[Arran]

Yes, I don't expect any great performance on the 111. My 112 is not particularly sensitive. Doesn't make much difference when you just listen to a couple local stations or my SSTRANS. Just like the styling.

Your experience does not reflect mine with an early AC superhet, most of the ones I restored are both quite sensitive and selective thanks to the lower If frequencies. If your set is insensitive then there could be a number of reasons, one reason may be that it needs a complete allignment. Another maybe that the carbon resistors have drifted so far off that the tube voltages are way off and gain is severely limited, it could also be weak tubes, a poor grid cap solder connection, or a flakey grid cap lead with an internal break in the wire. I think that Bruce may have been refering to the audio performance rather then the receiver performance, which would be pretty average for the time since most consoles in that era came with the same sort of push pull power output stage, a pair of push pull 45s, the high end sets used type 50s and later 2A3s.
Regards
Arran