Beautifully Ugly! A Homebrew Receiver from the Netherlands (video)

This one is similar to the receiver I've been working on:  middle of the HF band, discrete components, all analog, 455 kc IF, wooden chassis, eclectic circuit boards.  Very cool.

The builder is Ko Tilman.  His YouTube channel is here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqe1Y4StR9cZ8BQDWuoMq9w

I came across Ko's channel when I was looking for a circuit for an AM detector.   I have been  experimenting with the standard one diode and two diode (Germanium) circuits, but the receiver doesn't sound very good when using these circuits.   Any recommendations for something a bit better (without getting carried away with complexity)?


About Ko Tilman:

Ko Tilman (1955) lives in the Netherlands and is active in electronics since 1967. His focus is on analog electronics, audio, shortwave radio's, small (solar) energy systems and measurement and control systems. He is the author of "Retro Radio", Isbn 978-90-5381-234-1, published by Elektor International Media in the Netherlands. In this book (Dutch text) you will find several simple schematics from Shortwave radio's (2 MHz - 16 MHz), including radio's with SSB reception. His long time knowledge about small audio systems (for household use) is available in his book "Schematics 2, audio amplifiers and loudspeaker boxes ", available on this website (a summary of the content is visible). Also in an E-book format: Isbn 978-1-4475-7336-4. In the past (2008-2010) he was active on You Tube under the name "radioam232", now he is active on Youtube as "radiofun232". A free download from the activities in the "radioam232" period is available on this website in the content "blueprints 1".

Ko's Books: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/radioam232