Well, to a certian extent you have to define tube-era vs. SS. As far as I'm concerned, tubes and PC boards should never be in the same cabinet, let alone next to each other.
So this pretty much rules out everything in the tube era, EXCEPT Zenith and a few smaller brands like Setchel-Carlson. The very fact that Zenith would stay with point-to-point construction and heavy steel chassis, even into the SS era says (to me at least) that
they did not consider their products "throw away". In the pre-television era, even Zenith radios stand out as the most sought-after and valuable. I can only assume they felt that customers would remain loyal and "trade-up" as new styles and features were added (like Space Command), whereas other brands were literally "toast" after a few years of daily service, and not worth repairing.
Bridging the tube-hybrid era, (1969) you have the Chromacolor black matrix tube, which some could argue rivals the brightness/contrast and black-level of a modern-era set.
The SS chassis used in the early/mid 70s aren't a whole lot different than what was used for tube sets, making them quite overbuilt for cooler-running SS modules. This; combined with a black matrix tube, gold-plated tuner contacts, large power transformers, sharpness & black-level controls, and hand-assembly made for one hell of a TV set.
Granted, cost-cutting required for survival in a market full of "dumped" Japanese sets meant they began to lose their quality edge as the 70s wore on, but their products reached their "zenith" just as the television market hit a dry spell of innovation (1975-2000-ish).
Sony is the only real rival to Zenith in my opinion, but only in a timeframe after Zenith's "golden era" in television, 1949-1975, and it should be noted that some of that early Trinitron picture quality owed to their smaller size.
I have an issue of Consumer Reports from '77 (I think) comparing TV sets. It's the usual opinionated drivel about how "you don't need" certain features, or "we don't like the styling" so the article is unremarkable... However there is a side article called
"Why nobody is mad at Sony." This article gives some detail on the dumping by Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, etc. But also talks about how Sony has carved out a niche based on offering a premium product, not cheaper price.
Naturally, the opinion of Consumer Reports is basically "Dumping is great!" It means lower prices, etc.; damage to R&D, manufacturing ability, etc. be damned. So now you can consume more, but your actual income is lower.
Sounds like what our politicans keep telling us, or a page from the Wal-Mart handbook.
FU-CU!!!
