Basic Questions: Zenith Cobra-matic

I am no pro when it comes to stereos, in fact I know nothing about them. Nonetheless, I need some advice. My wife and I fell in love with this thing as soon as we saw it. It's a Zenith Cobra-matic console. I believe it is from the late 50's to mid 60's although I could be wrong. Pictures at bottom.

Attempting to play a record, we found the needle and arm not traveling across the record. Inspecting the needle, I discovered that it was actually two sided. Meaning I could pull a small lever and flip between two separate needles on the same arm. Neither needle produced positive results so we ran out to a nearby repair shop to pick up replacement needles. He only had one in stock and told us to come back in a week to get the other.

We went home, replaced the needle and viola! We got beautiful music.

The stereo has multiple settings for sound including LP and stereo. If I set to LP, the sound is way too quiet, if I set it to stereo, I get a much louder, clearer sound. Everything was going well until....

I started putting on some other records and I noticed that the vocals were significantly quieter than the instruments. Which leaves me at my current predicament and series of questions. Any help is really appreciated.

1. Browsing the web, I've found many discussions about old record players damaging newer style records for a variety of reasons. Is my console one of these record players? Should I avoid playing my albums in this console? By "new" I mean stuff like Elton John and Zeppelin.

2. Is there any way a complete noob like myself could resolve the issue of the low-volume vocals? *note* When I was fussing with the needle, I had pulled out the three wires that connect the needle to the console (white/black/red). I swear I put them back in the correct order, but if I did not, could that cause my sound issues?*

3. Are the two needles on the player supposed to be different or can I put the same type needle on each? When I got home I just put one needle on the cartridge (is that what it's called?) and left the other side empty. I should have asked the guy when I bought the new needle, but was a bit anxious to get home.

Those are all the immediate questions I can think of. Any other advice is welcome too. I am not afraid to put a little work and elbow grease into this, but at the same time I don't want to mess it up, as it seemingly works for "some" of my records. Sorry if the questions are silly, but my only other record player is a small traveling type I've been using for years now and that is as straightforward as it gets.

Thanks for reading.

Matt,
I ain't no pro either, when it comes to home units, but I can tell you this--If it's a "flip-over" needle (which it looks like--a photo of the cart itself would help !), You can only use one needle at a time. Also, if it is a replaceable needle at all, you do not have a "Cobra cartridge" in that unit. Cobra carts. are built with the needle permanently installed, and you must replace the whole cart to change the needle. Some one may have changed that cart., or that unit was built after Zenith quit the Cobra design. Some of the "flip" needles are built with different size needles on either side, others are built with the same size needles on both sides. Usually, if two different sizes are on the one stem, it will have markings on the "flip lever" indicating the record types that can be played while that number is "showing". Hope that helps some-- Ron Rich

Wow...what a honking speaker lineup going on there. It does say stereophonic high fidelity. I wonder if there was an optional extension speaker to go with that to provide a wider stereo separation.

Anyhoo, It looks like there is some type of flip thing going on there.

Dual needles could be be labeled LP/S (sapphire or stereo?) on one side and 78 on the other, or one could be diamond and the other sapphire with no 78 designation. Get the number off the back of the cartridge to narrow your search.

This Electro-Voice 275 is basically the same as an Astatic 165d and has a Magnavox number 560345. I don't know about the 802 number, but starting with the Magnavox number will back track to an EV or Astatic match. That match will also lead you to the correct needle.


Here's another back of a cartidge that came from a VM changer:






Everything in a console is not made by the same company. It's like having a car of your choice with a sound system made by Bose, speakers from Jensen, tires by Pirelli etc...parts and accessories from manufacturers everywhere coming together to create a final product. --BB


Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

The fact that yours is early Stereo indicates the fact that it is not a true Cobra cartridge. It is a VM changer (I think it is 1/2" mount too). So you likely have cartridge options here too.

The symptoms indicate you put the wires back wrong.