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The Zenith Tabletop Radio

73.28.174.74
Posted on March 20, 2017 at 12:10:54
Craig941
Audiophile

Posts: 28
Location: Florida
Joined: July 5, 2016







Something a little different here. Thrift store find, not working. I took it home and with Mike Samra's help, I was able to restore it to funtionality.
I removed and replaced all the wax capacitors and out-of-spec resistors. Also bypassed the selenium rectifier with a diode and replaced one 12AT7 tube, (so far). One of the original bumblebee caps and exploded inside and the whole chassis was littered with bits of foil! I think I've got one more tube to replace, a 6BJ6, as it takes a good minute to start passing a signal after turn-on. One 8" full range speaker with the tone control in the middle. AM/FM/FM AFC and two small electrostatic tweeters. Sweet!
This radio definitely has the "wow" factor and has usurped the Bose on my dining table. Thanks again Mike for all your help!

 

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RE: The Zenith Tabletop Radio, posted on March 21, 2017 at 02:29:44
DIY John
Audiophile

Posts: 441
Joined: November 29, 2001
 Nice looking set! You are lucky the thrift store didn't throw it in the trash in the first place because it didn't work. That's what they do in my area.

Nice rescue.

 

RE: The Zenith Tabletop Radio, posted on March 21, 2017 at 09:56:19
Coner
Audiophile

Posts: 3703
Location: S.W. Washington state, USA
Joined: November 17, 2001
 Where are the 'stat tweeters?. Could you point them out?.
Seems odd they'd go to that expense.

 

Those Zenith radios, posted on March 21, 2017 at 10:15:45
M3 lover
Audiophile

Posts: 6598
Location: SW Mich
Joined: May 29, 2005
Contributor
  Since: July 4, 2007
 Just before finishing college I came across two, identical floor-standing Zeniths with the two-speed tuning dial. I got help moving them from a friend with a station wagon so gave him one. The other I took with me to the East Coast after graduation in hopes of restoring it. That never happened so when I later moved to CA I gave it away to friends because I had no extra room to move it.

I regretted leaving it behind and later wondered whatever happened to both radios? Now I have a floor-standing Victrola in the garage waiting to be restored. It seems easier for me to accumulate projects than to complete them.

Anyway, nice to hear you now have yours working.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

 

RE: The Zenith Tabletop Radio, posted on March 22, 2017 at 15:16:10
Craig941
Audiophile

Posts: 28
Location: Florida
Joined: July 5, 2016
 The two tweeters are attached to the inside of the cabinet on either side of the main speaker. From behind they look like 3" square 3/8" thick white plastic. They disconnect from the chassis when you remove the case. From what I can hear they add a little presence, nothing major.

 

Well, it's a cool radio for sure, thanks!. n/t, posted on March 22, 2017 at 21:36:02
Coner
Audiophile

Posts: 3703
Location: S.W. Washington state, USA
Joined: November 17, 2001
 n/t

 

RE: The Zenith Tabletop Radio, posted on March 23, 2017 at 18:02:18
Thermionic27609
Audiophile

Posts: 411
Joined: March 29, 2009
 My mother still has a similar Zenith table-top radio. I recapped it and replaced a few tubes, and it still works very well. It has a very well-designed FM front end and sounds better than it should for what it is.

 

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