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[Update: Please note that this survey has been closed, but the audio samples–labeled Radio A and Radio B–will remain to allow others the opportunity to make an evaluation prior to reading the PL-680 review.]
I’ve been spending a little time with my new Tecsun PL-680 today, and it’s been most interesting. Of course, I’ve already begun to form a few opinions about the radio and am taking notes. Yet I never believe a shortwave radio can be judged in one sitting; there are simply too many variables to account for, such as minute changes in propagation, fading, local radio interference, all of which can have a temporary effect on performance. It’s better to judge a radio after having used it over the course of at least a week or so, in diverse reception conditions.
Still, as I tuned the PL-680, I was already wondering how it compared with its predecessor, the PL-660–? And since I’ve received at least ten emails from readers curious about the same thing, I thought I might start a series of blind audio tests in order to let our readers decide for themselves.
So…ready for some fun?
Below, I’ve embedded eight recordings comparing the PL-660 and PL-680 on shortwave. All of these are recordings of broadcast stations, no SSB yet (I simply didn’t have the time today).
To participate, just listen, then fill out the form that follows with your choice of “Best Radio” for each broadcast. But do note the following:
I’ve attempted to set the audio levels equally on both radios. Iused the broadcast in the first recording to set the audio levels; they remain at this level for the remainder of the recordings. Nonetheless, you’ll note that one of the radios seems to have lower audio on a couple of the higher-band recordings; this is not due to any change in the incoming volume nor adjustments to the audio levels.
As seen in the photo above, I used a Zoom H2N digital recorder to make these recordings on the tailgate of my truck. Any time you hook a digital recorder up to a radio on the medium wave or shortwave bands, you most likely will inject a little noise. When I listened to each radio without the recorder in-line, I determined that the Zoom injected very little audible noise.
The assignment of “Radio A” and “Radio B” was chosen by a coin toss–so pretty much at random!
I included two recordings of WWV on 25 MHz. This is because the reception conditions from WWV change in a a matter of minutes, which would provide recording variation. I thought it would be best to include two such recordings.
Both radios have the gain set to “DX” and bandwidth set to wide. None of these recordings employ synchronous detection. The telescopic antenna was fully extended on both units. Additionally, both radios had the tone control set to “bass.”
No less relevant: it was 32F/OC with strong wind gusts and blowing snow in my face when I made these recordings. But I knew our readers would understand (and likely appreciate) this dedication to the absorbing art of SWLing…just as I appreciate your participation in judging this head-to-head radio showdown!
Audio Samples
9,395 kHz – Radio Prague via Global 24 (strong signal example)
When I got home, after a very long day, I found that FedEx delivered the Tecsun PL-680 I ordered from Anon-Co. I haven’t even had a moment to listen to the PL-680 yet, but I hope to make time tomorrow.
I’m happy to see that the PL-680 has hassle-free, well-designed packaging: a simple cardboard insert inside the box, yet everything was held in place firmly (no rattling).
The PL-680 comes packaged in its padded case.
Once it’s removed from the box, you can see the accompanying accessories: four standard Tecsun AA rechargeable batteries, one external wire antenna, one set of earphones and one AC adapter/charger.
The PL-680 was enclosed in a poly bag inside the padded case–it also ships with a protective plastic film over the display.
Wow! The PL-680 certainly looks like a spitting image of the PL-600. I believe this is a good thing as I always preferred the look of the PL-600 over that of the PL-660.
More to come tomorrow! Follow the tag PL-680 for all posts about this new Tecsun radio.
Anna [at Anon-Co] has the PL-680 in stock according to a email I received from her this morning. Readers who are interested in ordering the radio should be aware of the Chinese New Year and the potential for delays.
Thanks, Steve. I received a similar email from Anna. They have listed the PL-680 on their website and, I’m sure, will post on eBay soon. The price is $95 US plus shipping; a reasonable price, if the PL-680 is an improvement over the PL-660.
