Finally, some good news regarding AM radio

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

I'll add that AM sounds much better to me on a tube radio than on most modern consumer grade stuff. It seems that most of the newer stuff is designed just to pass a signal on AM and that's about it. Even the AM section in my mid '70's Kenwood receiver has poor sensitivity and fidelity. A basic 5 tube radio from the '60's has better fidelity and sensitivity than my Kenwood receiver. I was listening this afternoon on a '50's Zenith Bakelite case AM/FM with good results. The AM sounds almost as good as the FM on that radio.

Zenith's AM/FM radios from the early '60s sound better than today's sets as well. I have a Zenith C845 with eight tubes and an eight-inch speaker, plus a 5" tweeter, that sounds much, much better than most modern radios, even on AM. My Zenith K731 also beats today's Japanese/Korean rebadged stuff by a mile, probably because of the Zenith's 5x7 oval main speaker and a 3" electrostatic tweeter. Both the '731 and the '845 are in real wood cabinets, which I'm sure improves the sound as well.