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Vintage Heathkit/Daystrom Component Audio System

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
Vintage Heathkit/Daystrom Component Audio System

As I mentioned earlier I have always wanted to assemble a really cool vintage audio component system. It took some time and some money but I was able to do it. After pouring over all the options out there and what looked the most atomic I decided on  Heathkit. The four components I was able to find were the Heathkit AJ-30 Tuner, AA-100 Amplifier, AA-11 Pre-Amplifier & AC-11 Multiplex Adaptor. I am in no way an audio aficionado. I am gonna have to figure this out as I go. Of course since these are vintage I need to get them completely checked out before I seriously start to use them. It is kind of hard to know an exact date these were produced. Searching online I have seen folks say 1961 and as late as 1963???

What I dig about these are the saddle colored cases, chrome tapered bezel and of course how the displays light up!

As usual with newly acquired vintage electronics they will need work. It appears the pre-amplifier lighted display isn’t working. Once I get these all dialed in it will be something to see!

The next thing I want to locate is a Heathkit record player, Heathkit reel to reel (AD-22) and also some matching Heathkit speakers (Heathkit/Altec Legato).

 

Heath was one of those companies that help started the kit business. Ed Heath founded the company in 1926 with, of all things, an airplane kit. He died in a test flight in one in 1935, but Howard Anthony kept the company going. Right after World War II, he bought a batch of electronic surplus. Out of that came one of the first successful kits, a small oscilloscope for $50, which was a real achievement in its time. With that success came many new products. Heathkit most notable product is their ham radios. Tragedy struck yet again in 1954 when Howard Anthony was also killed in an plane crash.

Edward Heath
Howard Anthony

 

Products Heathkit produced over the decades have included electronic test equipment, high fidelity home audio equipment, television receivers, amateur radio equipment, robots, electronic ignition conversion modules for early model cars with point style ignitions, and the influential Heath H-8, H-89, and H-11 hobbyist computers, which were sold in kit form for assembly by the purchaser.

What was great about Heathkit is folks could either order a kit to assemble these products or order them already assembled. Heathkit manufactured electronic kits from 1947 until 1992. After closing that business, the Heath Company continued with its products for education, and motion-sensor lighting controls. The lighting control business was sold around 2000.

I can’t recall where I read it but it appears Heathkit is back making kits and if that’s so I am sure there are a lot of folks out there who would love to get their hands on one of those kits. Once we get down to Texas I will have these tuned up and hopefully be well on my way to finding the other items mentioned above. If you have a line on any of the items I mentioned above feel free to reach out to me.

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1970’s Easy Listening Room (“Easy Like Sunday Morning”)

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Hepcats Haven
1970’s Easy Listening Room (“Easy Like Sunday Morning”)

At one point Mel and I had a house in Sacramento and an apartment in San Jose. This was required because of Mel’s work. It was just easier for Mel to stay in San Jose during the week for work, and then come home to Sacramento during the weekends. As somebody who loves to decorate, I saw her apartment as an opportunity to decorate in space-age decor.  When we decided to go “all in” in the bay area and buy a house, we didn’t want to get rid of all the space-age furniture. We ended up deciding to devote one of our rooms in our house to 70’s space-age.

I would of loved to have been able to find some super large vintage lava lamps but I don’t trust them.
These two really large lava lamps were purchased online from Wal*Mart.
While I really do enjoy decorating with atomic Mid Century decor, it’s nice to explore a different genre. Decorating in a different style can really get your creative juices flowing. 

We purchased two of these lava glaze lamps at an antique shop up in Paradise CA.
I’m not sure if that shop is still around after the major fire they had up there.
We would hit Paradise all the time when we were on the hunt for cool stuff. I hope they come back from that tragedy.
The real issue was going from decorating a full apartment to decorating just one room. It came down to a battle for space. We had so many cool pieces in her apartment, but they coudn’t all fit in one room. We tried to keep the coolest items from that collection.

I am big into music. I wanted to create a room to hang out in and listen to records and cassettes. I think I’m one of the few out there who are still listening to their cassette tapes. LOL! I remember the first cassette I ever bought was the “Black Celebration” album by Depeche Mode. I was raised on 80s music, but listen to everything! This is our wall of cassettes! I also use this wall to display some choice records.

