[Arran]

Why would anyone think this radio was intended to sit on a floor is beyond me, that would assume it would sit under a desk with the sound projecting at about ankle level. With loctal tube I must be luck, I've seldom had contact problems, but then again I have a habit of buffing the pins with 600 grit sandpaper, or 0000 steel wool, if I think they look off. The only problem I had related to loctals was with some wide wafer sockets in an early 40s Transitone model, most of the others are molded.
Poor performance could be faulty mica caps in the IF cans, or a gassy tube, particularly the audio output tube. Could also be a drifted resistor, but I think you would have found that with the recapping job, the plate load resistor on the 1st audio tube could cause this.
Regards
Arran