Yes, fair comment. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating! But I do note the comment in QST that they went to great effort to keep the capacitance around the crystal low, even making a
special holder made out of the material "
isolantite", a ceramic and now a tradename. I'll be trying to re-use the HRO xtal, and the one I have is the one with
solder tags on opposite sides of the unit as distinct from the plug it one that many sets used. Given the tiny relays now available, maybe one of those could be used to short the crystal?
The HRO lives in a bedroom which also has a quite nice Roberts radio, so that could offer some music, but if I crave a a few tracks from Joni, it will be downstairs and go to my trusty NAD's
.
B