Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor Jeff McMahon, who notes that he’s published a new post on his blog, the Herculodge. In this article, he compares the Tecsun PL-680 with its near-twin, the PL-660, and shares his observations on performance, design, and speaker quality—along with a few unexpected surprises. You can read his full post here.
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For the slightly bigger than a paperback book “Travel AM/FM/SW Radios”
reviewers perhaps over emphasize pulling a faint signal “out of the mud”
but for most owners if the audio is flat and tinny,
in a few weeks our annoyance rises to the point we go back to an older radio with less sensitivity but with a better speaker-enclosure combo.
Remember the long ago arguments that:
the Sony 7600 had superior faint signal reception
but the Grundig YB400 had more enjoyable sparkle in its audio?
To find “what really is the weak link” in small travel radios
I have kept around a decades old
Harmon/Kardon HK-195 dual “4 by 8” speaker set originally meant for PC Computer sound.
Unlike most computer speakers the HK-195 has separate Bass and Treble controls and a tuned port below each speaker.
Plugging the HK-195’ 3.5 mm feed line plug into
Grundig YB400, Sony ICF-SW35, Tecsun PL-390, AOR-3000, Sangean PR-D5, Sangean PR-D15, Sangean PR-D4W and now the newbie Qodosen-286
lets you see whether its the unit’s speaker quality
( or sometimes enclosure surrounding the speaker)
or poor tone electronic circuitry.
Another thing I have found:
the original CCrane EP radio
has an under appreciated smooth & pleasant audio output.
Deping Zeng designed both CCrane EP when at Redsun Radio and the new Qodosen 286
I really enjoy the pl 680. I find SYNC works really well and when tuning SSB for CB frequencies SSB with the BFO worked great.