{"id":16149,"date":"2015-12-14T01:28:19","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T05:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=16149"},"modified":"2015-12-21T15:11:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T19:11:56","slug":"ebay-find-the-zenith-trans-oceanic-royal-d7000y-with-comparisons-to-the-sony-crf-320","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/ebay-find-the-zenith-trans-oceanic-royal-d7000y-with-comparisons-to-the-sony-crf-320\/","title":{"rendered":"eBay Find: the Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal D7000Y, with Comparisons to the Sony CRF-320"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ebay\"Sometimes when\u00a0 browsing eBay you’ll come across a\u00a0hot item\u00a0that wasn’t even on your\u00a0wish list or Followed\u00a0eBay\u00a0Searches. This was the case for me early\u00a0last month\u00a0when I spotted a new listing for a Zenith Royal D7000Y-2 Trans-Oceanic\u00a0that’s arguably the best performing T-O ever made. It’s not the most collectable<\/em> (the final R7000 series has that distinction), but is the final model with the desirable band spread tuning arrangement. The D7000Y is also the last of the hand-wired Trans-Oceanics. Some claim this model has the best audio of the transistorized T-Os, too.<\/p>\n

I have a soft spot in my heart\u00a0for Zenith Trans-Oceanics, as the co-author of the “Royalty of Radios”<\/a> reference book, the late Prof. John Bryant, was my best friend for many years. John also wrote books on Zenith’s corporate history and other models of Zenith radios.<\/a>\u00a0The transistorized Zenith\u00a0Trans-Oceanics were unobtainable\u00a0dream receivers for me when I was a teenager in the mid-1970s.\"royalty<\/a><\/p>\n

I watched this Buy-It-Now auction for\u00a0three days and was very surprised it remained available, especially after noticing its superior condition compared to other auctions for the same model. Finally on the third day I pulled\u00a0the trigger–I’m not a collector of vintage radios but I couldn’t miss the chance to let this fine old Zenith follow me\u00a0home. At a Buy-It-Now price of $219 including cross-country shipping, it seemed like a no-brainer decision.<\/p>\n

When the radio arrived–packed extremely well–it was\u00a0in ever better<\/em> condition than pictured and described (I’d call it 9.8 on a 10 scale).\u00a0 The package included the original hang tag, QA stickers, owners manual, service manual, marketing literature and even the original monaural earphone and AC power cord. All dial lamps and the chart light worked fine. The previous owner said the T-O was fully aligned a year ago, and indeed I found that the reception quality on the built-in whip antenna is great. I’d love to know where this receiver was stored for the last 38 years; it was clearly\u00a0someone’s gently used, cherished Zenith.<\/p>\n

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A folder of high resolution photos<\/strong> <\/span>of this receiver can be viewed here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Compared Against the Sony CRF-320<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Besides simply enjoying receivers I get a kick out of comparing them against each other, and against various other ones owned by my radio hobby friends. Thanks to the loan of a vintage Sony CRF-320, I was able to directly compare it to my Zenith Trans-Oceanic Royal D7000Y-2 receiver. My friend’s CRF-320 is the equal of my Zenith in condition and quality. Each of us would like to own both of these radios!<\/p>\n

This is an interesting pairing,\u00a0since the Zenith was among the last of the premier, USA manufactured portable receivers (analog only, all hand-wired chassis), and the CRF-320 was an equally prestigious portable receiver of the “latest technology”–digital\/analog readout with printed circuit board construction.<\/p>\n

\"Eugene_F._McDonald_the_Commanderand_founder_of_Zenith\"Once a leading receiver brand, Zenith did not react quickly enough to changing trends and business climate after the death of its founder, Commander Eugene F. McDonald.\u00a0 The 40 year old (1942-1982) proud line of Trans-Oceanics gave way to new, semi-automated methods of building receivers with inexpensive labor from Asia.<\/p>\n

After an initial production run of the next (and last) R7000 series, manufacturing was moved to Taiwan. The receiver was built just as well as the previous Royal D7000, but used PCBs inside and the useful band spread frequency ranges were done away with (at the expense of ease of tuning). Still, Zenith T-Os couldn’t compete on price or performance against the Sony CRF-320, and the R7000 Trans-Oceanics were the last (and now most collectible) versions.<\/p>\n

This YouTube video<\/a> compares reception of these two vintage receivers\u00a0with mid-morning signals on the 31 meter band, from the Seattle area:<\/p>\n