Quote:
Originally Posted by radiotvnut
IMHO, postwar Zenith AM/FM sets are about the best performing FM radios built in the USA. Even the early Zenith SS table radios are good performers. That all changed when Zenith shifted radio production to Korea.
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I'll second that. I have several postwar Zenith radios here, and every one of them works very well on FM (with the built-in antennas) in my area, which is about 40 miles from most of the Cleveland FM stations.
I will also second your comment on how Zenith radios went downhill when the company left Chicago and started production of radios (and later televisions [!]) in Korea. I once had a Zenith IS-4041 AM/FM/8-track/cassette/phono integrated stereo system that worked reasonably well (and sounded great) on FM, but the AM tuner was so bad I could hear shortwave in the middle of the dial (around 1140-1200 kHz or thereabouts) at night. It wasn't so good for local AM in the daytime, either, and I lived in a suburb of Cleveland at the time (early 1980s) that has excellent reception of all the city's local stations. (My other AM and AM/FM radios received Cleveland AM stations with no trouble, and no shortwave interference after sundown.) I used to say at the time, and still believe today, that the AM tuner in my Zenith stereo probably was nothing more than a glorified crystal set.
However, I have a Zenith model R-70 13-transistor AM-FM portable radio, made in 1980 in Korea, that works very well on AM and FM in this area. In fact, I am convinced that this radio was built for high performance and good sound quality, with four IF stages on FM, two IFs on AM, and ceramic filters for both bands. As sensitive and selective as this radio is, however, I wish it had defeatable FM AFC (it doesn't; the AFC lock-in range is quite narrow and is non-defeatable, as stated in the service manual). Other than that, my R-70 is, IMHO at least, a couple of steps above the average AM/FM transistor portable, and I'll bet it had a hefty price tag as well when it was new (I would guess it sold for around $40 or so). Mine was an eBay score a few years ago, so I got it for, IIRC, about half that.
However, I believe the R-70 was one of the last really good portable radios produced by Zenith, whose radio production plant by this time (1980s) had been moved from Chicago to Korea.
Korean-made or not, I think the R-70 is an excellent portable radio, aside from its non-defeatable AFC which can make tuning difficult if you are in an area with stations closely spaced on the dial (although the ceramic filter and four IF stages on FM helps a lot, they are no substitute for defeatable AFC), or if you are trying to receive weak stations next to strong local ones. When Zenith ended production of this gem they broke the mold; it marked the end of an era as well.