Tag Archives: vintage audio

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

Posted on February 15, 2020 by Hepcats Haven

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.

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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!

Barzilay Furniture Mfg. Co. Record Player Stand Restoration

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Hepcats Haven

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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Posted in Restorations, The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged 1940's furniture, 1950's furniture, 1960's furniture, 40's furniture, 50's furniture, 60's furniture, art deco furniture, Atomic Furniture, atomic record player, audio furniture, audiophile, mcm furniture, mid century furniture, midcentury furniture, retro furniture, retro phonograph, retro record player, vintage audio, vintage vinyl. Bookmark the permalink.

1966 General Electric Mustang Portable Stereo Record Player

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Hepcats Haven

We picked up this little gem while we were out antiquing. I love that it is on an original Gusdorf D2300 stand. It is such a small and compact unit, which makes it great for on the go entertaining. We wish we never sold our 1964 Motorola Cadet Portable Television. These units would have looked great together.

While speaking to the shop owner, he notified us that he rented this out for a photo shoot in Content Magazine. We took a couple of photos of the magazine with it in the background. Just a little more cool to add to this set up. The photographer was Arabela Espinoza.

Looks like a cool shoot! Nice staging.

The photographer did a great job with even with the little things. In the foreground we can see Pall Mall cigarettes, Polaroid camera, pull tab beers!

This player is really clean. The platter mat needs to be glued back down to the platter but that is an easy fix with some rubber cement.

Gotta love the 70’s green and orange accents!

I have to bring this in to my good buddy Justin at Stellar Electronics to give this little guy a tune up.

I haven’t decided if we are gonna keep this unit yet.

Below is the verbage from the advertisement for this Mustang Portable Stereo Record Player.

“Turn that thing down! How many times have you heard that? Now you can do something about it. Besides suffer in silence. Pick up your party & your stereo Mustang & sink slowly into the sunset. Like far away. G.E.’s Mustang is meant to be carried room to room or house to house. The big speakers make great stereo sound sound that way. & that’s what musics for.”

-Boys Life November 1966

1958 RCA Victor Mark IX “Stereo Twins” SHP-9

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Hepcats Haven

I have always been a fan of RCA. I like the styling of their units and they always seem to be reliable. I was cruising Craigslist as usual, when I saw this unit in Merced and decided to zip down and pick it up. Overall, it’s in great shape, but the needle needs to be replaced. The cabinets of both units are also in good condition.

Obviously, this unit is called “Stereo Twins” because it has the main unit and a matching satellite speaker. This sort of set up fills a room with sound, it’s fantastic!

Someone at some point mounted a Heathkit tuner (AJ-14) into the record storage area. I am not sure if I am sold on it yet. I might remove it so it looks more original. When I checked with our good friend Justin at Stellar Electronics, he said that he has only seen these units with a phonograph. He said the Heathkits were usually sold as kits which were assembled after you bought them. So, this is a DIY job.

This still has the original 45 adapter.

Justin was also able to help me find a replacement needle (EVM-80x), thanks Justin!

The speaker fabric is in fantastic original condition. This set was cared for and loved by someone to be in this great of shape.

This looks great in our office and will really be a nice addition to all the other vintage audio equipment in our collection. I have alway been drawn to vintage electronics, and I love the quality of the sound they produce.

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Posted in The Makin's Of Our Pad and tagged 1950's Audio, 1960's Audio, 50's Audio, 60's Audio, MCM Audio, MCM Stereo, mid century audio, mid century stereo, Midcentury Audio, Midcentury Stereo, rca, RCA 33, RCA 45, RCA 78, RCA AM/FM, RCA Atomic, RCA Audio, RCA furniture, RCA Mono, RCA Phono, RCA Phonograph, RCA Record Player, RCA Records, RCA Stereo, RCA Tuner, RCA Victor, retro audio, Retro Audiophile, Retro Phono, retro stereo, vintage audio, Vintage Audiophile, vintage stereo. Bookmark the permalink.

Telefunken 5094 WK HiFi Stereo

Posted on February 22, 2014 by Hepcats Haven

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.

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.

Here 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.