We were able to keep Mel’s Seeburg Olympian 160 jukebox. Because I was a kid raised in the 80s, we loaded this sucker up with all 80s music! Since space is an issue, I took the closet doors off and created a cove for the jukebox. I also had an electrician come out and wire an outlet into the closet so I didn’t have extension cords hanging out. 

We have a few space-age radios and TVs, and the shelves in the closet above the jukebox are great for displaying those.

You might remember this Chromcraft couch, chair and ottoman set. We blogged about them a while back after we had them reupholstered.

I’m not sure who the maker of this red chair is, but we also had this one reupholstered. It is so comfortable to sit on.

This corner table is really unique. We came across it at an antique mall, and I knew it would be a great addition to the space-age decor. The bottom is a terrarium and I was able to put some of my favorite artificial cacti in there.

I suppose this table could also have been used as an aquarium. I’m not sure if that would work, but it might be a cool idea.

These vintage concert posters are all original prints. We purchased them from a dealer at Midway Antique Mall. The story behind them is that an elderly lady living in the bay area back in the 60s would see these posters on telephone poles and light poles. She would take them down and save them not really knowing that they’d be worth so much later. Anyway, the house she lived in was being demolished and I’m assuming she had passed away or moved on. A couple of observant ladies were walking by the dumpster that was being used and noticed a bunch of papers rolled up. Since they were being thrown away, they grab them. When they got home it was a massive collection of original concert posters from that era. They went to Midway Antique Mall and sold quite a few of them to that dealer. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!

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Rare 1956 Crescent 45 Record Player

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Hepcats Haven
Rare 1956 Crescent 45 Record Player

I am a record player fanatic! There were so many makes and styles that the options are almost endless. As usual, I was cruising eBay when SHAZAM, I came across this rare 1956 Crescent 45 record player.

This unit is farm fresh. It needs some cleaning up and a servicing to make it fully functional again.

I love the slanted design with the metal hairpin legs on the front. I also dig the atomic green fabric with the gold diamond accents on the front.

This unit has a speaker underneath. This is what drove the slanted design of this record player.

I will use some light grit sand paper to clean up all the gold accents and paint them with the 24K gold spray paint carried by Michael’s.

The grey material on the outside of the case is in good shape, but will need some freshening up.

I will reach out to my faithful repair guy Justin from Stellar Electronics. I know he will fix her up!

Here is the original ad showing this little gem towards the bottom.

For all of you who noticed the record in the background, it is a Les Baxter 10″  33&1/3 album. This cover is so fantastic and came out at the same time the player did.

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Barzilay Furniture Mfg. Co. Record Player Stand Restoration

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Hepcats Haven
Barzilay Furniture Mfg. Co. Record Player Stand Restoration

Mel and I came across this piece in a store in San Jose, California. I wanted to revamp our listening area in our house and this was gonna be a key piece. While I was examining it, I saw it had a makers mark. This piece was produced by Barzilay Furniture Mfg. Co.. We’re not familiar with this maker. I did some research on them and it looks like they were based out of Gardena, California. They were known to be one of the best producers of stereo component consoles ever made. Some of the consoles were sold as kits that customers could purchase and assemble. From what I can tell, they went out of business sometime in the 80’s.

What we really like about this piece is the art deco flare to it. I love the vertical striated wood supports and the square door pulls. As you can see from the pics, it was in rough shape. Since we got it for a good deal, I had no qualms about painting it.

I decided to paint it in black and light pink semi-gloss house paint. I used a roller to get a more uniform finish. The first thing that had to be done was to sand everything down. Always make sure you wear a mask when sanding old pieces because they used really bad chemicals in finishing pieces and you don’t want to be inhaling it!

After many coats of paint and many hours of touch up it is done.

This will be a great area to hang out in and just chill while the vinyl spins.

I want to get a vintage reel to reel to go with this record player so I can listen to my reel to reel tapes as well.

I saved the makers mark.

