Do you still use tube radios in (almost) everyday use?

[zenith2134]

Zenith K-725 tabletop, tube radio gets used every morning.
My hifi is solid state for now.
Tube televisions see near daily use. Vacuum tube chassis Zenith, RCA, Sears Silvertone, Magnavox, Admiral, RCA, GE.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by zenith2134

Zenith K-725 tabletop, tube radio gets used every morning.
My hifi is solid state for now.
Tube televisions see near daily use. Vacuum tube chassis Zenith, RCA, Sears Silvertone, Magnavox, Admiral, RCA, GE.

I have a Zenith K-731 table model sitting atop my refrigerator. Haven't used it in awhile, but the last time I had it on it sounded and worked great. I also have a Zenith C-845 in my bedroom, atop a chest of drawers, which I haven't used in awhile because I cannot get to the AC outlets in the wall behind the chest (the chest is too heavy for me to move). However, the last time I had the C-845 on, it also worked very well, bringing in stations right and left on AM and FM. It sounded great too, owing to the 2-way speaker system, but I'm not surprised. Those old Zeniths were built to sound great and to last, which is more than I can say for today's gutless-wonder cheap transistor radios with speakers so small it's not funny.

The above speaks volumes for these old Zenith radios. They surely don't make them like that anymore, which is one reason I've held onto my K-731 and C-845 as long as I have; that, and the fact I have liked Zenith radios and TVs for decades.

When I lived in a Cleveland suburb, I had several Zenith televisions, one of which was a 23-inch b&w model K-2739 console with, IIRC, the 16K23 chassis, which worked very well for their ages; unfortunately, when I moved to a small 1-bedroom apartment 21 years ago, I had to give up every one of those sets, but I was able to get the two Zenith radios I mentioned on ebay a few years ago.

[init4fun]

[MIPS]

There is a Heathkit GR-54 that sits above my computer desk. I use it to listen to the local AM station while drinking my coffee in the morning and before I leave for work.

[Jeffhs]

[QUOTE=zenith2134;3235695]Zenith K-725 tabletop, tube radio gets used every morning.
My hifi is solid state for now.
Tube televisions see near daily use. Vacuum tube chassis Zenith, RCA, Sears Silvertone, Magnavox, Admiral, RCA, GE.[/QUOTE

The only tube-type stereo system I ever had was a 1960s Zenith phonograph, which worked very well despite its age and despite the fact it was a trash find in the '80s, IIRC. I also patched a Knight-kit FM tuner into the audio system of my Zenith K-2739 (chassis 16K23, 23-inch) television, by connecting the tuner's audio output across the TV's volume control. It worked as well as I expected it would, since the Zenith TV had a 6BN6-6BQ5 audio system and a 6x9 oval speaker in the cabinet.

I eventually replaced both systems (the TV with the FM tuner and the Zenith phono) with a Zenith IS-4041 4-mode stereo entertainment system in the early 1980s. I moved to a very small apartment in 1999, so had to give up the Zenith system; however, I bought a new (at the time) Aiwa bookshelf stereo (AM-FM, cassette, CD) when I moved here. The system sounds great, probably even better than the Zenith 4-mode system I had at my previous residence, since the Aiwa system has a 4-channel surround-sound audio system (4x50 watts per channel). I don't and have not used the surround speakers, because my apartment is so small (one bedroom) and, again, I cannot run the system loud enough to make 4-channel surround sound worth the effort. To make matters even worse, I am almost deaf in one ear due to a brain injury at birth, so I cannot hear stereo normallly unless I use headphones; even then, I don't notice the stereo effect anywhere nearly as well as I would had I been born with normal hearing in both ears. . . . Oh, well.