is to pull the longer tapes hitting the market at the time, such as the blanks provided for 8-Track recorders (remember 80 and 90 minute carts? Takes a fair bit of power to run those!). I'll agree the cabinet is ugly and cheaply built. It was just the way of things at the time, since consoles were already on their way out of 'fashion' by 1976. But if you think it was only starting in 1976.... naw. I have a mid-1960s Astro-Sonic that is basically a particle board box with veneer and plastic trim. Those styrofoam enclosures for the bass drivers are consistent with the era. This was when some stereo manufacturers were experimenting with 'air suspension' (or 'acoustic suspension') speakers. As far as I can tell, it was basically just a gimmick to make cheap speaker drivers sound slightly better, but I've been told that it required more power to drive them. I'm not saying it's worth a full restoration. But I think it's a bit harsh calling it 'junk'.
Love Frankie Knuckles. I had the pleasure of hearing him spin 5 or 6 times in the late 90s. He was amazing. Kind of hate to see a copy of the Whistle Song tortured on that turntable. Robin S you can torture all you want. I was tortured with it being played to death 25 years ago, only fitting that the torture be returned. 😉
@@AmericanLocomotive1 Is there a name for this type of motor? It looks like the little AC induction motors used to drive desk fans, dehumidifier fans, etc.
Sounds great, but more suprised at your selection of music. Never had you down as a raver, but I guess it all makes sense. Great lyric "I beg your pardon" reminds me of theft and shrubbery.
Founded in 1877 by David May of Leadville, CO. Moved to St. Louis, MO in 1905. bought by Federated Department Stores in 2005, ceased operations in 2006. Except for Lord & Taylor, most stores were converted to Macy's.
Now I have a vision from the movie _Boogie Nights_ where in an early scene Don Cheadle as a stereo salesman is trying to convince a customer to buy a stereo (by demonstrating an 8-track playing country and western style instrumental music) and telling him that if he buys the unit "as-is" it won't sound good; he added that it would sound better with a slight "in-store modification" (yeah right!). Funniest part was where he mentioned "quads per channel" (when he meant watts) then tried saying it was 'technical talk' and that it didn't concern the customer.
Wow ! I remember May company ! The who family would all look forward to shopping for everything at May company ! They had a fantastic electronics/TV department. If you were looking for a nice suit or woman's wear, they had a great clothing department, hopefully you can fix the magnavox console stereo!
Our Family had a 1974 Magnavox Console 8-track record player fm/am stereo It always worked well and had good sound, my parents use to drink and play cards with their friends every weekend and that console was very loud for hours and hours and never skipped a beat. the 8-track was above the radio dial at a slight forward angle with the turn table to the right. The speakers are sorta like this one, except the woofers are in a composite wood/cardboard balloon dome. not this styrofoam looking stuff in this video. Funny thing is I took the whole thing apart when I was 11 years old and took the woofer boxes out and put in some cheesy 8inch woofers screwed to the openings and kept the composite boxes and later in woodshop made mahogany wood speaker boxes that those composite boxes fit into. Radio shack had a nice tweeter/midrange sealed in a tube with the cone surround that was reverse shaped that I drilled a hole in the front of the wood panel that the woofer is mounted to with the carboard dome glue-stick like glue that holds the dome to the particle board wood. Still using them for watching TV to this day. Funny stuff.
In the late 1960's - mid 70's these consoles were the in thing. A fine piece of furniture for the living room combined with a stereo. Many were quite expensive. Of course, there were cheapo models too, for those that wanted a console stereo but couldn't afford a real good one. Some were combined with a color television, making it an all-in-one entertainment system.
That old console brings back the 1960's and the Silvertone console I remember as a kid and the 8 track player my brother had in his VW Bug. 1960's Cool!. I really like the Igloo speaker insulation adds soo much definition and fidelity... The ratchet mechanism in the turntable is one of a kind. EOL it!
16:50 Most synchronous motors have that permanent magnet in the armature; the squirrel cage layer starts it and the permanent magnet keeps it in sync with the line frequency. I don't know if they all get weak, but Garrard models have a problem with the permanent magnet coming un-glued. It seems that Magnavox bought that tape player from Callaro, the maker of the changer; I would have expected something from Japan. Anyway, that cabinet looks a lot better (condition aside) than many of the plastic-fantastic 1970s consoles; it would look pretty convincing if in good shape and polished up. Of course, it would still feel like plastic. I've seen the cube-shaped Styrofoam speakers in Magnavox consoles, but never those dome-shaped things. I wonder if they were made that way to minimize resonance. Too bad that isn't in better shape; I like last-of-a-kinds.
I restored a 1973 version of that, some, the tuner was a little different, my tape deck had the same motor, and it too worked. I had to clean the wafer switches that controls the track lights. I lubed the turntable. Removed the old grease. Had to repair solder connections on the amplifier board because the dial lamps didn't work. It had a great sound I ended up selling it. I didn't even have to replace the needle.
you may sneer at those foam surrounds, but they lasted 45 years. they shoe horned the 8track deck into an existing design, seen it on other consoles too. C- gummy grease.
The early 8 tracks were engineered like pinball machines inside. The circuit that changes the program lamps is just very simple mechanical rotory switch with incandescent lamps switched by a solenoid, a plunger, and a cogged wheel, which also lifted the head in steps. Those were different times, now everything has a microproccesor in it.
Nothing exciting. Just 12" paper cone woofers with small magnets on them. They actually sound good and last a long time as long as you don't overdrive them.
Funny that you posted this, I threw out the cabinet to a similar magnavox console the other day, although that one was more particle board and plastic than this one.
This really isn't all that bad and well worth cleaning up to make fully usable again. Sure it has a blown woofer but they can be easily changed even with something modern & would still sound decent. Magnavox stuff and even some Zenith stuff was still decent quality in the 70's So this may look like a POS but it's really not.
I have an old Fisher cabinet that I restored. It has the same Turntable and I have the same Trucker album on Lp still. It has more wood than particle board but I had to tear out the receiver and speakers since it was left outside for some time. The bones are still good and it was my first shot at refinishing anything.
