The 1958 Motorola Stereophonic Hi-Fi!

[78rpmblog]

What a true beauty!

[force311999]

flawless 

[MegaRadio90]

Forgot to mention they still had the VM table in 67 fitted with an Ortofon cartridge and stylus and they are still making those wonderful cartridge's today. :)

[MegaRadio90]

I'm old enough to have grown up with the great Motorola console Stereo my mother had from 1967. Her first major purchase it was all that and of course by 1967 equipped with FM stereo & solid-state electronic's and quite powerful at a 100 watts per channel. Featured a 12 inch cone woofer's horn loaded midrange, and cone loaded tweeter's and boy she could get up and boogie for the time. I'm an audiophile and into music in big way thanks for your great video's of all thing old. :) Motorola's would

[electronmusicjunkie]

Wish I could get my hands on one of these old Motorola tube stereos from the early 60s. I heard a 1960 model with 3 channel stereo and in a drexel cabinet. The audio was awesome. Made old records sound the way they should compared to the way they sounded on decent solid state units where you tended to hear the surface noise and distirtion more.

[frangiul13]

Absolutely GORGEOUS blonde console!!!!

[75capriceconvertible]

Nothing today or in the recent past can compare with these machines... and they could never replicate something like this today. I like the convenience of digital music (in the vehicle, or in the kitchen while getting ready for work) but I'm still true to all my analog equipment!

[chompo7]

@75capriceconvertible awesome isnt it billy? this is just like mine but mine is mahogany.these are such awesome sounding machines for being so early in the life

of stereo.i cant remember what my grandparents paid but it was between 4 and 6 hundred 1958 dollars!

[75capriceconvertible]

@chompo7 you said it Joe. This is at the point in time when IMHO they had nearly perfected "high fidelity" audio for the home user, then applied the stereo aspect to everything, and occasionally even took it one step further with the center channel idea. Prehistoric surround sound! When we were growing up this would be a rich man's toy!

[Edison1252]

You have a beautiful home. I love your videos where you pan the room. Takes me back to when this country really meant something to the world.

[drh4683]

@Edison1252 Why thank you my friend!

[force311999]

basically an NOS stereo as it was never used I have 2 of these in my life that have the same preamp-control panel great sounding units and easy to recap to

I have vids of booth of them 

[TundraWalk3r]

Wow! What an amazing stereo! And that bedroom is really awesome. Your videos are great!

[mobilene]

This hi-fi is gorgeous. The controls on this thing -- such as on/off being coupled with the balance knob -- represent some interesting choices, as if the industry was figuring out what was best and a standard approach hadn't been found yet.

[aussietv2]

It's bee utiful. I'd love that unit. Looks like a classic car.

[maynardcat]

what a rare find that was . The finish isn't the imiation blond it is real limed oak, and It is really rare to find a 1950's limed oak anything where the finish hasn't turned yellow., and still has that nice blond look. That Motorola is a real 1950's classic.

[Turkeydoodlers]

That's very nice Doug, geesh I thought my motorola's I own look great I love the blonde cabinet

[clydesight]

What an amazing find! This unit looks like it just came from the box and the sound is SO vintage. Big boomy bass, rich and warm. What a trip back to the past. Thanks for posting this, you have a great historical treasure there!

[MrDemilord]

1 word wow!

[BadEditPro]

That's a beautiful unit. No FM stereo until 1961 but the mono FM sure sounds good. What kind of cartridge did these originally come with? :) JC

[fortyfiveplayer]

@BadEditPro These came with the Astatic 13T stereo power point cart when new.

[BadEditPro]

@fortyfiveplayer Thanks for the info... The comensator got me curious. :) JC

[NJRoadfan]

That hi-fi would perfectly compliment the 1950s blonde mahogany bedroom sets my grandmother has. Look at that chrome shine!

[swampwiz]

What is the deal with the red dot on the right speaker cover?

[aldiakaroofus]

I was impressed by its condition even before you opened the lid!!

[llcvt15]

So what does RIAA stand for? And I'm jelous of all the open space you have in your house :). I guess your degree of hoarding isn't nearly as bad as mine...

[force311999]

@llcvt15 the mixing standard for EQ on records

that's why old music always sounds better on old stereos

and rap music sounds best in cars with lots of base

my original South Pacific RCA Orthophonic sound track is incredible

on my 1958 RCA Ortho. phonograph

[Trance88]

Wow. Unbelievable condition! The only thing I wish it had was an auxiliary input.

[force311999]

@Trance88 they do but it may not be on the outside look under the preamp for a "tape in" rca jacks and run patch cords out the back or up trow the record compartment for an Ipod

[Geoffr524]

All these videos, help to make the internet a virtual time machine.

Since I was born in 1960, I saw lots of these things over the years.

