[Jayce]

This should have really been no contest, but things haven't turned out the way I planned. I got the RCA 19K rebuilt and was going to use it in the house for my bedroom console over the winter. Sadly, it seems this radio will need to be cracked back open once the weather warms up again. It plays, but is very touchy on the tuning and makes a lot of noise between the stations. In comparison the 'barely restored' Crosley 819M I have basically wipes the floor with this RCA the way things stand right now. My antenna for it is just bunch of thin wire connected and dropped into a heap beside the console and it is sucking in stations all over the dial with very good selectivity on all bands. Also, the small transformer on the 19K warms up a lot quicker than I'd like, meaning I will need to get a resistor installed to drop the modern voltage for it. Seems RCA was taking a note from Zenith's book in 1940 and using rather small transformers!
Really, the 819M would almost be a choice for my bedroom radio over the 19K even if the 19K was perfect right now just due to the design. No transformer to overheat and I think it's a cheaper radio to run tube and power demand-wise. Unfortunately, the Crosley is almost 30 inches wide! That's three inches wider than the 19K which sort of doesn't fit where I want it. Well, that and you can't really put anything on top of the Crosley due to its shape. Hmm... maybe a rethink is in mind. I really do like the beast...

[Eliot Ness]

My vote is to make room for the Crosley just because it's a pretty cool set that isn't very common.  In nice condition these are stunning radios:
   

Not sure how much (if any) you'll save on your electric bill listening to a 7 vs 11 tuber, but sometimes tube count doesn't always equal better performance.  I plugged in my little 4 tube Detrola cathedral a while back and was shocked at the number of stations that little guy was bringing in with a 2 foot antenna.

[Arran]

Jayce;
  The RCA obviously still has a problem, and if it's making scratching noises whilst you are trying to tune it I think that means that whomever worked on it last either caused that problem or didn't give it a long enough "dry run" to notice it before handing it back to you. I would have a look at the plates in the tuning cap, and also the ground braid, see if there is anything rubbing.
 I've never had an RCA of any model that was a bad performer once it was properly restored, even some unrestored ones were still hot sets. I haven't had much experience with Crosley's, at least the ones Powell Crosley's company made, Deforest Crosleys yes, but those are basically a Rogers from 1932 onward, they were another set I've never been disappointed with much like the RCAs. The few Crosley's I've had were AC/DC sets, whilst they were built on the cheap side they always seemed to work well, good circuit selection I suppose.
 Philcos have been a bit of a let down to me at times, harder to work on, and not always wonderful perfomers even when they you thought they should be. Philco seemed to complicate things just to avoid using certain circuits in order to dodge paying royalties, in some case I really wonder how much they saved with the extra components they had to add.
Regards
Arran

[Jayce]

The RCA made it through the dry run ok, but started having issues after I hauled it back home. Figure something got rattled in there somewhere or a resistor went bad. Even my late radio friend had to occasionally pull radios back apart because something would fail or somehow drift after a full restoration. Even new parts can sometimes go bad. I will admit, we did this more with Philcos than most other brands. He hated Philcos because of all the additional capacitors, capacitor blocks, and bathtubs under the chassis. He loved his Zeniths though. Actually, if nothing was majorly wrong, he could punch out a rebuild on an average Zenith for around $50 for me. If it was a Philco, looking closer at $100. He'd love my Crosley 819M. Big, roomy chassis with virtually nothing under it. Very simple looking underneath.

[Paul Philco322]

Put the little plastic Admiral in your room, it is sure to fit!

Paul

[Jayce]

I already have the little plastic Admiral in my room. Nice little radio indeed! Just looking for a capable shortwave radio to put with it. I could put the RCA 15K down here as it is actually about the right size to fit. Of course, the 15K can also blow all the walls out of the room!