today on my lunchbreak TH member floridasam scooped me up from work and we went th the traditional lunchbreak two to look for gear (the local GW and SA) sam has been having REELy good luck lately, -he has scored 4 RTR decks in the last week, sadley he dosent post here much and is still more a AKer than a tapehead, but im trying to get him to convert, since i turned him on to RTR to begin with. anyways, hearing score stories from pretty much every other stereocamp local to me i figured i was due to find something epic! we hit the SA and he found a panasonic TT for $10 but i didnt find **deleted**, then hit the GW where neither one of us found a damn thing eather.*fit* i only have about a hour to hit the spots, get lunch, and head back 2 work. only had 30mins left in my lunchbreak, (i hit the thrifts hard and fast) and we were on our way to wendys but there was a big nasty wreck on lantana rd so we took a detore threw a neighborhood to avoid the mess. we only got about 3 blocks deep when suddenly i saw a old rundown house with a bunch of moldy crap on the curb, and saw what looked like a console. "OH **deleted** SAM STOP THE CAR STOP THE CAR" I Yelled and we came to a screeching hault. i jumped out and found a very grimey very dirty very beat up tube zenith console sitting there next to about 50 bags of god knows what and a stinky trashcan full of rotting food bloating in the 90 degree sun with flys bussing all over the place. he was really stunned as was i to find this relic but he drives a 2009 hyndai accent hatchback and there was no way in hell he could fit it in the car, i begged and pleaded for us to atleast try to stuff it into his little car but it just wasnt gunna happen. so i got on the horn and started franticly calling everyone i could think of with a truck, van, or suv. only person i could get ahold of was my co-worker john mitchell that was home enjoying his lunchbreak eating home cooked food relaxing with his wife. he really really didnt wanna come get me and the console cause he uses his lunchbreak time as decompression time much as i do but instead i relax by hitting as many thrifts as possible in a hours time. i begged, pleaded, bribed, and bitched my way into convincing him to get me on the way back to work. sam wished me luck and drove off and i sat there, in the sun, starving hungry cause i didnt have time to get lunch, guarding my find. i sat there for what seemed like forever, smoking cigarettes, siting ontop of the console so some other scrapper or flipper didnt get to it first. finally john showed up with only 5 mins to get back to the office, and we were 5 miles from work. my boss warned me not to be late getting back from lunch or he would take my bonus from me. john pulled up, dropped the tailgate, "HURRY UP MAN WE GOTTA ROLL, YOU OWE ME BIG TIME AND YOU BETTER HOOK ME UP WITH GAS!" HE GROWLED. on ony 2 hours of sleep from the night before and weak with hunger i bear hugged the console and lifted it into the back of the truck -im glad im still strong and young, that thing is HEAVY! i closed the tailgate and hopped in the truckbed with the console with a **deleted** eating grin on my face from ear to ear! -i got my console!!*Hi5* we were running out of time and suddenly the sky turned black and was about to pour, he nailed the gas peeling out and we went screaming fast threw the neighborhood hauling ass back to the office, we were doing 70 down congress ave in midday traffic, weaving in and out, trying to get back to work on time, and trying to beat the inevidible storm encroaching on us, as he was weaving in and out of traffic, i was sliding around the bed of the truck holding on to dear life and trying to keep the console level and in one piece. suddenly the temp dropped 20 degrees, the sun went away, and lightning cracked across the sky! we got back to the office JUST IN TIME, he backed in to the overhang infront of the strip mall where we work, "HURRY HURRY" I SHOUTED, i dropped the tailgate and he went running to the back of the truck, i slid the console to him as fast as possible and we got it under the overhang just as baseball sized raindrops were starting to fall! we ran into the office, got to our desks and went right back to telemarketing wile all hell broke loose outside. itthe rain came down, lightning cracked and the wind howelled for 10 mins and then as soon as it started it was over, the sun came back out and everything dried up! 2 hours later, i got to finally go outside smoke a cig and examine my score..







it was rough but it was all there, a late 1950s-early 1960s zenith, with the famous cobra-matic turntable -idk why but ive always loved the old cobra-matics. the tuber-pre had alot of controls, more than usual, with midrange control, and enhanced stereo settings, i peered into the back and saw some pretty decent looking speakers and ice metal horns, as well as what looked like a hefty tube power amp with big tubes. at first i thought it may have been there TOTL model cause its large size, fancy controls, and nice looking gutz, but i found out later it wasnt.


