[Arran]

Ron;
I think you may like the Channel Master after you get it going, those were built by Sanyo, and whilst they are notorious for using poor quality electrolytics with a plastic shell, many of them have a tuned RF amplifier stage, so they are good sets for DX. The one I have also has a shortwave band, after I recap it I will have to give it a DX shootout with my two Sony sets from the same era, which also have a TRF amplifier stage.
Distortion from speakers is quite common, it's usually caused by a warped cone which caused the voice coil to rub on the pole piece, to fix it involve removing the dust cover, inserting shims between the voice coil and pole piece, and wetting the cone, and often the spider as well. It's not something for ham fisted people to even think about. This is one of the sub projects I will have to deal with on my Bush DAC-90A, the spider has come loose from the frame on it's Celestion speaker, the cone is perfect however, it too has a 6'' speaker even though it's only an AC/DC set with a single ended output.
Regards
Arran