[antiqueradiogeek]

Beatiful Piece.. I collect and repair old radios.. I havent had any time of late to do this kind of work, BUT I have wanted to find one of these.. They seem damn near impossible to find! Any ideas on where to look .. I know you found yours in estate sales!

[uxwbill]

That's a beautiful set...really nice to see that time just ignored it! I'm a little surprised the capacitors are still good. The multi-system equalization is also a nice touch.

Is there any means by which to connect an FM stereo decoder of any type? Stereo broadcasting was definitely being tinkered with at the time this was new...

[ronco525]

My father use to repair TV's and stereo's back in that era and I use to help him in my teenage years.

[MRjohnRc]

You are the most awesome guy EVER!

[dfpolitowski2]

Nice, we had an Olympic bw TV that had a similar in cabinet design. I understand the light wood color was in style back then, hence a lot of furniture had that style color (light wood) veneer.

[pantojafan]

wish we had in europe such brands and machines,we only had philips in those days,thank you very much to share video's

[vwestlife]

FM Stereo was not introduced until 1961, so that's the one thing I'd miss, but this definitely sounds great!

[mauiturtletownrocks]

I'm thinking a corner group might look nice in this room

[meego12345]

That thing looks mint. I really like that blond furniture from that era. I'm currently doing a total renovation of a 1956 ranch that I plan on furnishing completely with period appliances, furniture, fixtures, etc.

[chairuser4]

i love how you live in a retro 50s 60s world

[umajunkcollector]

"stereo" LPs were something NEW in 1958. Sure puts out the bass, what kind of speakers? Did you replace the cartridge? Sounds great!

[mick2345vid]

that sounds brill and the hifi is well nise looking

[727JeffN]

Looks and sounds brand spankin' new! Beautiful unit!

[thrillscience]

This is so beautiful!

[thelazycomic]

When was the "blonde" furniture popular? From when to when? My grandmother has her house built in 1955, and it was totally furnished with blonde furniture. I was always curious as to when it was hip to have "blonde" ??

[GarrisGates]

@thelazycomic Blonde furniture goes back to the 40's and was popular up into the early to mid 1960's

[rivest266]

What is this thing next to left of the clock radio at 6:47 ?

[drh4683]

@rivest266 Its a 1955 Telefunken Bajazzo portable AM FM tube type radio.

[bones007able]

What a Great Set! Love the Blond cabinet... rare, also the Gold V Of M Turntable you can't beat them, even modern turn tables don't compare... was in Best buy the other day and was suprised by the return of vinyl albums , store employee told me that people are finding out that digital does not sound as good as the analog sound. This is one medium that will make a comeback over today's technology.

[TheTarrMan]

Looks like the original owners took very good care of it. Beautiful.

[margaretsville]

Great unit. Sounds like Stravinsky Pulcinella suite for violin and piano at 3:16. Love that piece. Thanks for posting.

[trviideoman]

i would love to have something like this its vary nice and sounds great

[chompo7]

i have the same one in the dark cabinet.my grandparents bought it for my moms high school graduation.i still have it

[ronco525]

Absolutely beautiful. How much restoration work did you have to do on it?

[drh4683]

@ronco525 It'd didn't need much. mainly all it took was de-dusting and a new idler tire to bring the phonograph back to life. Thanks!

[tpembert]

love to retro looking room right down to the carpet and drapes. the spring tension pole lamp is very cool too.

[drh4683]

@tpembert Thank you! 

[batterymaker]

Gorgeous finish and sound. Is that a Telefunken Bajazzo portable radio on the desk? 

[drh4683]

@batterymaker Thanks much! You are indeed correct on the radio. It's a 1955 model.

[RetroVintageItems27]

Hi dougles I see that you have all of those old telephones. If you could make a video on them it would be Super Cool. Great looking, sounding etc. stereo.

Retro

[TwinMillMC]

I am flipping out over that 1958 blond Motorola! In MINT condition no less! WOW! Another amazing estate find of yours! That green telephone looks period correct also, is it '50's as well? I love your videos please keep posting em!

[drh4683]

@TwinMillMC Thanks much! Will indeed keep the videos coming!

[jdollinter]

@drh4683 Feel like I've been transported back to '58 to look at a brand new, out of the box,Motorola Stereo.Did you restore this or did it come in this pristine condition? Never seen anything like it. It must of cost a bundle when it was new. When did they start selling stereo Hi FI's ?

[drh4683]

@jdollinter This is how it looked when I got it. The original owners just bought it and never touched it. It was in a large wealthy home and was in one of those rooms that was for show that nobody ever went in. I was the first to service it and it didn't need much other than a new idler tire to fix the phonograph. I believe stereophonic Hi-Fi's first came out in 1957, so this is indeed a very early unit of the stereo age.

[78recordrepair]

Now all you need is a '58 Plymouth Fury in your garage!