On Sun, 7 Mar 2010, Joe from Kokomo wrote:

Mike M. wrote:
Hello,
How do the old tube type receivers such as the
Hammarlund ,Hallicrafter etc compare to the modern solid state
receivers in performance?
I am curious about the longevity of the tube radios on the market.
Thank you,
Mike McManus

Mike,
You ask a couple of interesting questions, but you need to focus a bit more.

To take Hallicrafters as an example, they made a wide range of receivers,
ranging from the entry level S-38 (really mediocre as you would expect), to
their final, top-of -the line SX-115, still able to hold its own with modern
receivers. (I am ignoring all their pre-WWII radios).

This would hold true for most manufacturers except for Collins -- where
everything they made was "top of the line". ;-)

I am curious about the longevity of the tube radios on the market.

Again, you should clarify a bit. Not sure what you actually mean by
"longevity".

The components in the tube radios are anywhere from 30 to 70 or more years
old. Once components that age have been replaced, the old set's service life
should generally compare favorably with the solid state radios.

Of course, the contradictory thing is that the low end S-38 is so simple
that it's easy to put in new capacitors, while the better old equipment
has so many stages and so much shielding that it can be a lot of trouble.

Thus a cheap tube receiver is likely far easier to repair than a current
tiny solid state receiver, but the latter have better performance
generally. The old tube receivers that match the performance (or better
the performance) of current "average" solid state receivers will be as
difficult to repair, if not more so.

Michael