The PHILCO Phorum

a casual look at both schematics and parts lists seems to suggest that these are the same radio with different tubes. if that is the case is the later 37-84 a better radio and if so how much better and in what ways ?

Same basic radio, different tubes. The 84 uses standard base tubes while the 37-84 uses the octal equivalents of those same tubes.

84 tube to the left, 37-84 tube to the right below:

77 --- 6J7G
77 --- 6J7G
42 --- 6F6G
80 --- 5Y4G