Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Jeff McMahon, who notes that he’s recently published a short review of the Tecsun PL-880 on his blog, The Herculodge.
Jeff has discovered something that portable radio enthusiasts have known for more than a decade: the PL-880 sports some of the best audio fidelity in a modern portable radio!
His review prompted me to search for my original review of the PL-880. It turns out I published it in December 2013. Has it really been over 11 years since the PL-880 was introduced? It’s hard to believe—but I’ll admit it still holds its own. I’ll never let mine go.
The AM and SW on my 880 quit after about two years. There were indications of a cold solder, a short or some type of electro mechanical problem. It will cost more to repair than it is worth. I have a PL 660, a 680 and a S8800, which is not sold in Canada but is via Anon in Hong Kong. With almost all my Tecsun radios, there seem to be obvious quality control issues.. The least problematic is the 380 or the 606. Ana at Anon is extremely helpful and goes above and beyond to help Anon customers. If she had any power to fix the quality control issue, it would be fixed. Until then, it’s hard to beat the quality control of C Crane radios. Of course, their radios cost considerably more.
As Michael mentioned the 880 is loaded with bass.The audio is great,I think for music,however when listening to the spoken word on Shortwave frequencies and AM broadcasts I have tried to limit that bass and boost the treble but I cannot to much of a degree.Maybe I’m missing something in the settings,or does it fall under the “HIDDEN” settings.IF anyone has input on this issue,I’d sure like to know and THANKS.I am not too fond of headphone wearing but I guess that would cut the speaker out but would prefer it to be a setting that I have not discovered yet.Thanks,again
Yes Michael,I have the same beef,too much bass.which is fine for music but not voice clarity.I don’t think that we are alone on that issue.If any readers can come up with a setting that we have overlooked,it would be appreciated by many 880 users,without donning headphones.Thanks
I never bought a Tecsun PL-880 because there was such a WIDE divergence in reviews, and I found it odd that so many owners reported the official manual lacked multiple “undocumented” settings.
When the price was reduced I did buy the earlier double speaker Tecsun PL-390 and do not regret it, although the WONKY digital volume control does require a shot of DeOxit every so often.
It would be a complete radio, if this Tecsun pl-880 had all inclusive AM/SW/Air Band/LW/better synchronous detection,/FM ( Europe, Japan, North American bands),..
https://www.tecsunradios.com.au/store/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Tecsun-PL-880-Dec14.pdf
Hello Friend.
I am from Pakistan and a short wave Radio Listener
The PL-880 was updated in 2024 with an USB C charging ports as compared to the old USB Micro. I don’t know if any updates were done to the internal circuitry. It would be great to make a comparison between the old PL-880 and the new using the same antenna at the same time.
The review does not refer at all to shortwave, which is where these types of receivers show their flaws. It is due to the employed type of IC (the SiLabs Si47xx) series that the audio quality of shortwave stations is severely degraded. These chips have sub-optimal AGC that reacts improperly to the changes in the signal strength, which is almost unavoidable in SWLing. The received sound becomes clipped, distorted (sometimes rendering it incomprehensible), and on top of that there’s the ‘pumping’ effect – none of it should appear on a properly designed radio, and in fact it does not. This is a ‘feature’ found only in Si47xx DSP-based radios, no matter the brand or model, be it Tecsun, XHDATA, newer Sangeans, SIHUADON etc. they all behave the same. For someone that wants to actually listen to shortwave broadcast (not only to check what’s out there but also to hear the programmes), a better choice would be to get a classical PLL receiver (like Tecsun PL-600, 660, 680), a TEF6686 based one (like Qodosen DX-286) or a SDR.
A Belka is a better option as it’s properly engineered for optimum SW reception. Heck, even my trusty Sangean ATS-909 original does a far better job on SW reception and is especially good at clean SSB demodulation.
The PL-880 is a disaster on SSB clarity. It really is a garbled mess most of the time. The PL-660/680 is a bit better but still has AGC pumping and a weird sensitivity behaviour.
https://www.skyworksinc.com/-/media/Skyworks/SL/documents/public/data-sheets/Si4730-31-34-35-D60.pdf gives a receiver designer no adjustments to the AGC characteristics. It should be noted that the chip has a digital audio output which will no doubt have a wide dynamic range. Perhaps the performance is so good, that it shows up poor modulation from the transmitter?. On AM in LF, MF and HF bands the carrier will be at least 67 % (100 % modulation) if the maximum volume is being sent without a volume limiter. If it is less than this the transmitter is causing out of channel interference and distortion. The receiver AGC measures the carrier level in AM. As for pumping it is most likely on SSB because the carrier should be suppressed to zero. This means the only reference for the AGC is the audio level being transmitted. For SSB the transmitter modulator should not transmit low frequency bass. This is because if the tuning in the receiver does not accurately match the frequency of the suppressed carrier the pitch of all audio will be shifted particularly the bass, Thus the bass should be reduced prior to modulation also to prevent pumping. In addition the sound processing prior to modulation needs to have a rapid attack time and a slow decay. The AGC in the receiver will not know the original sound levels and will have to ‘chase any processing’ at the transmitter.
As a point PLLs look for the carrier in AM mode, in SSB there is not carrier to lock on to, so it will also shift the frequency of the bass. This effect on speech if the frequency difference is great enough is called ‘duck talk’. This effect also occurs in direct conversion receivers where the local oscillator frequency is incorrectly set by the listener.
I do not know of any broadcaster who uses SSB because they transmit music which contains bass, low frequency audio does not add much to the intelligibility of speech because the consonants are all high hitched sounds such as ‘s’ and ‘f’.
>Perhaps the performance is so good, that it shows up poor modulation from the transmitter?
No. We’re talking about the same transmitter being received by different radios. See any YouTube video comparing a Si47xx-based receiver with a classical one. Examples:
“XHDATA D-808 vs SONY ICF-SW7600G. Shortwave Receivers”
“TECSUN PL-310ET vs Kchibo KK-8041 Comparison on Shortwave”
“ABC Northern Territories 4835 kHz: £30 Tecsun PL-360 vs Sony 2001D”
“comparison shortwave radio tecsun pl-660 & pl-360: Place: Valdivia, Chile”
Listen carefully how they are reacting to fading, how does the background noise change, whether the voice is becoming distorted. The results are always the same – clean audio on everything except the Si47xx receivers.
Hi Jeff. If you still have your PL-880, try a reset. I had some issues with mine that were resolved by a reset. Including the display light that temporarily didn’t work. My main complaint is the audio has too much bass, even on treble setting.
I have the 880 and it works fine. Were you referring to the 990? I should have tried that. I returned it because out of the box the AM didn’t work regardless of what I tried.
Oh ok! I misunderstood. Thanks!
Yes Michael,I have the same beef,too much bass.which is fine for music but not voice clarity.I don’t think that we are alone on that issue.If any readers can come up with a setting that we have overlooked,it would be appreciated by many 880 users,without donning headphones.Thanks
Replaced the ICf-2010 with great success
Too bad the south Americans on 60m kind of disappeared
9580, 5020, 4980 were all classic frequencies
Was it Radio South Africa with the bird song interval signal?
SWLing is alive and well
John ve3ips
Yup – Radio RSA Johannesburg!
That interval signal and many others can be found online in a repository if you want a trip down memory lane!
https://www.intervalsignals.net/index.htm