There are consoles... and then there are CONSOLES...

You could do that, yes.

However, most people want to play records, since they are the iconic and defining item of music consumption of the age.

 

Actually, the defining item of music consumption of the age was the radio...

And most of these consoles hail from the era of record changers, not single-play turntables. Your basic iPod or other device cycling thru a playlist would actually provide a better facsimile of the "music consumption" experience of the console era than a turntable would. Unless you want to restore an old changer, which is always an option, but it's also likely to be a lot more work.

 

Still not recommended or practical. And you'd have so much fabrication to do, that for the same money and effort, you could buy or have made a Barzilay or Bozak type custom cabinet, use the amplifier you want, a turntable you really want without butchering it, and outside speakers you prefer, it would look 100% better, and it would be many times better performing. I considered doing this with one, lacks flexibility. And do you really want a fried amplifier inside one of these cabinets without any thought of ventilation? I repair gear, I see what happens when irrational ideas like this occur, gear fried, very shortened component lifespan, and gear shoehorned into to cramped installations with no thoughts of operational ease. Not trying to dissuade you from nice furniture, just giving you things you must think about today which too many aesthetic minded don't think about. Want a belt drive manual table, buy a belt drive manual table. Don't hack up a decent automatic changer with any hope of being rebuildable to keep another such system running. Especially off a console built pre-cost cutting. Custom furniture from then or making it or having it made with some options is a better way to get it done. Be mindful of ventilation, of ergonomics when operating and adjusting the gear.

 

A full servicing and magnetic cartridge conversion is generally all these old consoles need to sound decent.

If you want truly good sound you'd have to gut it completely with speakers inside and on the floor. Technics record jacket sized linear trackers fit nicely.

 

I'm all for ripping out amplifiers and preamplifiers from ugly consoles.
Aesthetics aside, the weakest link in a console is usually the speakers.

I bought an ugly French provincial Statesman console for the sole purpose of getting the amp/preamp.



This new cabinet for the preamp/tuner is much more suitable for my tastes.

 

Rules: Fisher consoles, Ampex consoles, Magnavox Concert Grand consoles, and HH Scott consoles are protected species, no matter the cabinet. They will never be built again, they were the ultimate in packaged Stereo consoles. Preserve them. If the cabinet is damaged or destroyed, those can be rehomed. But keep a nice original intact, they have value.

 

In vintage audo circles you'd be known as a "console rapist". That Fisher French Provincial is a beautiful unit and should be preserved.

 

I think that's the trend now with thrift stores , to use ebay as a reference for pricing.
I saw an accordion in a goodwill once ,I offered the manager 100 dollars on the spot,I wanted it because it was cool, it was beautiful and in a beautiful trunk,she said no, they are on ebay for 375.00.
I told her good luck with that and gave them 5.00 dollars for some ratty looking fisher speakers that work perfectly.
Greed can get the best of people.

 

I preserved the most important part, the sound.
As far as the French Provincial being a beautiful unit.................
The cabinet for it now was built by my 85 year old father and that's more important for me to preserve.

The speaker components are actually pretty nice sounding. They just need better speaker enclosures.


Steve

 

Preserving is nice , at the same time all history is important.
If a historial item never changes history stops , frozen in time, although some history should remain frozen some should evolve. In 40 years the history of these pieces will be scattered in many directions , if left in one piece ,a hurricane or tornado could end all traces in a blink of the eye.
Sorry ,I have had a few drinks and feeling the effects.

 

I knew a guy that had a Magnovox Winsdor. 4 6V6's, 15" woofer, Stephens horn, NEW condition. I mean it still had the paper on the turnable platter. So what does the m o r o n do? Takes out the horn and hooks it to his guitar. He said the sound was great for 10 seconds.

There ought to be a law against guys like that.

 

On the one hand, it's sad.

On the other hand, did any of these consoles sound all that great? I'd imagine my Sony rack system from 1983 would smoke every single one of them.

 

Most consoles sounded "hifi" ish, and some loaded with gimmicks such as a "position" control in addition to the balance control, reverb or "dimension" and voicing selectors such as "orchestra" "jazz" "pop".

There were actually some models that sounded outstanding, much thought and engineering to produce full range 30-20,000 cycles. The Fisher stereo consoles, and Sylvania come to mind, and I am certain quite a few European products. The speaker enclosures were sealed on some models, filled with acoustic material for tight well controlled bass. The Fisher units were often loaded with quality components, such as a Dual 1010 or 1019 turntable or a Garrard type 1, a Shure Hi-track magnetic cartridge, maybe a reel to reel deck built in. Some of these consoles would give any 70's or 80's dept store rack system a run for the money, if not blow them away. The only real drawback is the stereo field, as the console isn't designed for a seated listener or sweet spot in mind, rather a room filling big sound that sounds great from everywhere.