I have already ordered a PL-680 from Anon-Co and it is on the way. I paid extra for FedEx shipping, so it should arrive before week end. I’ll post updates as I test this radio.
As Steve mentions in his note, Anon-Co will observe the Chinese New Year and will be unavailable from February 13th to the 26th.
I *should* have at least a preliminary review posted before the 26th so those of you who are tempted by the PL-680 will at least have some insight prior to purchase.
Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Steve, who writes:
Anna from Anon-co (eBay seller) sent me this little tidbit of info on the PL-680 […] I thought I would pass it along given your interest. At least we know it is a real product and could be available as early as next month.
[From Anna:]
“The PL-680 I believe may be available mid-January, but this is still an estimation. As far as I can say at this moment, I believe it is a model very similar to the PL-660, but with a different outlook (similar to PL-600). Whether there are any other changes like the speaker or performance wise I don’t know at the moment. We’ll have to wait for a little while still. I also don’t have a price indication yet, so this too takes some time still.”
I’ll buy the PL-680 as soon as it’s available and review it. It’ll be interesting to see how it compares–performance-wise–with its older siblings: the PL-660 and PL-880. My hunch is that it’s simply a cosmetic re-design of the PL-660, with a few tweaks perhaps. I find it so interesting that Tecsun borrowed from the design of the PL-600–a radio that’s been on the market for several years. In truth, I’ve always preferred the body design of the PL-600 over the PL-660.
Thanks, Antonio–admittedly, I was completely unaware of this upcoming model. Based on the photo (above) via Nevada Radio, the PL-680 looks very much like the PL-600.
Unlike the PL-600, the PL-680 appears to have USB/LSB selectable AM synchronous detection.
FM stereo / MW / LW / SW SSB / AIR band (118-137 MHz)
Dual conversion for MW / LW / SW with excellent sensitivity & selectivity
Synchronous detector (USB / LSB)
SW Single Side Band (SSB) with BFO control
1900 station memories
Multi-tuning methods:
Auto tuning storage (ATS)
Auto-scan tuning with 5 seconds pre-listening
Manual tuning
Direct keypad entry
9K/10K tuning step for MW (adjustable AM tuning step (9K/10K)
Sleep timer from 1-120 minutes
Dual alarm clock with adjustable auto turn off stopper from 1-90 minutes
DX / Normal / Local antenna gain
Treble / Bass tone selection
Back light and snooze function
Signal strength & battery consumption display
Direct reset function
Built-in rechargeable function (Ni-MH rechargeable battery only)
Extra long telescopic antenna
FM/SW antenna jack
Stereo earphone jack
DC jack (6V)
Power sources: 4 x UM3 (AA size) batteries (excluded) or DC 6V adaptor (excluded)
Dimensions – 190 x 35 x 112mm WHD
So far, I’ve seen no information regarding pricing/availability. I will update the SWLing Post with information about the Tecsun PL-680 as soon as it becomes available. Simply follow the tag: PL-680
Thanks to all who participated in our ultra-portable shoot-out! A little over a week ago, I posted recordings of shortwave broadcasts, weak and strong, in an attempt to evaluate which recording–thus which radio–our listeners prefer. I conducted this test on the three radios pictured above: the Tecsun PL-310ET, the CountyComm GP5/DSP (Tecsun PL-360), and the Tecsun PL-380–among the most popular ultra-portables currently on the market. This test was “blind” in the sense that all three radios evaluated were merely labeled “Radio 1,” “Radio 2,” and “Radio 3,” respectively.
The samples
To refresh your memory, I’ve embedded the audio samples below for you to hear; but if you haven’t yet heard them, I encourage you to read our previous post before doing so. (If you’re already heard the recordings, simply skip this section.)
Global 24 – 9395 kHz (Strong)
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3
ERT Open/ Voice of Greece (Relatively strong)
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3
Radio Riyadh (Weak)
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3
Rádio Bandeirantes (Very weak)
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3
And now…the results!
