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Old 06-04-2014, 10:11 PM
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Jeffhs Jeffhs is offline
<----Zenith C845
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Fairport Harbor, Ohio (near Lake Erie)
Posts: 4,035
Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep View Post
I thought the same thing. AM reception that was better than any other US built radio. FM reception, that was better than most, as well. It had the best AFC, that made it easier to tune and hold FM stations, with no drift.
I have an RCA AM-FM table radio from around the 1956 model year. It's rather impressive with the power transformer, 5Y3 rectifier and the 6V6 output tube. The receiver part, just isn't that impressive.
Zenith made several years of that model and were rather pricey. Most people that owned them, used them as daily drivers and were satisfied with the tone quality.

Yes, the Zenith C845 was very expensive when it was new in 1960, something like $130 or so in that era's dollars. However, I agree with you that the '845 had above-average AM and FM reception. I am 30+ miles east of Cleveland, and my C845 gets every one of the city's AM and FM stations just fine, using just the line-cord antenna. When the FM band opens up for DX in the spring and summer, this radio is a real station magnet. I live near Lake Erie, and can often get stations from southwestern Ontario, Canada and Detroit, et al. as clearly as if they were next door. At night on AM the '845's radio dial just lights up with stations, some of which are inaudible (or close to it) on newer sets. I attribute this to the 6BJ6 RF amplifier stage which is used both on AM and FM, to say nothing of the fact that the C-845, like all older Zenith radios, was built for DX and high fidelity audio (the latter somewhat limited by the single 35C5 audio output tube, as VK member rca2000 mentions in an earlier post).

I chalk up the C845's excellent FM reception to the use of a permeability-tuned (slug-tuned) FM tuner and two FM IF stages. The slug-tuned system is not used much anymore except, perhaps, in very high-end communications receivers (IIRC, Collins had at least one amateur-band receiver with such a tuning arrangement, but then again, their amateur equipment wasn't cheap and Collins was known for quality amateur gear in its heyday).
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Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002

Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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