The 1960 Magnavox Concert Grand lives!

[electra225]

Since this IS a console stereo forum, I thought, as site administrator, that I should probably post a picture of a console stereo, for a change...

I have all my little radios started again after their rest, with two that refused to cooperate. I have the console radios sorted. Now for the big things, the console stereos. First up was the Concert Grand, simply because it was in the right spot. I brought it up on the Variac and KAW. The filaments alone pull almost 250 watts, without the remote control chassis turned on. With the Variac wide open, line voltage at 119.8 volts, I finally got it up to 111 volts and about 377 watts, give or take. I had both treble channels, both bass channels after I tinkered with a 12AX7 in its dirty tube socket. The eye tube does nothing, it's always open. This condition was there before I shut the console down for two years. It sounds pretty good, I'll have to say. I have only run it with the tuner, since I don't have my CD's sorted yet. I believe it sounds better in the shop than it did at home in Missouri. I'll have a better idea when I get some decent music on it. It was really clean, surprisingly so. No real corrosion on the cad plating, it was still nice and shiny. I had to pull the back to retrieve the power cord and the input to the tape. Somebody asked about my "new and improved" backs that I have made for a couple of my stereos. Pictures here will show the difference between the new back for the CG and the original. I let this run about an hour and the PT wasn't even warm, at line voltage. The MPX works okay, it seems. Service on this will include the changer and finding out why the eye tube is dead in the tuner. And the tuner dial is not close to accurate. I need to sort that as well. The long silver box over the tuner power supply chassis is the MPX adapter. This is technically supposed to be mounted to the back. This make service on the console more difficult, a nightmare to be exact. I mounted the MPX in this location which works really nicely. And, since I'm still sorting and stashing things in the shop, there is a stack of 78's and a little fan on top of the cabinet that obviously doesn't belong there.

Where Are my manners? For those who may not be familiar with the vaunted Concert Grand, allow me to elaborate. This is a 1960 model 1ST800F "Magnificent" Magnavox "Concert Grand" console stereo. It features an AM-FM radio tuner, remote control, a four-speed record changer, with aux. tape inputs and outputs and external speaker connections. This particular example is equipped with a model 70-02-00 Multiplex Adapter (MPX) that decodes the stereo composite and separates it into the two channels. This device would have been an accessory, added aftermarket, since FM stereo broadcasts were not authorized until the middle of 1961. This stereo was built in Week 43 of 1959, per the various codes on components in the instrument. This stereo features Magnavox's "bi-amp" or split frequency stereo amplifiers. It has a total of 44 tubes, including the remote control and MPX. As you can see in the above pictures and text, it is an electric heater in operation. This would have been the top-of=the line stereo for Magnavox in 1960. Advertised as having "200 watts peak" output, 50 watts per channel constant output, this, also is a story for another time. This one has a cherry finish in the Provincial cabinet. I got this stereo in a haunted house in Fort Worth in 2014, a story for another time.

Referring to the picture directly below this text, the chassis on the left lower portion of the cabinet would be the Channel 2 amplifier. Actually two amplifiers in one, it features a treble amp and a bass amp, separate but in one chassis. There is a 12AX7 pre-amp and two 6V6GT tubes for the treble amp and a 12AX7 pre-amp and six 6V6GT tubes for the bass amp. Two 5U4 rectifiers complete the tube complement. Then, toward the middle, the long box at the top would be the two-tube Multiplex adapter laying on it's side. Under it is the one-tube tuner power supply, featuring a 5Y3GT tube. Behind that, unseen, would be the 12-tube AM-FM, stereo-compatible tuner chassis. Above it, also unseen, is the record changer. Then, under the tuner power supply chassis is the remote control chassis, featuring five tubes. Then, to the right of that is the other amp chassis. Total complement of this stereo is six chassis, six rectifiers, four power cords, 44 tubes. There is a 15" woofer and a horn tweeter per channel, all front-firing. All this housed in a solid hardwood cabinet with "ten coats of hand-rubbed finish", in the grandest of Magnvavox style. A well-built, beautifully crafted instrument.

[William]

It lives! That had to be a good feeling that it fired up and you could listen to it. Someday, I will get a chance to hear one.

Bill

[TC Chris]

And a handsome devil it is, too. You've saved enough "another time" stories to entertain us for a week or more.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Okay, Chris, just for you.....

This Concert Grand was in an estate auction in Forth Worth in April of 2014. I had contacted the auctioneer to get directions to the sale, dates, times that kind of thing. The plan was to attend the sale on the way home from here to Missouri. We headed east, then ran into a DHS checkpoint in New Mexico. We had our little white dog and two cats with us. The DHS officer wanted us to PROVE those animals were ours and not drug mules of some kind. If we couldn't prove those animals belonged to us, we were going to have to surrender the animals before we could proceed. My wife was frantic, I was just thoroughly annoyed. Anyway, but the time we cleared this snafu, we had missed the auction. When we got to Missouri, I again contacted the auctioneer and apologized for missing the sale. I asked about the CG and he informed me that one of his "regulars' had bought it and was planning on flipping it on ebay. Stay tuned for part 2.....

He gave me the name, email address and phone number for the buyer. I don't remember the guy's name anymore, but we'll call him Bubba. Bubba paid something like $20 for the CG at the auction and, apparently, was planning on sending his kids thru college from the sale proceeds of the CG. I emailed him first and he said he'd sell it and quoted me a very reasonable price. I told him I'd take it and asked for directions how to get there. He kept putting me off, wanting more money, wasn't sure he'd sell it. I have a friend named Fred who I had breakfast with every Saturday morning. I told Fred what I was up to. He asked if I wanted the stereo. I said I did. He asked for Bubba's phone number. Bubba answered and Fred mentioned he had been talking to the auctioneer, called him by name. Fred told Bubba he was interested in the stereo. Bubba quoted him a price considerably higher than he had quoted me. Fred said he' be in Fort Worth in the morning, where was the stereo and when could he get it.