suddenly it was time to go back inside for another 2 hours till it was time to go home. every second felt like a eternaty! -i hate finding a really good lunchbreak score and having to wait hours to play with it *devil* i work in a very busy strip mall and i saw the console threw the front window between the cracks of the blinds, siting under the overhang infront of the office, and in those two hours it got alot of curious lookie loos walking past it, some slowing down looking at it smiling, a few even stopping to examine it. one guy even whipped out his I-phone and snapped a pic of it. i wasnt too worried about anyone hurting it cause it was so beat up and fugly, i was more intrested in trying to find some lunch cause by 6:00pm and having not eaten anything but a single frozen waffle since 9:30am i was absolutly starving, the guy sitting next to me was chowing down on a box of churches chicken inbetween phone calls, and i lloked at him with "poor child starving in africa eyes" and he tossed me 2 pieces of fried chicken, i munched them down in seconds. anyway after what seemed like forever it was FINALLY time to go home and check this thing out. john agreed to drive me and the console home since i only live 2 blocks from the office. -figures the one day i walk to work and not drive my grand cherokee to work i find a big ass console stereo in the trash. *grin* so we loaded the console back into the truck and went to my place. i gave him $15 for gas and his time, sat the console on the patio infront of my apartment and decended into the unknown. my neighbors were outside when i got home and were out smoking blunts and drinking by the pool. -must be nice to not have to work. anyways they are younger like me and are always curious about the strange crap i drag home so they all got out of the pool blunts and beers in hand "whoa dog thats the oldest **deleted** we seen yet" "that **deleted** looks antique! they all said, they all grabbed lawn chairs and sat down to hear about the thing and hear it play, (this is kind of becoming a tradition now. everytime i bring something new home they are home when i do, they all run over like facinated children to a campfire to roast marshmellows and tell ghost stories), and they bring out there CDs and wanna hear there music come out of something old and wierd they never saw or heard of before., so i ran inside and grabbed one of my 5 variacs and a cd player to hook into it, as well as a screwdriver to get inside of the thing. as im hooking up the console to the variac and slowly turning the voltage up they are in the backround making loud buzzing and zapping sounds trying to scare me. "oh **deleted** dawg that bitch is on fire!!" rudy said, chuckling. i got the voltage to 110 and the lights and tubes came on and the console started crackiling to life! they all sat there quiet just waiting to some epic terrible thing to happen, like smoke, flames, blowing caps, terrible electrical sounds, etc. -yes thats happened a few times *grin* and nothing. it seemed stable so i tossed a screwdriver to my buddy george and me and him pulled the back panel off -seems to be another tradition, george is always the one that wants to see whats inside and wants to be the first one to see it. we pulled the panel off and fond alot of dust, a few bugs, and very dusty tubes smelling like a heater being turned on for the first time in the fall. -that moment is always special to me, when a tube piece comes to life for the first time in decades! the smells the sounds it makes, the 10 minutes of suspence hoping nothing inside the unit fails and it freaking out. it must have not been used in many many years. the cord is still and brittle, it has ALL of its original tubes etc..



turntable with the iconic cobra arm, missing cartrige and styli, but with the paper tag still on it?


tubes lighting for the first time..



there was alot of static in the controls at first but working them back and forth it went away somewhat, -ill shoot it with de-oxit tomorrow. the tuner is screwed up, it pulls in stations fine but with the volume wide open it sounds like a wisper, the turntable is perfect mechaniclly, it was locked up tighter than a drum but i hit the shaft with some 3-in-one and now comes right on and goes threw its cycles great. i just need to get a cart and styli for it. witch i have but its on another cobra-matic changer i have that dosent work in storage up north. -fooey! anyways, moving on to the tape input or aux. i clicked to that selection and noticed a soft 60-cycle hum. -it obviouslly needs caps. and hoked the cd player to it.



it gets loud and is very clean sounding, actually suprisingly crisp and not scratchy at all like how most tube consoles of this vintage behave when i attach a digital scorce to them and blast rap music threw them. unfortunatly the second i start to increse the bass the sound quality deteriates quickly and sounds terrible. -maybe it needs fresh output tubes? the first selecton of the evening was bone thugz thug world order album. followed by some rick ross and jeezy (very popular down here right now) and they were impressed with just how screamingly loud the thing got even though distorted and not very good sounding. i think with some work this could be a really sweet console. it is full blown tube type without a single transistor or solid state device anyware in sight. nice big 5U4 rec. tube, 4 12ax7 preamp tubes and a quad of 6BQ5s. it has nice long throw bass reflex 12" woofers with large coils and magnets, and decent metal horns that are almost JBLish looking. the cabinet needs some work. the white paint is peeling and the veneer undernieth is peeling, and there is evidence of water damage with green mold here and there and the brass speaker gards being corroded green and rusty in spots. its gunna take some work to get it right but its probubly worth it! the nice graphic display for the tone controls is cool enough alone. along with the cobra-matic changer it could be a real class act if restored. one of the chrome dials for tone (the midrange one called presence in this model) has fallin off and is laying in the bottom of the dialglass, but it should be a easy fix. these old consoles are far from audiophile sounding but ive always enjoyed them and have alot of fun working on them. they almost remind me of working on a classic car. -i dont know why but they do.



