The BEST ever

[Telecolor 3007]

We talked about the WORST tv's ever made. But I want to talk about the BEST tv's that where ever made.
"Telecolor" 3007 ("manufactured"-in fact assambled by "Electronica" Plant from Bucharest) was one of the finest Romanian tv sets ever made. The progarmator, majority of tranzidtors/integrated circuits and the loudspeaker where G.D.R. Made. The top models where equyped with "Toshiba" (Japan) and "Videocolor" (France) picture tubes (C.R.T.'s). Some of the 1983-1985 manufcatured sets are srill working!!! (myne is manufactured on December 5, 1984 and it haves about 14 yrs of working). The set, hower can recive broadcasting only in VHS and UHF (acording to OIRT and CCIR standars) and it haves manual progarming (no dircet input for V.C.R.). I conceted it to and old V.C.R. (I use the tuner and programing side from the V.C.R.).

[old_tv_nut]

I don't have a definite choice for best U.S. color set ever- some enthusiasts might say the Heathkit build-it-yourself sets. Basically, color set picture quality, reliabllity and stability increased over the years even as costs went down. The large-screen rear-projection sets and the larger CRT's (30 inches and above) generally had the most elaborate circuitry to squeeze every last bit of resolution out of the NTSC picture.

[nasadowsk]

I'd say of all the roundies, the CTC-16s were probbably it. If only they had automagic fine tunning and chroma gain...

Zenith had auto chroma gain and they were good too, but you STILL see CTC-16s out there in 'normal' service...

Did anyone make a roundie with auto fine tunning?

[blue_lateral]

I'd say the '15, I only say that because they had already started screwing with the color demod angles on the 16 trying to compensate for deficiencies in the phosphor. That wasnt a huge change btw.... one capacitor. Anyway theyre almost the same set.

AFAIK there was never an RCA roundie with AFT, but they did make the "three if" chassis (like a 15,16,17) rectangular with an outboard AFT chassis attached to the main chassis next to the IF strip. Probably a fairly easy retrofit to a 16.

Lets not forget Zenith, with probably the highest build quality.

john

[Duane]

What do you mean by "best ever made" ? best picture quality,best looks,best reliabilty?

[Telecolor 3007]

Best picture and best relaibilty.

[frenchy]

<<I'd say of all the roundies, the CTC-16s were probbably it. If only they had automagic fine tunning and chroma gain...>>

Fortunately the ever-present channel 3 and a vcr tuner take care of those... and they add remote control and a stronger antenna signal : )

[Chad Hauris]

The CTC-16's have very good performance but I have seen some fried flybacks and burned wiring...based on my experience the Zenith tube type color sets seem to score higher in overall quality.

[oldtvman]

although RCA always had better color, I have to say it would be hard to beat the overall quality of the Zenith products. My 29jc20 with very little work respectively had a very good picture and the quality features were very apparent.

[oldtvman]

Originally Posted by Chad Hauris

The CTC-16's have very good performance but I have seen some fried flybacks and burned wiring...based on my experience the Zenith tube type color sets seem to score higher in overall quality.

I agree with Chad the 16 was probably RCA's best effort in the tube era, but they loved to eat flybacks.

[Big Dave]

I vote for tube Zenith. The one I use as my Archie Watcher only needed cleaned, a convergence coil, a control repaired and adjustments. I don't think replaced a single tube. I do, however, think a lytic in the vertical is about to go south. Very easy restoration. With any luck, my space command will go just as smoothly (12A12C52).

I think the pictures on Zenith color appeared slightly darker than RCA. I nod toward Zenith because of the hardwiring. The PC boards on my CTC-16 gave me hell.

I'm only judging by my personal experience. I've never met a GE that I liked (my 810 may change that).

I think Philco made some good stuff (I don't have a Predicta). One is on the bench now and a portable will follow. These have the forerunners to chips. I'll keep you posted.

[3Guncolor]

I think Zenith was best from 1961 to 1974. They jumped the "shark" with the 4 lead cap problem but they were still good untill system 3 came along. I find it's easy to fix up a Zenith and use them as a daily watcher.

[kx250rider]

I need to weigh in on this one; FOR SURE. There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there is ONE TV that is the best ever built. Performance, longevity, function & performance, and workmanship. Although the Sony sets of the early 70s are close runners up, the best TV ever built is the 1972-73 Zenith 25DC56 and 25EC58 chassis. That was their first 100% solid state color set, and it was so grossly overengineered that they created a monster. For those not familiar with that number, that is the last chassis that was flat on the bottom of the cabinet and not upright in back. Zenith lost a lot of future TV buyers with that set, because they are all still working and have not ever prompted their owners to replace with a newer model!

I knew a TV tech in the early 80s who had one. His Mom bought it new, and it had never had any problem except for the 85-1314 on-off switch. He ordered a Sylvania Hyperblack AAA25VDMP22 CRT for it when the set was 10 years old, although the original was still fine. At the same time, he performed the recall on the ceramic safety caps. That TV is still in daily use, after being used day in & day out by 2 generations of rowdy kids.

