Boy, this is a question that could require a lot of beers among friends to
fully explore.

Fred Osterman's Third Edition "Receivers Past and Present" (now out of
print), is a good source of information to curl up in front of the warm
winter fire and memorize.

The fact is that modern high end solid state receivers are better than the
older tube models. They have product detectors, 1 Hz stability and readout
and some even have dsp. However, you want a tube model. There is an
implication that you want the tube model based upon nostalgia and/or
aesthetics. Those values are subjective, so you will need to see how the
radio makes you feel and what features bring joy to you.

I have some radios that use multi-position switches to tune in a station.
They are excellent for tuning in stations at a known frequency, but terrible
for "tuning around". Some look great in a rack, while others look great in
their original cabinet. Tuning in sideband or cw is great with a product
detector. I like to use full avc on cw, but others like the manual gain
control. In short, it is all subjective. I recently purchased an old
Lafayette KT-200 radio for $25 (that is the S-38 wanna-be with s-meter).
Got it working and was shocked that, with the rf amplifier working full
strength on the broadcast band, it is probably the best broadcast band
receiver I have with a short antenna.

For short wave listening, I like the radios with push-pull audio, so if that
is a big interest, look for radios with push-pull audio. The old SX-62 was
not bad for audio, but not a good all around communications receiver.

The RA-17 is unique because it uses a Barlow-Wadley loop for stability. The
390A has a number of wonderful features and a lot of die hard supporters.

In the end, many collectors find that no radio is perfect. So, they collect
as many as they can. Collectively, they have all the features they want.
This requires a large room - preferably a heated museum. Better to be able
to turn them all on at once, with a multi-antenna switch.

Now, where is the beer.

Colin K7FM