10-09-2013, 12:06 PM
Midwest sets were often referred to as "the poor man's Scott."
I have never owned an earlier Midwest like the one you are looking at, but I do have an early-40s Midwest 181. My impressions are:
1. Construction of chassis was sloppier than many other sets, cheap components, many out of spec. Must be careful when replacing/soldering due to close proximity of other components.
2. Cabinet was solid, unlike what I have heard from others who have re-finished earlier models and reported that Midwest globbed a lot of finish on cabinet to hide shoddy construction.
3. Reception with an external antenna is excellent!! The thing is a flame-thrower. The outstanding reception is the reason I am keeping it, and have a Howard 7-tube FM converter hooked up to it.
4. Sound quality, with the large speaker and small tweeter, is good but for an 18-tube set with 4-6V6 output tubes I expected much more. My Magnavox with the 4-6V6s has much better sound quality.
I have never owned an earlier Midwest like the one you are looking at, but I do have an early-40s Midwest 181. My impressions are:
1. Construction of chassis was sloppier than many other sets, cheap components, many out of spec. Must be careful when replacing/soldering due to close proximity of other components.
2. Cabinet was solid, unlike what I have heard from others who have re-finished earlier models and reported that Midwest globbed a lot of finish on cabinet to hide shoddy construction.
3. Reception with an external antenna is excellent!! The thing is a flame-thrower. The outstanding reception is the reason I am keeping it, and have a Howard 7-tube FM converter hooked up to it.
4. Sound quality, with the large speaker and small tweeter, is good but for an 18-tube set with 4-6V6 output tubes I expected much more. My Magnavox with the 4-6V6s has much better sound quality.