Honorable mention goes to the early Magnavox consoles, RCA orthos, Philips, Motorola.

 

Consoles are camp.

 

What would be a example of console worth picking up if one was looking ?

 

None of the consoles could rival a top notch "component" (I hate that term, as misused in hi-fi: a component is a resistor, capacitor, transistor, tube, IC, et al) system in their day, or now, if fidelity was the goal, but some were capable of what was often typical of budget systems then, albeit at a high price. Consoles, throughout the tube era and well into the 70s, were generally expensive, you could get a pretty decent table, integrated amp and a pair of speakers for less than even modest consoles.

Consoles were furniture. People liked furniture. After one's house, your furniture was the biggest expense you were supposed to have, not your car. And while many consoles were somewhat cheap furniture, many were top flight by the standards of the day.

 

Motorola had a three channel model (or series of them)-the stereo channels were summed at the bass and drove one speaker while treble was left and right.
Just an oddity that is interesting.

 

Yes, and at least one portable that I know of, a Wards Airline suitcase record player my best friend had while we were kids. We grew up with the Beatles on that record player. It was a tube model, a mono (summed) woofer in center, and two satellite speakers. Another friend whose parents owned the local phone company owned a Sylvania console, a beautiful piece of furniture, and it was very loud. I remember we played the White album and cranked it! Great bass... as I was not yet an audiophile, I remember it was not boxy nor boomy sounding, just rattled the windows.

As you can see, I am not critical of the better made consoles, and remember them fondly.

 

I don't know, but could only make a generalized recommendation. It is not only a name you'd look for, but also certain models, as the sound and engineering can vary greatly. For example, RCA engineered the cabinets first, then worked out the speaker layout around the components and record storage bin. I currently have a 1957 RCA (mono) SHF-5, 12 watt 6v6 tube amp, two 12 inch full range speakers (yes they are full range flat out to 10k... as I ran a sweep) and two cone tweeters. The 12 inch speakers are staggered slightly to spread out resonances, a little thought and engineering went into it. This model produces nice monaural high fidelity sound, very smooth, nearly flat response with the controls in the "N" position (normal or flat).

I found at a local thrift store a 1960 RCA stereo console... bad sound! It features the same 12 inch full range speakers and two cone tweeters per side... however... the tweeters are horizontally arranged on the left side, vertically arranged on the right. (arranged as an after thought to the size and shape of the cabinet and components inside) The 12 inch speaker openings are routed with extra material, an "x" shaped reinforcement to help support the grille cloth. Not a bad idea for a more robust cabinet, but this restricts the hi freq response of the speakers, adversely affects the sound, and imparts a "nasal" character to the sound. The unusual arrangement of the tweeters also adversely affect the response of the left and right channels, just very POOR engineering from an acoustic perspective. As the earlier 1957 console featured a robust 6v6 amp, the 1960 stereo model has single ended EL-84 power amps, very low power, good for a table radio, not so good for a hifi console. It does not produce enough volume to feel the music. (plus it sounds nasal and dull.. by poor cabinet design, not a problem caused by the amps)

When choosing a console, expect that it will need servicing, even if the seller says it operates perfectly. Choose a name that's earned a reputation for better sound, at least for a console.. such as Fisher, Sylvania, Motorola. A neighbor of mine owned a 1970's top of the line solid state RCA console. The RCA's were not greatest sounding in that era, but this one had sealed speaker sub-enclosures, a BSR (I think) turntable with a light tracking magnetic cartridge (Not sure) But I do remember it produced great full range sound, and it cranked. As these later RCA's are generally terrible, there was at least this one model that was good. (have no idea what model it was)

I think perhaps one useful piece of info is to look for the extra struts in the speaker openings, that can interfere with the response. For a woofer, this is ok. For a full range this is bad. Many larger alNiCo speakers are more a full range speaker, smaller voice coils, smaller dust caps which produce higher frequency sound. You can see how the opening was routed on these older hifi sets, 'cause it will show through the grille cloth. Look for at least a push-pull tube amp, 10 watts or more is going to be loud! A tube model would be a better choice generally, and don't rule out a mono console.

 

Thank you for that I have been tempted so many times to pick one up as they do turn up in thrifts stores etc sometimes very cheap but I had no idea what would be worth taking home

 

I just purchased my first tube amp and would like to know if I got a good deal, found it at an estate sale. Its a 1963 Fisher President VIII, everything works great and visually is in excellent condition. How much are these worth today? I am excited to listen to it but want to have the amp cleaned/inspected first. Thanks for your inputs!

