Magnavox Normandy Provincial

Hi - I'm a newbie at Phonoland and wanted to show off my baby - a 1964 Magnavox Normandy Provincial console stereo model 1ST678.

I received it as a gift from a lady who has been a friend of our family for 50 years. She recently had to move from her home into a retirement facility where there was no room for her Magnavox. She offered it to her children but none of them wanted to deal with it. My wife and I visited her home to help with the move and she asked if we wanted it - we took one look at the beautiful wood cabinet and said "yes". We loaded it in my truck and after a 30 minute drive, it was ours.

As you can see the fruitwood cabinet is in good shape for 46 years old - just a few minor "dings". When I powered it up the first time, everything worked but I noticed the turntable played too slow and the sound (phono or radio) was a little distorted. After doing some research on PhonoLand, I checked the rubber idler wheel and it was dried out - replaced it with another one from Ebay. Also I replaced pretty much every electrolytic capacitor in the tuner/amplifier section except for the filter capacitor can - about 30 caps in all!! Fortunately the replacement caps were easy to find at the local Fry's Electronics store. Now it sounds great - just like I remember from my childhood. I love the "big bass" sound and warm midrange - almost like a tube amp even though it's an Astrosonic.




I've seen people online refer to this console as the "Normandy Provincial", but my Magnavox service manual calls it a "French Provincial". If anyone has a 1964 Magnavox catalog, I'd be interested to know what the "official" name of this console is.

Tom

You did good, Tom. Gotta love these big beasts and their sound. That's great that you did your homework and took care of your repairs. Alot of excellent posts can be found here and many resourceful folks who contribute immensely.
If you need a service manual for the turntable, I can email those to you. --BB

Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona

Bobby - thanks for the offer but I already have the service manual. What I WOULD like to see (if you have it) is the Magnavox brochure for the Normandy Provincial showing the original sales price in 1964.

Thanks, Tom

hello Tom!

Congrats to you! My stereo is very similar to this, Except its the tube model and not the astro-sonic, the front of the console looks just like this, and the wood is even the same color. I have pictures of it somewhere on this site. Feel free to check them out if you want!

I just bought a 1970 French Provincial Astro-Sonic 500, from the local St. Vincent de Paul, and I'm quite pleased with the sound of it. It's the sixth Astro in the collection, and if I'm smart, I'll either quit now, or confine my search to the smaller models. The changer works well, and had some feedback to start with, but it stopped. I also found out this morning that the screw that holds the cartridge in was half tight. In the meantime I hope I didn't accidently trash my $1.00 LPs. I had a similar set to your Normandy, but mine had tubes. Wish I had kept it, the legs were different design, but the motif in the center of the cabinet was the same. Hope you enjoy yours for years to come!