{"id":31525,"date":"2018-04-06T06:54:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T10:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=31525"},"modified":"2018-04-06T06:54:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-06T10:54:48","slug":"recommending-the-tecsun-pl-880-over-the-sangean-ats-909x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/recommending-the-tecsun-pl-880-over-the-sangean-ats-909x\/","title":{"rendered":"Recommending the Tecsun PL-880 over the Sangean ATS-909X"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Many thanks to SWLing Post<\/em> contributor,\u00a0Direwolf131, who recently commented on one of the Sangean ATS-909X reviews in the Post<\/em> archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Direwolf131 writes:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a few years after Steve\u2019s comments<\/a> but I will have a go at it, at least anecdotally speaking. I\u2019ve owned a half dozen Sangean ATS-909\u2019s, which includes two of the 909X\u2019s, and one super-909 from radiolabs. The 909X is the finest looking portable I have ever seen or lain hands upon, and that includes several Sony\u2019s that I still think of as neat looking, I had the white cabinet 909X first and then the much more striking (to my eyes) black cabinet 909X after returning the first one due to rock hard buttons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

They are both extremely attractive, and exceptionally well made, especially by today\u2019s cheap Chinese standards. I must confess that I also still find the original 909\u2019s almost equally neat looking, though not quite sporting the same robustness of build.<\/p>\n

The 909x\u2019s sound wonderful on MW & FM, and its a decent performer reaching out to fairly distant FM stations. Unfortunately that is largely the best of the radio, its performance on MW & SW is best described as pathetic, and not just due to being deaf, it has a lot of noise, even when attached to the superb RF systems tuned EMF antenna. The older 909 is also to my experience substantially better then the 909X when matched up to a serious outboard antenna, such as the above EMF, I found this difference especially surprising, its not even close.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The PL-880 from Tecsun blows it away on SW and MW sensitivity, while also offering the superb advantage of genuinely ECSS tuning anything on MW & SW, you cannot decently receive any MW or SW signal via ECSS with the 909X as its SSB can only be fine tuned to 40 Hz, which is terribly disappointing, you can zero beat the little Tecsun easily. serious ECSS capability is to my mind a much more attractive option then a sync circuit, and unfortunately with the beautiful little Sangean 909X you get neither.<\/p>\n

I do hope anyone who happens upon this pays attention, because for the money the PL-880 is far and away the better performer, in fact my little 1103 from Degen\/Kaito out performs the 909X, as does my Grundig Yacht Boy-400, and my Sangean ATS-803A. Its my great hope that Sangean seriously upgrades these deficiencies in the otherwise gorgeous 909X, its circuitry is noisier than the old 909 and its not nearly not as sterling a performer hooked up to household current and a decent outboard antenna as the old 909, its 40 hz tuning SSB once a great reason to buy a 909, is no longer competitive, especially against the superb PL-880 which again is capable of excellent ECSS even by Icom R75 standards, Sangean would do well to drastically improve the SSB performance of the 909X.<\/p>\n

I hope this helps, I liked the original review up top, but again its several years old, and the ATS-909X is now known to be clearly outclassed by the more affordable Tecsun, actually by the PL-660 to boot, I really hope Sangean addresses the issues, its such a beautiful receiver, you just want it to be as good as it looks, unfortunately it’s not!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thank you for sharing your evaluation and comments!<\/p>\n

The Sangean ATS-909X is an interesting radio indeed. Almost everyone loves the design, audio and overall quality of the 909X.\u00a0 Yet performance reviews are somewhat polarizing: some 909X owners claim the 909X has strong performance characteristics on shortwave, while others believe it’s almost deaf. Your findings coincide with mine from the Mega Review where I pitted the ATS-909X against the Tecsun PL-880, PL-660 and Sony ICF-SW7600GR<\/a>. In that review, where I relied on a whip antenna, the 909X was noticeably less sensitive than the other three competitors. Based on the premium one pays for the 909X, I was surprised.<\/p>\n

I have learned over the years, however, that the 909X can handle larger outdoor antennas and doesn’t easily overload. Additionally, the 909X requires a fresh set of batteries for optimal performance\/sensitivity. Some users have even modified the radio with a 4:1 impedance transformer–click here to read a post\/comments about this mod.<\/a><\/p>\n