 

That was a nice console, a Garrard type I and reel to reel deck, sealed speaker enclosures with acoustic material, and the amp appears to be EL-34 output tubes, probably 35 watts / ch. The console the amp was removed from made big sound! The amp more than likely needs servicing, even if it works.

 

Most packaged console amps can't drive the speakers you guys want. Unless it is uber high efficiency cornerhorns. Remember most packaged consoles were less than 10 real watts RMS power. We need 100 plus db efficient/1 watt/1 meter. And 16 ohm loads.

 

I'm one of the original eBay console cannibals. You don't want to know how many I've looted. But in my defense, I used the nicest empty cabinets for counter tops to arrange my audio gear, or to top with bookshelves or crates of vinyl (as you may know, fully loaded wall-height bookshelves and LP shelves make for terrific acoustic treatment and sound insulation. And also thermal insulation. btw, books are cheap, these days!) They lined the walls of my apartment, until I had to move back East to care for my father during his last year (2006).

I hated to toss those cabinets, but out they went. Gorgeous solid wood, mortised joints, book-matched rosewood veneer front on the doors of one of them. Magnavox, Zenith, Philco, RCA, Telefunken, Grundig...the usual suspects. I once found a mono unit with a JBL 130 (blown), 1200 crossover (good) and L175 conical horn mid/tweeter (good). Sometimes the speakers were Jensen alnicos, or Magnavox or Philco field coils...more typically, alnico cone speaker sets by CTS, Oxford, RCA, sometimes University or ROLA. I found Fisher receivers three times, iirc- a 400, a 500c, and an Ambassador (one small output tube per channel iirc, smaller than a 6BQ5. Like a table radio tube.) Another neat score was a Zenith tube stereo tuner/preamp that had an outboard multiplex unit, a separate power amp- and a small spring reverb unit, like the ones in Hammonds, only about half the size. And a green eye tuning tube. The guy who bought that really got a bargain. I have a similar Zenith unit (minus the spring reverb) right now- found one a few months ago, they are scarce these days. I'm planning to have it cleaned up by a tech, and I'll make a cabinet for it. The FM tuner on the late model stereo tuner-preamps is very sensitive and euphonic- the ones I've tried consistently pick up stations all the way along the dial, with no need for an antenna (I use big rabbit ears TV antennas for my tuners, cheap, convenient, and much better than cheap U-wire or loop antennas.)

Most of the good brands have already been mentioned- but here's one more to be on the lookout for. It was the largest console in my collection, nearly 7 ft. long, 2 1/2 ft high x 20" wide, sitting on nondetachable feet about 6" high. A dark walnut box, with sliding doors that concealed a 3-way speaker cabinet at each end, tan basketweave grille cloth. Jensen cone speakers. The woofers were marked Silvertone iirc, but the decals on the back of the woofer magnets (ceramic, small) looked like silver and blue Jensen secial Design decals, and the manufacturer stamp was 220- Jensen. The turntable was nothing special- under a heavy hinged wooden cover in the center of the console- but after I removed it, the empty well was large enough to fit a stock ARXA turntable and tonearm, complete with cabinet. (And a dust cover that is a considerable improvement over the clumsy plastic one for the stock AR-XA.) It was a Pilot tube console. Had a low-power tube receiver, using EL84s. That beast weighed around 150 lbs. Speaker volume around 2 cubic feet per side. About 5 ft. of separation between the centers of the woofer cones.

It crossed my mind that with the addition of couple of locks for the hinged tuntable/amp cover and a metal grille fastened with some Allen screws to screen the back, the thing would be virtually burglar-proof. Already overbuilt, of course- I think each speaker cabinet back was held in place by 12 screws. But with a wood cabinet like that, it would be possible to conceal and lock up some very nice gear underneath the hinged cover, maybe stick some iron weights in the cabinets, and then leave a place vacant for months on end, with minimal theft worries. You know, camouflage it by putting a cloth runner across the top, and put a cheap transistor receiver and speakers on it...

I've seen these consoles offered for sale exactly once on eBay- two of them available, NOS from Canada. Not worth it for me to bother with. But fwiw, both Amtrak and Greyhound feature deals on freight that have to be checked out to be believed (as long as the shipper can get them to a shipping depot, and the buyer can pick them up on arrival.) They handle great big stuff- boxes too large or heavy for the post office, Fedex, or UPS. Something to think about if you're after high-end tube consoles, Jensen Triplex or Imperials, massive Heathkit corner cabinets with Jensen PLL15s in them (and sometimes other stuff, heh) with Jensen SS2s stacked on top of them, RCA LC1-A or LC1-C (awesome; also fragile) in furnace cabinets, JBL Hartsfields, etc.

 

Does this thing get enough ventilation?