Kashka-Kat wrote:Ive not had a TV since it went digital some years back. But am now thinking it might be nice to have an actual movie viewing spot instead of in front of computer. Will just have a 40 or 50 inch flat screen sitting on top of an old kitchen cabinet (turned living room storage piece/entertainment center). I dont see it as being any more obtrusive than a modern coffee maker or computer and IMHO a vast improvement over the big tube monstrosities of the 80s-90s.
Now if you are referring to the big black holes that people have up on their walls or above their fireplaces, those I would have to agree are not very attractive.
What I would love to get is one of those big old wooden radios - youve got some fine specimens Phil. How functional are they though? I seem to remember ours as having great sound but only got AM. Now AM radio pretty much sucks so it would have to be FM.
all old radios and TV's of that age need some electrnic restoration to be safe, the main thing is the capacitors , which do go. other than that they are made to be repaired and quite serviceable. for TV's the picture tube can go and the flyback transformers are almost impossible to source except from others.
wiring should be inspected, sometimes insulation crumbles depending on the type of wire used. I would recommend to never plug them in unless you have someone look at them first so I don't test them unless it is part of a restoration. doing so can cause parts to fail.
the AM radios in the pic I have all restored and work properly. They can be used every day, they get Am and some short wave. You can actually get many many stations so they are interesting to play with but most that I collect do not get FM. I'm more into pre-war ones because I like the earlier cabinet styles.
You can easily adapt them so you can plug your iPod or phone into the amplifier, or you can use a little broadcast unit. it's legal to broadcast on AM. you can't broadcast far, but within your house basically. so you can pick up FM or use your own signal input and rebroadcast that and then receive it on old radios, of course in mono. here s a little broadcast unit
http://www.sstran.com/pages/AMT3000/overview.htmlif friends visit and want to play their iTunes I just plug their phones into my house stereo and then I get better sound. Old radios do have a nice warm sound if you play them at lower volumes, but most cant' handle high volume bass, you'll shake the fragile old speakers apart.
on shortwave there isn't much locally , with a long wire you can get a few distant stations as the signals can travel great distances, it's interesting to play around with. hook 70 feet of wire up to these old radios and you can sit and tune hundreds of stations and it's fun to see what you can get.
I'm still not digital really. my TV is still analogue but I just use a VGA cable from the computer to my older flatscreen for now. Ive been wanting one of those new fandangled boxes so I can get more stations. google TV etc..