I would love to see Sangean produce an updated\/upgraded version of the 909X, but at this point I’m not exactly holding my breath. I’ve heard that they’re slowly pulling out of the market. Hope I’m proven wrong because I’d love to see a new shortwave set from Sangean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Direwolf131, who recently commented on one of the Sangean ATS-909X reviews in the Post archives. Direwolf131 writes: I\u2019m a few years after Steve\u2019s comments but I will have a go at it, at least anecdotally speaking. I\u2019ve owned a half dozen Sangean ATS-909\u2019s, which includes two of the 909X\u2019s, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,26,129,43,154],"tags":[601,6947,2065,600,602,2003,479,2066],"class_list":["post-31525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-radios","category-reviews","category-shortwave-radio","category-shortwave-radio-reviews","tag-ats-909x","tag-direwolf131","tag-pl-880","tag-sangean","tag-sangean-ats-909x","tag-sangean-ats-909x-review","tag-tecsun","tag-tecsun-pl-880"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-8ct","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10886,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/dave-reviews-the-tecsun-pl-880-pl660-and-sangean-ats-909x\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":0},"title":"Dave reviews the Tecsun PL-880, PL660 and Sangean ATS-909X","author":"Thomas","date":"September 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Dave Zantow (N9EWO) has posted reviews of the Tecsun PL-660, PL-880 and Sangean ATS-909X on his website. Dave even includes a review of the Radiolabs \"ClearMod\" version of the Sangean ATS-909X. \u00a0Click here to read the reviews (scroll down to view all). Many thanks, Dave; I always value your reviews!","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ATS-909X","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45996,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/matt-compares-the-tecsun-pl-990-and-sangean-ats-909x-sharing-an-external-antenna\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":1},"title":"Matt compares the Tecsun PL-990 and Sangean ATS-909X sharing an external antenna","author":"Thomas","date":"October 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post\u00a0contributor,\u00a0Matt Blaze, who shares the following comparison of the new\u00a0Tecsun PL-990x and the original Sangean ATS-909X\u00a0communications receivers. Like Matt\u2019s recent comparison of the Tecsun PL-990x to the Icom IC-R9500, this review is in audio form and brilliantly narrated by Matt. I highly recommend listening with headphones or,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ATS-909X.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40617,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2019\/11\/sangean-ats-909x-sticky-keys\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":2},"title":"Sangean ATS-909X sticky keys?","author":"Thomas","date":"November 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey, who left the following comment on our PL-880 review: I\u2019m reading this old post as I am a new user of the PL-880. I have it as my bedside and coffee table receiver in my house up in the Indonesian jungle. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/909Xkeypad.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/909Xkeypad.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/909Xkeypad.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10124,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/the-mega-shortwave-radio-review-of-the-pl-880-pl-660-ats-909x-and-icf-sw7600gr\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":3},"title":"Mega Review: the Tecsun PL-880, PL-660, Sangean ATS-909X, and Sony ICF-SW7600GR go head-to-head","author":"Thomas","date":"July 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This article, which extensively reviews\u2013and compares\u2013the Tecsun PL-880, PL-660, the Sangean ATS-909X, and the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, originally appeared in the June 2014 issue of\u00a0The Spectrum Monitor Magazine. Without a doubt, it's my longest and\u00a0most comprehensive review to date. Summer: \u00a0time for travel\u2013and for portable shortwave DXing. As I mentioned in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"AllFourRadios","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/AllFourRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/AllFourRadios.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/AllFourRadios.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":30748,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/gregg-finds-a-case-for-the-sangean-ats-909x\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":4},"title":"Gregg finds a case for the Sangean ATS-909X","author":"Thomas","date":"February 6, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor,\u00a0Gregg Freeby, who writes: I recently purchased a Sangean ATS-909X and while I really like the radio, I wasn't too impressed with the envelope pouch\/case it came with for protecting the radio. I really like the leather case of the Tecsun PL-880 but it appears\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Accessories"","block_context":{"text":"Accessories","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/accessories\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DSCF1990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DSCF1990.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/DSCF1990.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14955,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/the-sangean-ats-909x-martys-bedside-radio-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":31525,"position":5},"title":"The Sangean ATS-909X: Marty’s bedside radio review","author":"Thomas","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post reader, Marty (W5MRM), comments: I recently picked up a Sangean ATS-909X to use as a bedside radio. This blog post inspired me to put together a video review of the ATS-909X as a bedside radio. 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