{"id":4932,"date":"2013-02-17T13:37:34","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T17:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=4932"},"modified":"2013-11-01T17:38:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T21:38:40","slug":"a-review-of-the-degen-de32-shortwave-radio-compared-with-the-de321-and-tecsun-pl-380","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/a-review-of-the-degen-de32-shortwave-radio-compared-with-the-de321-and-tecsun-pl-380\/","title":{"rendered":"A review of the Degen DE32 shortwave radio: compared with the DE321 and Tecsun PL-380"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

The Degen DE32 (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Degen DE32<\/a> is one of the latest DSP-based analog radios to hit the market. In the past, I have reviewed two others: the Degen DE321<\/a> and the Kchibo KK-9803<\/a>. Tecsun had announced a version of their own–the Tecsun R-2010<\/a>–which I had eagerly anticipated, but I now believe it’s been dropped from their future offerings.\u00a0[Update: Not true–the Tecsun has been released as the R-2010D, see review<\/a>].<\/em><\/p>\n

I purchased my Degen DE32 from this China-based seller<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0eBay<\/a>\"\". To my knowledge,\u00a0eBay<\/a>\"\"\u00a0is the only place the DE32 can be purchased, at time of posting. As with the other radios mentioned above, my expectations were quite low for this little radio. \u00a0After all, at $27 US (shipped), you can’t expect top-notch performance characteristics.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5886\"<\/a>

The DE32 un-boxed (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

The DE32 comes with a carry strap, USB cable, a carry pouch, slim rechargeable battery, and operating instructions in Chinese. It does not come with a USB wall adapter (you’ll have to plug it into a USB port on your PC or other USB wall charger) and it does not come with a Micro SD card (for digital audio playback).<\/p>\n

Audio<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DE32 has a small built-in speaker. The sound is a bit tinny, but is actually better than I expected from a speaker of this size. It makes for comfortable listening at close range–especially of spoken-word broadcasts. Happily, plugging in a good set of earphones helps audio fidelity tremendously. \u00a0This is the only way I would listen to music on the DE32 for an extended period of time. On FM, in fact, audio via earphones is surprisingly good (again, for a $27 radio–check out the audio sample below).<\/p>\n

\"(Click<\/a>

(Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The DE32 covers three radio bands: medium wave (AM), FM and shortwave (5.6-22 MHz). Performance between bands varies greatly. The best band, by far, is FM. Again, no surprise here, as the DE321 and KK-9803 performed quite well on FM.<\/p>\n

Here’s a 20+ minute audio sample of a local classic rock radio station I recorded, 95.7FM The Ride<\/em><\/a>:
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