For long-distance reception and good sound quality, nothing beats an older Zenith radio--the original Zenith Radio Corporation of Chicago did not cut corners with any of their sets.
I'm not familiar with yours, but I have three wood-cabinet Zeniths (K731, C845 and an MJ1035) that pull in stations like crazy (using just the line-cord antennas) and sound great, although the MJ1035 has volume control issues; it plays, brings in stations like a magnet, but to hear the darn thing you have to have your ear right up against the speaker! I'm looking for a replacement for that control (a 1-megohm dual potentiometer), but haven't found one yet. I'm wondering if those pots are even available anymore.
If your Zenith in fact was one of the originals, made before the company began outsourcing to the Orient (!), I'd hang on to it. They don't make them like that anymore. (I say this all the time about older Zenith radios, so it probably sounds like a cliche by now, but being a collector of older Zeniths I believe it.)
The cabinet looks like it's in poor shape, but I think it can be refinished. That the radio still works and is in one piece after falling off a shelf speaks volumes for the excellent build quality of the older Zenith receivers. (The sets made in Korea and Taiwan would likely be ruined if they fell off anything more than a foot or two off the ground.) I have a Zenith R-70 solid-state AM/FM eleven-transistor portable with almost the entire radio on one PC board; a fall from any height could ruin it (or at least cause severe damage
) in no time flat. My Zenith MJ1035 arrived at my apartment (I got it from an AK member in Arizona last year) with two controls very loose on the chassis, but amazingly, the set still worked. However, the power switch, which is mounted on the tone control, was one of the loose ones; it kept getting pushed in (to the off position) every time I tried to reset it. To make a
very long story as short as possible, the chassis was in and out of its cabinet so many times (from having to reset the switch) I must have pulled a connection or two off the volume control, which is probably (even likely) causing the low-volume problem I'm having now with the radio. Believe me, though, if it weren't for that, this radio would be sounding absolutely fabulous with its two-way speaker system and the matching stereo extension speaker.
Hang in there with your Z426M1. As I said, this may well have been one of the last radios made by the original Zenith Radio Corporation before they started outsourcing, and is worth keeping. You say it sounds good and has good sensitivity, so it seems like you won't have to do much, if anything, inside the cabinet. Refinish the latter and you will have a radio that will serve you well for many years to come. These old sets were worthy, IMHO, of Zenith's trademark slogan of years ago: The quality goes in before the name goes on.