Dear Lenny,

This is indeed a "fun" topic and I find all the comments posted thus
far to be very interesting and enjoyable to read.

Therefore, I hope that you and everyone ese here, will take my comments
in the spirit in which they're meant.

Back when I was in high school (three weeks after they had invented
fire!?!) there were several of us who got involved in shortwave
listening. One fellow had a National SW-54 (as I remember), another had
a Hammarlund HQ-100, another had a Blaupunkt, another had a Grundig,
one particularly wealthy fellow had a Zenith Trans-Oceanic (a tube
model), and I, being the "poorest," had an old Philco console. (But I
had the best antenna and ground!)

Later, after high school, I was able to save up enough money to buy a
Lafayette HE-10, a Lafayette HE-11 speaker, and a pair of Clevite Brush
BA-200 headphones. Total price was $102.60 (and NO sales tax at the
time!). I still have them all and they are still in superb condition -
they work as well as they did when new. (I had the receiver last
aligned and tested about fifteen years ago. The technician stated at
the time that, while he made some adjustments, they were all very minor
and the internals were really in very fine shape.)

I used that set as my main receiver up until 2000 when I got a Grundig
Satellit 800. In 2004 I purchased my AOR AR7030 Plus, which was
customized by the factory.

I have to tell you that, though I still "trot out" the Lafayette once
or twice a year (for old-times' sake) and though I never had a great
deal of experience with most of the better tube shortwave sets (I did
have an acquaintance later on who owned a Hammarlund HQ-180A which I
listened to quite a bit until he moved away), there is ABSOLUTELY NO
WAY I would ever go back to those tube sets for daily use.

For collection purposes, for impressive "looks," and for "cachet," they
can't be beat. But NONE of them can even approach the performance of my
AR7030 Plus and that includes sound quality. I run my AOR through my
Hafler DH-101 Preamplifier and my Hafler DH-200 Power Amplifier into my
Klipschorn speakers and, as the man said, "you ain't heard nothing
yet!"

Even with my cheap ($29.95) Radio Shack RCA-labeled external speaker,
which I use when listening to news or talk programs, the sound is far
better and far more intelligible than that of my Lafayette or any other
tube radio I have ever heard.

I hate to "bust" anybody's bubble, and please note that I have the
greatest respect for others' serious opinions which may differ from
mine, but it is my firm opinion that today's shortwave receivers are
far, far better than anything I could have bought, regardless of price,
back in 1958.

They're far more reliable too. You younger guys can't remember a time
when the radio/tv repairman was like a member of the family. He came to
your house more often than your favorite uncle!

I often wish that I could have a "time machine" and take one of today's
radios back to that young kid who was just starting out in shortwave
back in 1958. He'd have been absolutely astounded!

But I do agree with those who state that those radios looked better
than today's and their tuning knobs, heavily fly-weighted, were far
more pleasurable to use than todays "lightweights."

However, nostalgia aside, they just don't perform like today's!

Best,

Joe (Opinionated but Lovable)