Classic Hifi Care

I had a Stereo Theater on my bucket list, seemingly forever. Those of you who were on Vintage may remember a 50-page thread about my aquisition of a Stereo Theater. Nearly every member was on the hunt for a Stereo Theater. A new member, Nick, posted that he had this one and would sell it. Nick was in a suburb of Detroit and I was in Arizona when he posted it for sale. To make a long story short, Bill was good enough to ramrod the project and went to Nick's place to retrieve it. The plan was he'd babysit with it until I could get to his place for it. That happened in July of 2017.

This particular instrument represents the top-of-the-line 400 series of Stereo Theater built by Magnavox. The 400 series had a 27" TV, standard Multiplex adapter with remote control optional. The 300 series Stereo Theater had a 24" TV with MPX and remote control optional. The 200 series Stereo Theater had a 23" TV with MPX optional and used the 100 series tuner. In any version a Magnavox Stereo Theater is an electronic work of art. Mine has the 93 series amp, 27" C36 series TV chassis, the 70-series three tube MPX and the 77 series "top secret" tuner. I say top secret because I never did find a diagram for it yet to this day. It has 12" side-firing woofers and front-firing horn tweeters. It also has the S-600 four speed Collaro record changer. This one has a total of 36 tubes. Plus, it has sonic remote control.

This old Stereo Theater had a tough life. It has so much nicotine on it that it had softened the lacquer. 1962 was arguably the first year Magnavox had used lacquer on its cabinets. The picture tube was green from cigarette smoke. I had to completely disassemble the cabinet, put shellac on the inside, bottom to get rid of the cigarette smell. The particle board under the speakers was deteriorating, so Ron the Refinisher stablilized it with epoxy. We put on new wheels, since the old ones were broken. The cabinet has 18 coats of hand-rubbed polyurethane over shellac. It took several months to do the cabinet and we waited almost a year and a half to rub out the cabinet finish.

The electronics were completely rebuilt. Amp, tuner, MPX and TV chassis. The TV chassis is not finished, but I did have raster, but no sound or video. R43, the AGC resistor is open and will be my first task when I get back on this project. I have test sockets so I can inject a signal from the TV Analyzer to sort the rest of the chassis. At this point, I'm looking at something going on in the tuner or maybe one of those pesky diode thingies that always go wonky. This thing may actually give my Symphony a run for its money performance-wise. 12" speakers don't hurt it when it comes to bass response. I brought it up on the Variac and KAW. I was pulling 160 watts at 118 volts line voltage. I had a weak/dead Channel 1. I tinkered with the 6EU7's but they were not the culprit. A dirty balance control on the amp was the cause. This thing seriously kicks butt. It has one of the better Magnavox tube tuners I have. IT has AFC, so that is a definite plus. It will peg the tuning meter with only a length of lead in from the back of the cabinet to the tuner.

I made a pattern for the new, improved back I'll make for this instrument.

Thanks for the photos of that good lookin' device!

My two 1956-ish consoles, the Provincial Serenade and a Magnasonic, both have lacquer finishes.

Chris Campbell

Thanks for sharing the photos, it brings back the memories of going to Ann Arbor to retrieve it for you and seeing all of Nick's stuff. I'm glad I could do my part to make your dream come true.

Bill

Thanks for posting this beauty. That 77 series tuner is like an earlier 57 series but had "improvements" and was perhaps the finest 200-series tuner that Magnavox made before going solid state I suspect it may have only been used on the best 1962 models like this one, while most consoles like my two used the 59/79 series 100 tuner but still used a 93-series amp.

I would bet there is another theatre model out there with the same tuner and it is covered by Sams Photofact. Trouble is, HW Sams was only given TV chassis numbers for most Magnavox models. The TV chassis number is the key to finding the tuner schematic in a group, but it sounds like you don't need it. I bet that works as fine on AM as well as FM.

I'd say that AM performance is pretty good. The caveat to that would be the highly-directional loopstick antenna Magnavox used. FM performance is what stands out. I've never connected an external antenna, so it would probably be even better with a better antenna. I have never heard the audio from the TV to this point. It will be mono, but it should sound pretty good. I know some manufacturers of three-in-one consoles had separate speaker or speakers for the TV. Magnavox ran their TV audio thru the stereo system.

That unit is going to be a gem when you finish it. I look forward to the day Rowdy Yates comes in for his close up on the screen. The rest of the unit is a pleasure to look at as well.

Thanks, Rex. Lawrence Welk is one of the first shows I'd like to see on the TV. They still show the black and white shows occasionally. IF we can still get METV, then Rowdy Yates will be a possibility.

I have been tinkering with my stereos this afternoon. I have had four of them on at once. All four at once sounds pretty good, especially when one of them is the CG and one of them is the Stereo Theater. The Stereo Theater will outperform the CG in almost every catagory, particularly tuner performance. We have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again. No doubt the tuner in the ST is hands down the best tuner I own in a Magnavox stereo. IT is rock steady, AM or FM. It will give 3/4 deflection of the tuning meter, only using the loopstick, tuned to the little flea power AM station I listen to. A 250 watt clear-channel station, 1340, "The Bull". You can hear it from Apache Junction clear down here, about 20 miles......

AFC certainly helped FM performance. This thing is a sweetheart. I am impressed more each time I listen to it. I am running it at 112 volts line voltage, powered by my iso/Variac contraption. It pulls 126 watts, amp, tuner, and MPX. I'd love to have it sitting next to the Symphony, connected to the same CD changer.

I believe the next one I'll get into is the little Contemporary. IT needs a good tune-up.

wow, that thing is cherry! makes me want to tackle that RCA I got from bill ... someday ...

The ST has been a huge amount of work, but totally worthwhile and satisfying. These things are works of art. I don't care what brand you do, they are all worth saving. I worked on mine two years and I'm still not done.