Magnavox Astro-Sonic Console Info Needed

Recently replaced needle on a 560345 cartridge. Pulled the the three wires (brown, gray, and white with plastic covering on prong) out of the cartridge in order to remove it from the arm and replace the needle. Unfortunately I did not write down where the wires were plugged in. Any answers on where these wires went would be appreciated. The cartridge looks exactly like the pictures presented in some older posts.

Ryan the bottom pic in this thread may help:

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/vie ... 9&t=212262

Brown & Gray appear to be L&R -and white the common.

You can verify by simply turning the set to phono and touching each lead individually to produce a hum on each channel Do not touch any metal part while doing this as it will kill the hum. The common will not cause a hum and that lead will go to center.

There is no need to remove the cart to change a stylus.

Rob/NYC

Guy's,
Generally speaking, if a three wire stereo system, the white wire is common.
Most carts have the L-R markings on them also. Some of them have "neg" (-) markings, some don't.
Ron Rich

Hello,
I'm not sure if this thread is still active however I ll put my query out there and see what happens.

I just bought this exact same unit from a 2nd hand store. I'm not a collector and have no techy capabilities at all. I jut fell in love with it when I saw it.
Can someone please tell me what it is to "Flip the lid" on these machines? also the left hand side compartment is empty on my unit. What was it meant for or what should I be looking to replace it with?
Has anyone ever modernized these other side for storage areas at all.

Id love to hear your thoughts and opinions on what others have done, if anything to restore or revamp their Magnavox Astro sonic
does anyone know of a person in the San Francisco/ Peninsula area that restores these units?

Thanks for your time.
Cheers
Kylie

AussieMum wrote:Hello,
I'm not sure if this thread is still active however I ll put my query out there and see what happens.

I just bought this exact same unit from a 2nd hand store. I'm not a collector and have no techy capabilities at all. I jut fell in love with it when I saw it.
Can someone please tell me what it is to "Flip the lid" on these machines? also the left hand side compartment is empty on my unit. What was it meant for or what should I be looking to replace it with?
Has anyone ever modernized these other side for storage areas at all.

Id love to hear your thoughts and opinions on what others have done, if anything to restore or revamp their Magnavox Astro sonic
does anyone know of a person in the San Francisco/ Peninsula area that restores these units?

Thanks for your time.
Cheers
Kylie

Hi Kylie,

Since I initiated this thread some years back, and haven't replied to it in a while, I thought I'd give you some quick and easy answers. "Flip the lid" in the earlier post was just referring to the sliding panels on my Magnavox being reversed when I took the photo. The left hand storage area is for records! But I suppose you could keep just about anything in there you wanted to within reason.

I still have not revamped my Magnavox as there has been no need to. It still sounds excellent and everything works as it should. I notice a slight hissing out of one speaker when I turn the volume up over the mid-way mark that may indicate that speaker is beginning to fail. So sometime soon I plan to remove the rear cover, do some light cleaning and dusting, and investigate further. As discussed above there is no technician in the Houston area. I found one shop that actually specializes in CB radios that claimed to be able to service the Magnavox, but the store was so crowded and nasty that I didn't even want my pristine console going inside it, quite frankly.

Since the photos at the start of this thread were taken, I moved the console to a wall in my living room with windows behind it overlooking the patio, and a high vaulted ceiling above. The sound is just incredible in this setting, both inside the house and outside on a nice evening with the windows open.


Take care,
David

FreeLantz wrote:

AussieMum wrote:Hello,
I'm not sure if this thread is still active however I ll put my query out there and see what happens.

I just bought this exact same unit from a 2nd hand store. I'm not a collector and have no techy capabilities at all. I jut fell in love with it when I saw it.
Can someone please tell me what it is to "Flip the lid" on these machines? also the left hand side compartment is empty on my unit. What was it meant for or what should I be looking to replace it with?
Has anyone ever modernized these other side for storage areas at all.

Id love to hear your thoughts and opinions on what others have done, if anything to restore or revamp their Magnavox Astro sonic
does anyone know of a person in the San Francisco/ Peninsula area that restores these units?

Thanks for your time.
Cheers
Kylie

Hi Kylie,

Since I initiated this thread some years back, and haven't replied to it in a while, I thought I'd give you some quick and easy answers. "Flip the lid" in the earlier post was just referring to the sliding panels on my Magnavox being reversed when I took the photo. The left hand storage area is for records! But I suppose you could keep just about anything in there you wanted to within reason.

I still have not revamped my Magnavox as there has been no need to. It still sounds excellent and everything works as it should. I notice a slight hissing out of one speaker when I turn the volume up over the mid-way mark that may indicate that speaker is beginning to fail. So sometime soon I plan to remove the rear cover, do some light cleaning and dusting, and investigate further. As discussed above there is no technician in the Houston area. I found one shop that actually specializes in CB radios that claimed to be able to service the Magnavox, but the store was so crowded and nasty that I didn't even want my pristine console going inside it, quite frankly.

Since the photos at the start of this thread were taken, I moved the console to a wall in my living room with windows behind it overlooking the patio, and a high vaulted ceiling above. The sound is just incredible in this setting, both inside the house and outside on a nice evening with the windows open.


Take care,
David

A "hissing" speaker is signs of a transistor starting to get "noisy".
This happens due to age, and quite possibly because its bias voltage is out of range due to other aged components.

The "empty" compartment is commonly used as record storage, and also is the place that an optional reel to reel is installed. - a hole plug in the rear panel there is used for feeding the wires through.

Thanks Matt. So replace a transistor, at some point?

Hi David,
If I were a "betting man", I would take a bet that it's a bad transistor--however, I would rather bet that "other things", also are becoming faulty, and that it will progress to be a major ($$$$) repair--soon ! Ron Rich

I'm not the least bit scared of spending money to keep the Magnavox alive and working properly. It's a family heirloom. What I'm worried about is not being able to find anyone who can repair it.

I should reiterate that the hissing noise is VERY slight, and it has not gotten worse for a couple years now, and only noticeable when you sit directly in front of the unit and at high volume levels. So the sky isn't falling on me just yet.

The ceramic cartridges used in these sets can become weak or non-operable after decades of use and neglect.
If the unit sounds "fine" on radio, etc, it's the cartridge that's the problem.
Depending on the changer, some cartridge replacements (the 275 series?) are rare to find now, and a retrofit would be in order.
You'll get a flurry of online opinions as to what could be done, but a simple retrofit done by a knowledgeable tech is what's really needed.
And for reliable operation, it's best to have the whole changer gone over - you certainly wouldn't expect a 50 year old car to go far now on 50 year old oil and tires.