Table Top Tube Radio? I am listening to my first tube item ever, a table top Zenith mono radio, and as always I find myself simply LOVING the tone and simple pleasure of it all....the clarity, especially when the NPR classical DJ's speak is awesome...
Now I put my Telefunken Opus in the LR and put in mono and its a lot nicer than in stereo...I think Stereo is a waste when the speakers are so close togather like in a table radio....
Zenith made quite a few mono FM radios between 1940 and 1982. Which one do you have? I'd guess the C845, as this radio was one of Zenith's best monophonic table radios. First introduced in 1960, the C845 has eight tubes and two speakers, an 8" main driver and a 5" tweeter, driven by a 35C5 output tube, so yes, your set will sound every bit as good as you say it does. My own C845 sounds excellent, better than almost every other FM radio in my collection except perhaps for my Zenith MJ1035, which is set up for stereo FM, or my Aiwa bookshelf system which has three-way speakers (woofer, tweeter and powered subwoofer).
Your comments regarding stereo being "a waste" when the speakers are only a foot or less apart from each other are right on the mark. I have a so-called "stereo" clock radio by Zenith that is only perhaps a foot long, +/- an inch or two, with small speakers at either end of the cabinet; the only way I can get really good stereo sound from it is by using headphones, as the cabinet is much too small [!] for anything close to decent stereo separation. The irony of it is that the radio sold for close to $150 or so when it was new, over 25 years ago; for that price I'd have expected better stereo performance than what I got from it through its tiny speakers.
The foregoing applies not only to today's small imported stereo systems, particularly headphone stereos, but also "MTS stereo" equipped stereo televisions, as the latter are almost always equipped with small speakers not much better than the puny drivers in transistor radios; in the table models they are only a few inches to a foot or so apart. The stereo effect is probably very difficult to realize with the speakers so close together; however, unfortunately, the only stereo TVs that can even approach proper stereo separation are sets in large console cabinets and the large stereo AM/FM/phono consoles that were in cabinets six or seven feet long. These sets are capable of amazing sound fidelity (as good as the state of the art allowed at the time they were made), but the drawback is you need a living room/family room/den the size of the state of Texas to put them in, because they are so big.
BTW, I wish there were some way I could switch my Zenith MJ1035 into mono mode; as it is, the radio has no provisions for manual stereo/mono switching. The only way this receiver will operate in monophonic is if a mono FM station is tuned in. Most if not all FM stations in my area, 35 miles east of Cleveland, and probably across the U.S. as well, transmit in full stereo these days. I am not aware of any mono FM stations here or anywhere near here; even the college/NPR stations (even the translator for an NPR outlet 60 miles from me) are stereo, as is a small big-band/standards station operated by a school district in the next county south of here. I'm convinced that mono FM is pretty much a dead duck these days, except
maybe for stations in very small one-horse towns.
) and internet music. I was even forced to go out and buy a decent set of bookshelf speakers for my computer table. The shame... 