Feel free to watch the video below, off to the next piece

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1970 Electrohome Apollo 862 Record Player With Custom Fiberglass Base

Posted on March 27, 2017 by Hepcats Haven

Mel and I have had this player for some time. This is the table top model, but they also made ones that had a tulip base stand.

We purchased this base that was originally for a terrarium, but was missing the plastic ball terrarium topper. I wasn’t sure what to do with this base until we saw online an exhibit that San Francisco Museum of Modern Art did about the 70’s. In the exhibit, they used the same record player paired with a similar base. With that idea, I was excited to bring these two pieces together.

I could have painted the base a hundred different colors, but I felt that black looked best with the black accents on the record player. After the paint dried, I had to drill holes to route the cord through the center.

I also wanted to cut out three holes on the bottom to keep the cord and speaker wires separate from one another.

After all the drilling and painting was done, all I had to do was bring these two together. I love the results!

I think this unit looks really slick now!

This is way more space age looking.

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Telefunken 5094 WK HiFi Stereo

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Hepcats Haven
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It even has the original makers tag!

As normal, I was searching through Craigslist and came across this Telefunken 5094 WK for $50!  I am a sucker for Telefunken, and this time it was no different.  This unit is in pretty great shape for its age but needs a little reconditioning to put her back to normal.

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I love Telefunken and with my stereo repair guy Luis keeps telling me, “if I have to buy a German console, only buy Telefunken”.  I do like the styling of Grundig units, but as Luis advised me, they are the lower end of German stereo units.

IMG_6317Here she is in all her glory.  All I have done to her at this point is oil her to darken the grain and rehydrate the wood. Those are furniture dollies under the legs of the Telefunken.  It makes it easier to move around until I find a more permanent place for it.

IMG_6318This unit has a fold out stereo and a lift up top for the record player.

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The cabinet is in remarkable shape for being 50+ years old.

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This unit has SW1, SW2, AM, FM and Phono.  It also has the cats eye, which glows green when the channel is fully in tune.

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There is a compartment on the bottom that allows you to store records.

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Telefunken record player model TW501/8TS

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Here is the original paper instruction label for the record player.

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This unit also has the dog ear speakers that pop out from the side to give a more complete sound.

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It has the original manual for the record player and the radio and they are in great shape!

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Way too cool!  Original purchase paperwork.  It looks like it was bought on December 5th 1961!  Was this possibly a Christmas present?

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Plenty of connectivity as you can see.

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There is some wear on the top of this unit that I might do a quick restoration on to make it as good as new.

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Telefunken Sonata 5183 WK

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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Hey all,

I was sitting around and remembered that I had not blogged about this great little 1960’s German unit. I found this on Craigslist sometime back for about $60. It was a part of a cluster of items a younger man was selling that were part of his late mothers estate. I was surprised to see everything worked when he turned it on. As usual it had that really rich and deep sound. I couldn’t get the $60 out of my pocket fast enough.

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The great thing about these units is that they are small but still give the rich sound like the larger units. Also, one person can move them. The sound of these units can get even better if you buy a pair of satellite speakers to play through. I have a pair sitting around that need to be restored so I guess I should get on that.

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Here are a couple of photos of my grandparents. The picture of my grandma Troxel is of her in England sometime around WWII. The picture of my grandpa Troxel is soo cool, he looks like a gangster or something. The frames are really cool. I plan to blog about Art Deco frames, there are soo many cool ones out there.

This unit can play all the variety of speeds (16, 33 & 45) including 78! I have a mess of 78’s including about 15 binders like the one below full of one of my favorite crooners Bing Crosby. I must have every song he sang or even hummed.

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Since I am on the subject of 78’s let me take just a moment to express to you what a lost piece of treasure these records are. I have seen people throw these records away because they are not in demand anymore. These records are also brittle and can break with very little effort. This is why they need to be appreciated and in some instances there are some really rare recordings on these records. I love sitting around listening to records that range from early Perry Como to country western. Do yourself a favor, get a player that can play 78’s and just kick back and let the music wash over you (stepping down from soap box).

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Check out all these cats listening to 78’s! How can all these guys be wrong!? On a side note, this would be a cool way to sample your music, why don’t they do this anymore?

So, if you get a chance to pick one of these units up I would say go for it, especially if space is an issue.

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