[Arran]

That was part pf what began my interest in tube battery radios, the variety of circuit designs, especially by Grimes-Phonola/Electrohome who manufactured private label radios for most of the catalog retailers like Eatons, Simpsons, and the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as MacLeod's Hardware. Even with the sets with 1.4 volt tubes there was more consideration in the front end designs, many had untuned RF amplifier stages, as well as extra IF amplifiers, so they were decent DX machines, audio was comparable to a transistor portable of the 1950s or 60s, and better then a transistor pocket radio.
Most of the other sets I had before were post war AC/DC sets, and other then the odd one having an RF amplifier stage, or a shortwave band, they were all similar, with similar problems. The majority also had boring Bakelite or plastic cabinets, but most of the battery sets had fancier wood ones, and were of a similar size. Every AC/DC set had power supply problems, filter caps were bad 90% of the time, dead pilot lamps, dead rectifiers, charred resistors, but I quickly discovered that I didn't have to deal with that with battery sets, all I needed was one or two working supplies of my own to get them going.
Also because I was mostly interested in pre war sets it was one way to acquire some on a budget, as most people did not want to bother with a set they could not just plug in. I guess the best part was that many were just put in a closet, and nobody tampered with them, if anyone wants to know what the underside of a typical radio looked like from then, these area good way to tell since they ran cool, and at lower voltages, so nothing get cooked in them.
Regards
Arran