Jim, I agree with you on the C2. The OP had a comment about the Gentleman wanting a "big-old" radio, and I wanted to mention a few without going back to the early 60s Great rigs then, but there are some real nice ones out there that have some nice features and performance (I love the C2 and would take another on right now), but there are a lotta nice things available, such as an S-Line, or even a Drake TR7. A TT Omni V with filters is hard to beat.
Well, "big-old" is in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? And the TT CW performance is hard to beat.
I agree about the Omni V. They're really coming down in price, too.
The thing about stuff like the S-line (which is early 1960s design) and the TR-7 is that they're not inexpensive. Particularly ones in good shape with all the filters and such.
73 de Jim, N2EY