The following chart shows how each radio scored out of a total of 106 (wow!) survey responses:
Let’s start with the radio that scored lowest in this contest…
Radio 3: the CountyComm GP5/DSP (a.k.a., the Tecsun PL-360)
Interestingly, the GP5/DSP consistently came in last in every category. I think a few factors outside of receiver performance led to this.
For some reason, the recorded audio of the GP5/DSP sounds out-of-phase. Several of you noted this. The resulting sound almost mimics a “stereo” effect. No matter how many times I made recordings on the GP5/DSP, this feature predominated, and I eventually assumed it to be characteristic of this radio’s DSP.
But I’m wondering now, however, if there might be oxidation on one of the headphone jack conductors, or if the headphone jack on my unit is somehow faulty–? Because of this, before conducting the medium wave shoot-out, I’ll try to clean the conductors with a little Deoxit to see if it makes a difference.
Unlike the PL-310ET and PL-380, the GP5/DSP can’t change AM bandwidths. On the strong recordings, I widened the bandwidths of the PL-310ET and PL-380 to 6 kHz; this improved their audio fidelity. On weak signals, I narrowed the bandwidth to 3 or 4 kHz, keeping both at the same level as I did so. While the GP5/DSP’s fixed bandwidth is well chosen, it simply couldn’t compete with the wider filters of the other two radios on strong signals.
Though the GP5/DSP (Tecsun PL-360) came in last, the irony is that most people who made comments on the survey form actually mentioned that the GP5/DSP was also a strong contender. Here are a few responder’s comments:
“The bassiness of Radio 1 was pleasing to listen to, but the clarity of radio 3 was also pleasing. All three sounded very good.”
“I was divided–Radio 1 seemed to provide the better audio on the stronger stations (not as muddy) yet Radio 3 beat it out on the weak stations and seemed to hold the station steadier (less fading) thereby providing a better audio to hear and understand.”
“I think if I were to place these three radios in order of “listening pleasure” based on the provided samples, my order would be 3, 1, 2.”
“By a small margin Radio 3 seemed to have the best signal to noise ratio and general audio quality across the range of signal strengths.”
Also notable: the GP5 has one very distinct advantage over the other two radios, something that wouldn’t have been noticed in this test: its ETM function, which scans the whole band then automatically stores stations to temporary memory, is almost two times faster that that of the other radios. It also seemed to be equally accurate.
So, who would buy the CountyComm GP5/DSP (Tecsun PL-360)? Someone who likes this radio’s form factor, it’s stable AGC, and quick ETM scanning. Keep in mind, we are comparing this model with two of the best radios under $60, in my opinion. Had we compared the GP5 with most other sub-$60 radios, it might have won that shoot-out, and with ease.
The Tecsun PL-380 came in a very consistent second place in this shoot-out.
The ‘380 is one of my favorite portables on the market; for many years, it has been my go-to radio for one-bag travel.
Before recording the shoot-out, I guessed that the PL-380 might take first place. But up to this point, I had never actually compared it with either of the two other radios in this shoot-out. Listening to the blind samples, I tend agree with the results. Still, the PL-380 is a great value and a fun little radio, one I can still easily recommend for travel.
As you can see from the graph, the Tecsun PL-310ET won our shoot-out in every category–and by a fairly wide margin:
While comparatively few participants’ comments were specific to the PL-310ET (“Radio 1”), it’s interesting that these most often made note of this radio’s very close resemblance to the PL-380 (“Radio 2”).
The PL-310ET had only a slight advantage over the PL-380 to my ear, but it was enough; so along with most survey respondents, I took note of that advantage.
Now, I know this much: when people ask me whether they should purchase the PL-380 or PL-310ET, I think I’ll suggest the PL-310ET. In the end, it makes for a better travel radio because it also has an external antenna jack, one of the few sub-$60 radios that has this useful feature.
When I find the time in the next month or so, I plan to test the same radios in a medium wave (AM) shoot-out. Weak-signal medium wave will put AGC circuits and internal ferrite antennas center stage. Please be patient, however, as these tests actually take time to put together and evaluate. Again, your participation will be most welcome!