So I bought a metal table model 25" one when I was in Jr High School from the Salvation Army store. This was in about '81. It was working fine, but I saw the picture on my friend's set with the Sylvania tube and I ordered one too. My 25EC58 became our family daily TV as soon as I got it. Since then, that Zenith has been run daily, and has met many a peril. It has been moved countless times, been burned in a fire, and been left out in the rain. After the fire, I ordered new knobs, and new speaker grille and tuner bezel (all in stock at Andrews). I vacuumed it out, and it worked as new! 6 years later it was thrown on the floor by the Northridge Earthquake. It looked OK, so I heaved it back up onto the stand and plugged it back in when the power was restored a few days later. OH NO; it didn't come on! I took the back off, and the 9-57 Horizontal module had been knocked out of its mount. I put it back in place, and the old battlship came right to life! A little setup adjusting and it was as new. It is still my daily TV, and it just won't quit.

Mine is not the only one that has survived abuse by fire & water... A good customer of mine, also suffered a fire in the 80s. Her set was a 25DC56 in a plastic and wood console. Her apartment caught fire from careless smoking, and she ran out to safety with the Zenith left on. She watched as the fire dept put the flames out, and she was watching as they mopped up and saw that the Zenith was STILL ON AND WORKING, although the cabinet had burned away and melted completely! There it sat... The CRT in a pool of water and melted smoking plastic STILL showing a brilliant Chromacolor picture through the soot. I don't know just how it was that the power was still on, but that is a true testament to the quality of those great Zeniths! I told her she should have shipped the TV back to Zenith for advertising....

Charles

[kc8adu]

Originally Posted by Kaye-Halbert TV

I need to weigh in on this one; FOR SURE. There is no doubt, whatsoever, that there is ONE TV that is the best ever built. Performance, longevity, function & performance, and workmanship. Although the Sony sets of the early 70s are close runners up, the best TV ever built is the 1972-73 Zenith 25DC56 and 25EC58 chassis. That was their first 100% solid state color set, and it was so grossly overengineered that they created a monster. For those not familiar with that number, that is the last chassis that was flat on the bottom of the cabinet and not upright in back. Zenith lost a lot of future TV buyers with that set, because they are all still working and have not ever prompted their owners to replace with a newer model!

I knew a TV tech in the early 80s who had one. His Mom bought it new, and it had never had any problem except for the 85-1314 on-off switch. He ordered a Sylvania Hyperblack AAA25VDMP22 CRT for it when the set was 10 years old, although the original was still fine. At the same time, he performed the recall on the ceramic safety caps. That TV is still in daily use, after being used day in & day out by 2 generations of rowdy kids.

So I bought a metal table model 25" one when I was in Jr High School from the Salvation Army store. This was in about '81. It was working fine, but I saw the picture on my friend's set with the Sylvania tube and I ordered one too. My 25EC58 became our family daily TV as soon as I got it. Since then, that Zenith has been run daily, and has met many a peril. It has been moved countless times, been burned in a fire, and been left out in the rain. After the fire, I ordered new knobs, and new speaker grille and tuner bezel (all in stock at Andrews). I vacuumed it out, and it worked as new! 6 years later it was thrown on the floor by the Northridge Earthquake. It looked OK, so I heaved it back up onto the stand and plugged it back in when the power was restored a few days later. OH NO; it didn't come on! I took the back off, and the 9-57 Horizontal module had been knocked out of its mount. I put it back in place, and the old battlship came right to life! A little setup adjusting and it was as new. It is still my daily TV, and it just won't quit.

Mine is not the only one that has survived abuse by fire & water... A good customer of mine, also suffered a fire in the 80s. Her set was a 25DC56 in a plastic and wood console. Her apartment caught fire from careless smoking, and she ran out to safety with the Zenith left on. She watched as the fire dept put the flames out, and she was watching as they mopped up and saw that the Zenith was STILL ON AND WORKING, although the cabinet had burned away and melted completely! There it sat... The CRT in a pool of water and melted smoking plastic STILL showing a brilliant Chromacolor picture through the soot. I don't know just how it was that the power was still on, but that is a true testament to the quality of those great Zeniths! I told her she should have shipped the TV back to Zenith for advertising....

Charles

funny you mention these sets.
in the early 80's a neighbor had a table model that had the shutdown/fart these were noted for.
told them it would be an easy and cheap fix.bring it over and i will fix it.
well they fumbled it and it rolled down 2 long flights of stairs.they set it to the curb thinking it was a goner.i got my brother to help me get it home and the crt was not busted so i fired it up.
looked good so i did the needed repairs including the safety caps.
beat the dents out of the cabinet with a hammer and put it in place of our parents dieing sears portable.that set plays almost 24/7 even now and still looks good.i think i scrapped the sears after waiting too long for a lightning trashed set to give up a good crt.a 19v delta gun tube back then was still pricey.the crt is a bit soft till the set plays a few minutes but once it warms up it is still better than the magnavox walmart cheapie downstairs.

[bgadow]

I would also vote for Zenith as the best all around tv made. Among the color roundies I've been able to get a better picture out of the RCA's but they all needed work to get there-sometimes lots of work. The Zeniths worked fairly well when I got them. Zenith heavily advertised "hand wiring" and its true, they were overbuilt. Eventually they surpassed RCA in picture quality, IMO, and were the standard in my book up until the early 80s. I have not seen any others makes that I would quite rank with those 2 market leaders.