anyway here are some more pics!























i sat out there for about an hour after everyone left, and played some oldies threw it and some 1960s garage rock -more what it was intended for and really enjoyed it. after that it was getting dark so i dragged it into the center room. ill start the resoration procsess tomorrow. wish me luck!

Neat set with PP in each channel,
Better recap before burning anything up.
You post is real hard to read with long run on sentences, Please try some paragraphs in the future.
I too tend to rescue tube consoles and some are real power houses ! !
What's with the tweeters though?
Peter

I love it! And I like your dialog - I can feel your anticipation and inability to be patient!

I don't usually go ga-ga over that vintage of system, but you make this fun and interesting. That does look like a butt-kicker of a system! Never seen a cobramatic in it's own little case like that before, either. Love the night shot, with the center mounted pilot light near the floor. Be sure and give us a refurb update as the project progresses...

Nice save. You owe your friend some gas and a frosty beverage.

Guess it was worth it, even if you only salvaged the amp and speakers. I am sorry, but the styling does nothing for me. And apparently, did not appeal to others!

I salvaged the output tubes from a Zenith console, kind of like that one, after it was abandoned in a pile of junk after an estate auction was long over. They were Zenith branded 6BQ5s but were also labeled as being made by Mullard. Sold them for $75 on Evilbay.

the only thing I like about the cabinet is the little light that comes on at the bottom-front. cant toss tube stuff myself. left a Magnavox at my sisters too long and she threw it out. heart breaker

I fixed a similar console for someone about 6-7 years ago. That one was loaded with leaky paper caps that needed replaced and a few open resistors. It played well after I fixed it and the owner still uses it.

Sometimes, a set can be so rough it's not worth the time necessary to properly restore it. I wouldn't have taken this one for free, mainly because of the rust on the chassis and rust on the Cobra changer as well. It even looks like the control knobs on the changer would have to be replaced, if you could find the same knobs elsewhere. I would have yanked the tubes and speakers out of it and set it back out by the curb.

poor little ugly machine. salvage the amplifier and speakers if you are going to trash it. they make great shelf audio systems when cleaned-up. some build wooden frames around the chassis for a great look

That's certainly an option. But if it were me I would have used it for hot rodding and experimentation. The amp is worth rebuilding assuming the output transformers are good. Since its pretty beat up anyway, I would strip all that white off the cabinet and redo it in mahogany or cherry. Then either restore the receiver and changer, or put in different ones of my choice. Maybe put some custom lighting in there too. I love finding stuff like that. Nice snag!

definatly gunna restore this one. i know its not audiophile sound by a longshot but ive always had a soft spot for consoles and i always pick them up when i see them. i have a few that are real treasures, including a 1958 magnavox concert grande (this one really rocks the house!) a telefunkin in blonde wood with a RTR deck in it, and about a dosen of old other maggies, zeniths, packard bells, etc. i have a zenith kinda like this in storage up north with a blown power xformer but its a treasure trove of parts! so i have everything i need to fix it. now, the white cabinet may be ugly but its original so im gunna keep it that color scheme, -besides it will make it a easy job, ill just get some applience paint with enamile finish, touch up the gold stuff. im gunna start tearing it apart tonight and prep it for restoration. really looking forward to it! ill post pics as i go!

Those are Great sounding when restored, that was a highline model from Zenith with a price of over $800.00.
The white should be more like Antique white, not stark white. Nothing wrong with the knobs on the changer,
they just need to be cleaned of that "plastic fungus" that happens with many VM plastic knobs, just soak them
and then brush and polish.
Gary Stork of VM will be able to supply you with a new correct white tt mat, then paint the changer base, service
the changer
polish out the chrome, recap amp and tuner and you will have a great set.

This particular model was seen often in old Tv shows and movies of the period. Off the top of my head, I remember it
in Hazel (earlier eps, later ones had a Philco), Patty Duke Show, Ironsides, Mission Impossible and many others.
It was always the antique white, maybe the same one from the prop department.