Yesm it would be an odd suggestion as a sweeping assertion. But a tuner always doesn't have to be the 'best available' to deliver good results. Nor are the requirements for mono the same as for stereo. So this isn't a simple best/rubbish binary.
Dear Jim,
I would agree that the last word in technical perfection does not always equate to an enjoyable listening experience.
When a youngster, I bought an HMV Model 102 portable gramophone [£4 from a junk shop in 1972], and it was so far from hifi that you could wonder about it! But it gave me years of pleasure playing hundreds of 78s that I found. There seemed a sort of directness in connecting to the live four or five minute takes engraved directly into wax. I never noticed the surface noise, the occasional thump as the spring unwound itself, or the need to change the record perhaps 10 times for a whole Beethoven Symphony! In reality it worked better on 78s than most electrical record players designed for LPs.
Not my one.
My old Troughline [working as noted in mono, which I prefer anyway] has similar qualities of directness on live relays, but without the surface noise, or side changes, and if you listened just to the ESL without sight of the electronics, most people I am sure, would not guess that the radio is actually from the 1950s.
Now I have not put it side by side with a more modern tuner. Why would I? I am not that curious, but over the years I have owned three solid state tuners, and each gave me huge pleasure. Now the Troughline is doing the same. It is the most solid on station of any of them once warmed up, and after ten or twenty minutes requires no tweaking of the tuning control, thought is terribly sensitive to being marginally off. Much more so than the solid state ones, but on station it is grand. Now I don't know how it would measure beside newer ones, but I do know it does the business for me, and those who have heard it here have been in each case surprised just how well it works. Almost like they find it hard to believe anything could be that good six decades ago.
The specific reason I tracked down an original first variant was because I knew that no provision for a stereo decoder was incorporated. Thus most people avoid them and a good one [cosmetically] will be much cheaper as well. For most people mono is curio at best and technically inferior by definition. Also the original Troughline had a sold copper actual Troughline compared to copper plated mild steel in the later variants, which [copper trough] is actually better at stability on station. I had a Tr III [a pair in fact] and these required the use of the [switchable] AFC to retain stability.
So in my case at least I have the ideal radio for my application. Evening concerts are an almost daily thing with it, and the Proms start on Friday!
What is a little sad is when the discussion about these things becomes too binary. Of course a discussion of technical quality is not only interesting, but useful. it is not a question of the oldies being rubbish as such or useless, or whatever, but rather whether they do what they were made for and give pleasure playing music, or a good play ...
For me I get a huge kick out of something old but good, such as my classic Carlton bike, which is quick, responsive and stable, but is it competitive with a modern road bike? Of course not, just like an E-type is not competitive with a modern sports car!
Best wishes from George
