JC Penney MCS 2230 Stereo System Overview and Restoration

Here's a JC Penney MCS 2230 stereo system. This is one of those all-in-one stereo systems that has a turntable, tape player and possibly other functions built in. Although not an insanely high quality piece of equipment, it works fine, looks decent and was probably all of the stereo most people needed at the time. It features a linear tracking turntable, digital tuner, equalizer and a partial-logic auto stop cassette player with song-skip functionality. I used it for a while and then forgot about it. Now I'm restoring it, which may sound silly, but it's mine and I can do what I want to with it.

This unit appears to date from 1984-1985 as per its internal date codes. It uses a Sanyo hybrid module for an audio power amplifier. Sears sold a very similar internally but different colored and differently designed unit under their LXI brand name. I'll hazard a guess that the OEM was the same, both were made in Taiwan.

Anyone know who might have built it? Would you care to guess?

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• JC
• Penney
• MCS
• 2230
• stereo
• system
• entertainment
• fix
• restore
• demonstrate

[jogmas12]

jCpenny? MCS? you gotta be kidding me

[uxwbill]

@jogmas12 I'm not kidding anyone.

[whiskeyify]

you must not have a wife...I don't think most ladies would put up with all that stuff..to us guys that's all really cool stuff but to the women it's mostly junk.

[uxwbill]

@whiskeyify Why in the world would I ever want one of /those/? I'm young, free, *single* and happy. I'd never want to wreck that. :-)

[luvsthose8230s]

cool rack stereo, are you into realistic electronics? got some old realistic equipment, and will be viding soon.

[uxwbill]

@luvsthose8230s I do have some Realistic and Optimus stuff. Some of it was quite good, most of it was entirely adequate and some of the rest is just plain cool. Perhaps I will make a video about some of the Realistic/Optimus stuff I have here.

[okrafoot]

I have an LXI from sears rated at 100 watts per channel and it would blow the transistors off this one easily

[KaneTheTraitor]

@uxwbill i actually have the Sears LXI model and for 30+ years old it can shake my house no problem great construction and great sound

[musicman257]

jc penny made some nice stuff especiley thier higher end turntables

[Watcher3223]

@sidadadvocate4autism

Well, it depends on the interpretation of what I said.

I said that a good bit of MCS stuff was made by Matsushita, but I never said that this particular system was made by them. JCPenney did have stuff, including that from MCS, made by other companies, not just Matsushita.

If this system was made by Sanyo, it would be no big surprise as Sanyo was also a big OEM supplier for many store brands.

[sidadadvocate4autism]

@Watcher3223 r u sure, it looks more like a sanyo/fisher design!

[raymondleeleggs]

My mom has a similar philco all in stereo, but its not built into a racck it has 2 big speakers but the foam is rotten, and there is a very large heatsink that sticks out the back of the unit, at least 70 watts a channel! back in the 90's she had it turned up so loud the house would jump up and down with the bass!

The rack and speaker grilles got ruined in a house flood, the TT cartridge and stylus is missing...