Fred is a farmer by trade. He was also active in local politics and had been a state representative and had run for Senator in the past. Fred knew absolutely everybody, it seemed, east of the Rocky Mountains. If Fred wanted something, he got it. So, we headed for Fort Worth. The address Bubba had given Fred was in a seedy part of town, where you get out of your truck "packing" and get back in after you burn your sneakers. Flop houses, adult video places, bars that kind of place. Where the CG was was in a building used as a haunted house. Bubba met us, then bumped the price yet again. He and Fred talked a bit, then Fred excused himself to make a phone call. I don't know who he called, never did, but whoever it was called and put the fear of God into Bubba and his brother. They sold us the CG for the original price he quoted me, loaded it, tarped it securely, gave us each a cold drink and wished us a good trip. We got to go home via US 49, quite possibly the roughest, worst condition road in the eastern half of the US. The fact that the CG arrived in one piece and still worked is a miracle in itself. We drove a tad over 1400 miles to rescue the CG from probably an undesirable fate of becoming a guitar amplifier designed by Bubba and his brother.

[Hydrolastic]

Holy cow I like everything about that console. The color the condition and your mods. Also the fact that you saved it from Bubba.

[electra225]

I have the pattern for my new back if anybody is interested. It's made out of lauan and wire mesh, both available at Home Depot. I sanded the lauan with 160 grit and 320 grit sandpaper, then put a good, heavy coat of shellac on both sides, followed by semi-gloss polyurethane on the outside. It certainly opens up the electronics not only so you can see them, but it lets the heat escape.

[Firedome]

A beautiful piece that shows off Magnavox's excellent cabinet quality really well. I've always wondered why, instead of so many 6V6s ,they didn't just consolidate the design to utilize pairs of 6L6GCs or 5881s instead, they probably would have saved money, space, and have had as much or more power and possibly less distortion, simper circuit, less sockets & wiring, to boot. Curious. The only similar example I can think of offhand is the PPP 6V6GT RCA SP-20 mono.

[TC Chris]

Great story about Bubba. It would be cool to know what kind of wrath was threatened. Close call stories are always the best.

And as to parallel P-P, I've always figured that it must have had some electronic advantage. The first one I ever saw was my Stromberg-Carlson PA amp, P P-P 6L6s. My guess at first was "Hey, it's a commercial device, maybe this is in case one output tube dies." But that seems unlikely, and would not explain Maggie's choice.

Chris Campbell

[Motorola minion]

Thanks for a reminder of what a real console is. I'm not sure if any of the Fisher, Pilot etc made a model of such scale and tube count. This is where Magnavox was EVEN grander in scale than other favorites like Motorola, RCA victor and Zenith

The back cover's expanded mesh was a great choice so the tubes can be seen, makes you want to use an IR camera.

[electra225]

I want to make improved backs for the Stereo Theater and at least the IMperial. It is amazing how much heat those thing produce, and the original backs are woefully inadequately ventilated.

There is just SOMETHING about working with a Magnavox. I criticize them for their myriad faults, but they are wonderfully built, overdone, instruments that carry a certain panache when you see one. My personal opinion is that the word "Magnificent" is pasted on a Magnavox for reasons other than promotional ones.

[electra225]

I enjoyed my Concert Grand more this afternoon than I have since I've owned it,

And, I may have learned something. Therin lies a tale........

I use my Concert Grand primarily as an amplifier for an RCA 300-disc CD changer. The fact that CD's are obsolete notwithstanding, that's how I am. Today, I was playing the CG with its RCA changer and also the Stereo Theater with a Sony 300-disc changer. I used the same CD in both changers. The ST simply sounded better. So I got the brilliant idea of swapping changers and consoles. I was using a Justin Trevino-Heather Miles CD that was fairly hardcore country with strong bass. The CG actually sounded "Magnificent" using the Sony changer. The only theory I came up with was that the input impedence on the two stereos was different. Or that the output of the Sony changer was stouter than that from the RCA and the circuitry in the 93 series amp in the ST was better able to handle it than was the amps in the CG. I also found that cabinet location is more important to the sound of the CG. Both speakers are sealed and front-firing. I was sitting slightly behind the cabinet. The speakers on the ST are not closed and actually sound pretty good from the rear. In any case, I found the sound from the CG actually more in line with what it should be than I ever have before. And I will admit to having a bias when it comes to the sweet 93 series amps.

[back-2-mono]

Just goes to show you that all cd players do not sound the same...

"Sony, no baloney"

[hermitcrab]

I have the Sony 200 cd player running through my Fisher ambassador... that is about all we use that for...once in awhile I will play a album on it to keep it limbered up...

[electra225]

How would one go about measuring the output of a CD player? I am curious to find out if there is a difference between the two CD changers. The RCA was sold by Radio Shack and was sold to me, new, but on clearance. I don't remember what I gave for it, but it was cheap. I have two Sony 300-disc and a JVC 200-disc changer besides the RCA. I really like the RCA best. It is easier to work and has a single-play option the others don't have. It sounds like a million bucks on the Symphony or the Stereo Theater, both with 93 series amps, while the Sony sounds better on the Concert Grand. I need to do the same test on the Imperial.

[back-2-mono]

You'll need a test cd and play a 1khz test tone. Measure the output on a Fluke (or similar) dvm on it's ac millivolt setting.

[back-2-mono]

AC volt setting might be better with cd players with a hot output level.