Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Tom Ally, who writes:
[Grundig/Eton] radios are going back down in price. [This] isn’t the lowest price I have seen for the Grundig Satellit 750, but now is a good time to get this model if you don’t have it as that is not a bad price!
Thanks for the tip, Tom! $296.99 US shipped is indeed a good price. Most retailer list them well into the $300 price range at time of posting.
Post Readers: Do you own the ‘750? Please comment on its performance.
I only paid 150.00 for my 750.
I always check out eham.net reviews when possible too. At least they are from hams for the most part.
And with Amazon reviews, be sure to differentiate between verified buyer and non-verified buyer review.
Thanks for the comments guys regarding possible “jaded” Amazon reviews, my eyes have been opened.
anon-co.com at “the back door” of Tecsun shows USD$255 on their 750 [ see TECSUN S-2000 ] website, though about USD$50-60 shipping means same as retail in the U.S.
I’m suspicious of any radio with rack handles that doesn’t cost several thousand dollars.
…..and still not worth it at that price ?
My comment regards marketing and selling practices of Amazon. As I write this comment the Amazon page for the Eton Satellit 750 lists 823 customer reviews with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars. Closer examination of the page shows that these ratings are a combined rating for five different Eton “Grundig” radios sold on the same page. If each customer review is looked at individually the radio model number is listed under the “color” entry. Star ratings for the 750 at Amazon seem to be lower than 4 stars. Pricing at Amazon is determined by an algorithm designed to yield the highest profit over a selected time interval. Prices will change on a weekly or daily basis. Sometimes Amazon prices will actually be lower for the same item sold by the same seller on eBay, but not often. What does this mean? Who knows. Amazon prices for the Sangean ATS-909X have risen since the weeks before Christmas. Amazon prices for prices for the Tecsun PL880 rose after Christmas and fell again.
You bring up a good point about Amazon reviews in general. Quite often, you’ll see “combined” reviews for various products. It’s frustrating an inaccurate–you certainly can’t rely on the “star” value.
What’s worse, though, is there’s a whole cottage industry based on Amazon reviews. Companies (not Amazon proper) directly pay people to either create fake positive reviews or they reimburse them for purchases to appear “verified” and they create a positive review.
It’s actually pretty easy to spot the shills. Especially when something has a 5 star rating with only a handful of reviews and each review lacks any sort of substance.
I am in complete agreement with you. Caveat emptor.
You got that right…I made a few cursory remarks about the
Sangean DT-160 having soft mute and got my head handed
to me on a platter.
Comments on a book were even worse,the guy was frantic
in his desire to be right.
IIRC Amazon gives free points or something now so they can
get free stuff for “correct” reviews so watch out,take those
“reviews” with a large grain of salt and don’t comment
whatever you do.
As for the 750,see the Eham.com reviews.
Basically a good rig (had one,sent it back) but with the usual
Tecsun lack of QC,freq. off on FM,etc.
A good portable like the 7600GR does as well and is more
“handy”…the 750 is essentially a portable in a big box with
a super-thin speaker grill (at least that one was).
Only thing “impressive” is the size.
Don’t even get me started on the reviews on amazon as you ought to see the problems with reviews on tv shows that are not even out yet.
Too many times I see people leave 1 star reviews for stuff that is not even out yet due to it being too high for pre-order or some other reasons other then having actually bought the stuff.
Happens a lot with movies and tv shows that are tight lipped about extras or one of a kind editions that are marked high for a reason or a few other reasons.
I agree that prices on Amazon vary all over the place. Just yesterday they had a etching printer for $25 off the already low price but the sale only lasted for a few hours. I use a website called CamelCamel to track prices especially for Amazon. You set a price you want to pay and when the price falls below that it will send you an email notice. It will also give you a graph of prices of an item over the past few years. I have used for several years and has worked great.
Another Thomas
Wow–thanks everyone for the input. Tom, you certainly snagged the 750 as a bargain at $243!
That’s interesting to note about the 800 and 750 comparisons, Dan.
And thanks for the note about HRO carrying the 750 for $299 with free shipping–quite honestly, I keep forgetting HRO stocks shortwave radios, Ken! They should sponsor us here on the SWLing Post–put in a good word, will ya!?!! 🙂
I like supporting retailers like HRO, Universal, ML&S, Durham, proper radio retailers.
I’ve never bothered purchasing or reviewing the 750 mainly because it’s an “in between” radio for me. Not super portable, yet not fully a tabletop. It is at a decent price point for someone who wants the features of a tabletop (proper encoder, etc.) without paying a tabletop price. My shack space is limited, so radios have to be benchmark in performance to displace something else.
-Thomas
ML&S is
ML&S Martin Lynch and Sons Ltd
http://www.hamradio.co.uk/
among the many abbreviations that Tom uses.
And now the 750 has been price-changed to $399.95 at HRO, so maybe reports of the 750’s impending demise were premature?
http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-009425
i’ve had a 750 for several years now, and i’ve always been impressed with the performance on SW given the price. in it’s initial few years there were serious QA issues where one unit would perform well and another would be deaf on SW. MW performance is less than brilliant, though, with typically very poor S/N ratios on weak-ish signals.
i just hope tecsun replaces it with something even better. there really aren’t many good ‘normal’ receivers in that price range with that level of performance. IMO, of course.
There was a rep from Eton who presented at the Winter SWL Fest a number of years ago. It was as the Satellit 800 was being discontinued and the 750 was being brought to market. By his own admission, the performance of the 750 would not match the 800. Many may remember that the 800 was brought to market with design help from Drake. That said, I never purchased a 750 and still own my 800.
Ham Radio Outlet has been selling this radio for $299 for several months (at least), also with free shipping or available for pick-up in any of their 13 store fronts.
http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-009425
I owned one briefly 6 years ago. It was a good radio, but not great. The AM was not as strong as my Sangean PR-D5 in spite of the external antenna. It took a while to learn how to use. It took up a lot of table space. I liked it though because it looked cool, but after it lost in an AM comparison to my 60 dollar Sangean PR-D5 I sold it. I wonder if new models of the 750 have a DSP chip for stronger FM.
Oh! oh! is this a precursor to it being discontinued? prices tend to drop like this prior to the model discontinuation. This is the gold standard for currently available shortwave receivers. I would like to see a comparative review to a Tecsun.
$268 at Christmas time.
August 7, 2013 I bought it for $243.38 +shipping