Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dave Zantow (N9EWO), who has recently posted his review of the AOR AR-DV1 digital voice receiver.
As with many of Dave’s reviews, this evaluation takes a close look at HF and mediumwave performance which isn’t the AR-DV1’s strong suit. Dave notes:
“[Though] not what the receiver was designed for, RF performance on MW / HF bands (and the terrible audio quality) are mediocre at best.”
Click here to read Dave’s review.
Thanks, Dave! Your review reflects comments I’ve received from some Post readers who’ve purchased the AR-DV1 as well. Many were particularly upset with the audio quality. Of course, the AR-DV1 is marketed as a digital voice receiver, thus audio likely favors “narrow” voice audio.
I own a DV-1 and agree with Dave’s review. On VHF/UHF, it’s a good receiver and handles analogue and digital modes well. However, I find that analogue FM can sound very thin – it sounds like the audio filtering is very narrow.
On MF/HF, the only way to get spurious-free coverage is to use a preselector. This is a pain as it’s an extra knob to twiddle as you tunr. However, once you get one in line the receiver is pretty decent if not brilliant. I have other RX’s to handle these lower bands bands though.
Comparison with the ICOM 8600 is not very fair as there is a huge price difference. Also the ICOM does not decode DMR transmissions which are very common here in the UK.
Performance aside, it looks like a shower radio. Not a good look IMO.