07-04-2012, 01:22 AM
Jayce;
By the way, with regard to it kicking a brand Z set's butt I'm not surprised. RCA, much like Philco, put a lot of money into engineering, research, and development, on top of that they also benefited from the developments coming out of G.E's research department from time to time as well. RCA thought of themselves as the industry standard and backed it up with solid no nonsense products. Performance came first, styling came second, marketing came third.
Brand Z came up with flashy styling and marketing gimicks, chassis with metalic paint stuffed with lots of tubes, impressive looks, and marketing gimmicks, you can tell that their boss was a car salesman. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his nose out of the engineering department so they ended up with stupid things like undersized power transformers, extra rectifier tubes, using three tubes where RCA would have used one, etc., it was all about making the sale. Even in the 1000Z Stratosphere it was as though the front end for the short wave bands was an afterthought, it's actually quite embarassing given that they were supposed to be the flagship model. It wasn't that they couldn't make a decent set, the Transoceanics prove that, it's just that they had an autocratic layman, who didn't know one end of a soldering iron from another, micromanaging everything.
Philco on the other hand, was run by a former chemical engineer, RCA by a former radiotelegraph operator, neither were marketing men but understood the importance of producing the best performing product for the price.
Regards
Arran
By the way, with regard to it kicking a brand Z set's butt I'm not surprised. RCA, much like Philco, put a lot of money into engineering, research, and development, on top of that they also benefited from the developments coming out of G.E's research department from time to time as well. RCA thought of themselves as the industry standard and backed it up with solid no nonsense products. Performance came first, styling came second, marketing came third.
Brand Z came up with flashy styling and marketing gimicks, chassis with metalic paint stuffed with lots of tubes, impressive looks, and marketing gimmicks, you can tell that their boss was a car salesman. Unfortunately he couldn't keep his nose out of the engineering department so they ended up with stupid things like undersized power transformers, extra rectifier tubes, using three tubes where RCA would have used one, etc., it was all about making the sale. Even in the 1000Z Stratosphere it was as though the front end for the short wave bands was an afterthought, it's actually quite embarassing given that they were supposed to be the flagship model. It wasn't that they couldn't make a decent set, the Transoceanics prove that, it's just that they had an autocratic layman, who didn't know one end of a soldering iron from another, micromanaging everything.
Philco on the other hand, was run by a former chemical engineer, RCA by a former radiotelegraph operator, neither were marketing men but understood the importance of producing the best performing product for the price.
Regards
Arran