[BDM]

Ron, I might be interested in talking with him on my cabinets. BTW gents, I aligned up that Zenith 9-S-264 shutter dial chassis #5905 tonight, along with another chassis from a 9-S-262. Same chassis. Both work quite well with a nice dial calibration. But, and a big but. Zenith really blows when it comes to actual RF alignment ability, or the lack thereof!

Well, sorry, but the 650 walks away from it on SW. I mean there is a noticeable difference in sensitivity and selectivity. Now to be fair, I really tweaked those IFs tight on the Zeniths. In the BCB they're close, but it's still obvious to the discriminating ear the Philco has it here also. Now one big thing the Philco has over this Zenith is selectivity. It's somewhat hard to tune WABC next to 760 WJR with the Zenith, easy with the Philco. Both have excellent sound quality though I like the lighter base response from the Philco. Add to this it's capable of more undistorted volume with it's P-P audio section.

Of course the Zenith has one H**l'of a nice looking dial. Hard to beat for me. Also I find the Philco easy to tune around with compared to the shutter dial. It's slowed incremental tuning makes for a long wrist-twist as you tune around. The dial motor works, but it's been my experience as they heat up from use they naturally slow down. Sometimes to the point of not working. Terrible if you're cruising the bands. Bottom line is the Philco may not be as pretty too many, but it's a far better driver! I've also played with other makes/models like RCAs "T" series higher tube count sets. Very nice sets also and I would say the equal of any of the Philco's in their class. The Zenith performs nice, very nice. But the 650 seems like it's hot-rodded in comparison.

Granted, I'm doing a very un-scientific test. I probably could have used my scope and really looked at these sets in operation, maybe some other time. I wanted to test them in the drivers seat. I consider the 650 pretty much a comparable set to the 9 Zenith shutter dials.

Zenith shutter dial
Better looking dial arrangement;

Poorer performance in sensitivity and especially selectivity;

Very good sound quality, more distortion at higher volumes and poorer bass response IMHO;

Pain in the "arss" to band cruise with;

Philco 650
Average looking dial though not bad. Very easy to read;

Better performance in sensitivity & selectivity;

Very good sound quality with better base response and less distortion at higher volume levels;

A "user friendly" set to band cruise with through and through;

Bottom line, both sets seem to perform nicely. I've played with far worse models that some folks consider good

Sorry for this rambling but I'm thinking out loud again. I'll post a vid of one of these Zeniths tomorrow. The average Joe wouldn't probably never make note of these differences, but I'm silly stupid about a sets performance. Since both Zeniths performed almost exactly the same, I made no reference between these two sets. It only confirms with me that they're working as they should. Hope you enjoyed my not so scientific rambling analysis