First truly practical color television set?
 

If someone forced you to use a fully restored early color roundie as a "daily driver", which set would you choose?

While the 15GP22 based sets are interesting, most all of them are cantankerous at best. I'd probably go with my Hoffman or a CTC-7. Both are very reliable, requiring only the occasional tube and periodic degaussing. My experience with the CT-100 was exhausting; I'd get one issue solved and three others would crop up. It seems for some early color sets, restoration isn't a process but rather a perpetual state of being. Then for others, like the Hoffman in particular, they just run and run and run....

My Zenith 29JC20 has been a pretty decent daily driver.

I may put my CTC-4 into daily service if I ever finish it's resto...I was having IF intermittents and alignment issues on the cusp of a change of address, and never got back around to it after the move...If I do get around to it I may have to teach myself alignment (god help me).

I'd have to go for a rectangular screen set, as the roundies lose too much information in the "corners".

But if I had to, as you suggest, pick a roundie set, I'd choose a nice Danish-modern styled CTC16 - CTC20 combo with stereo radio and phono.

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A nice Magnavox roundie combo.

That would be my vote as well with *some* reservations about the 20, as I believe that it was designed primarily for a 19" set (CTC-19) would it be as reliable driving a 21" CRT as the older design CTC-16? :scratch2:

jr

I'd go with a CTC7 or 9. The 10 and 11 are excellent performers too.

I use a 25MC33 as a weekend driver. As for daily, no tubed color. Just a 25 inch BPC Sharp. I've had too many vertical output transformers go bad in Zenith sets and Flybacks in RCA sets (and I do keep an eye on cathode current). The most reliable tube color I have is probably my Maggie T-933 chassis console. Still has it's original flyback!

I'm on my second recap of an 11 in as many months. For the ones I've had my hands in, the 11 wins hands down.

Scratches head... Is this a second CTC-11 that you are restoring? or are you recaping one that you had done 11 months ago because of failures?

jr

Heh :D

No, this is the second 11 chassis I've had on the bench. First one went easy.

Whew! I was worried for a minute!

jr

CTC-7 or 9, hands down. First sets to get away from the metal shell CRT's, so less worries about leaks. Stable PCB's that didn't disintegrate like the ones in the 4 do, and dead reliable. Pretty much anything that came after those two are just as reliable, but I can't speak for any other brand but RCA.

If you go with a '20, be sure you have a good stock of 6GH8s (or subs like 6U8, 6EA8). Also the first runs had weak vertical sync. The factory published a mod for service dealers which involved changing two resistors in the sync separater section. A sight-unseen '20 might not have the mod.

No need to force a roundie on me, I already watch my 1963 Admiral almost everyday. And yes, cantankerous is definitely the word.

It wouldn't take much forcing as I already use a 40-year-old console TV daily. :thmbsp: The better convergence would be a plus.

This was a tough call. The more unusual the better, to me anyway, so I did a little digging and chose a 1965 Sylvania D01 metal cabinet set.

Now, if someone can give me highly detailed specs on Zenith's infamous horizontal efficiency coil, perhaps I can practice making duplicates with coils from my junk boards.