New Tecsun Radio Pl-380 DSP Fm Am Stereo World Band Receiver Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Tecsun definitely has a winner with with the new DSP (Digital signal processing) third generation (see below) Tecsun PL-380 radio! I am extremely impressed right out of the box with how well it performs on its own attached whip telescopic antenna and its large internal ferrite rod antenna even for quite weak signals with both very good sensitivity as well as selectivity on ALL bands. The current price of about $45 on Amazon (including FREE shipping) is a fantastic value and should be a great bargain for many avid radio listeners.
PROS:
1) A double conversion, PLL (Phase-locked loop), fully digital portable radio that that comes with a USB cable for providing power or charging capability from a PC and a readable and quite useful English manual.
2) Excellent weak signal reception on ALL bands (LW/AM/FM/SW) using three separate band selector switches with LW and AM band selection toggled on the same switch. It really performs very well!
3) It has fm stereo available through earphones (supplied) that can be turned off for the reliable detection of weaker fm signals.
4) There is a separate switch that provides backlight control and that nicely illuminates the display as well as an alarm for wake-up/snooze,etc with either a buzzer or radio setting.
5) A dedicated set of wide/narrow bandwidth controls using a switch that toggles through a series of bandwidths from 1 to 6 KHz (with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 KHz bandwidth settings).
6) Numerous tuning methods are available including a fine as well as a coarse tuning setting button for ALL bands and including an ATS (Automatic tuning and storage) storage system for 550 presets, direct keyboard frequency entry without hitting an "ENTER" key, up/down scanning keys, a fine and smooth, manual tuning knob, etc.
7) It also has a separate ETM tuning system (tuned with a dial and not a knob as on the PL-310 radio) for storing a set of weak signals while traveling to another location. The nice idea about this system is that the standard ATS presets are NOT modified at all and do not have to be reset when returning to your home location (but limited by a total maximum of 550 presets).
8) Very high quality and very readable display with many many icons for indicating battery life, wide/narrow bandwidth filter setting choice, fm stereo setting, etc. Clock time and station frequency are displayed simultaneously. The display also has a new and fully digital readout of both the signal strength and of the signal to noise ratio which are continuously updated at quite frequent intervals.
9) Good battery life is available using 3 rechargeable AA batteries (supplied) and the unit can be separately powered by the included USB cable as well.
10) Easy channel memory presetting and automatic preset recall of the 550 preset memory locations.
11) It also has a digital volume control with a side-mounted wheel with 30 available steps.
12) Finally, but not least of all, we note that this is Tecsun's third generation development of utilizing the recent DSP internal chip (from the USA). In this radio they have now developed a better system for reception of weak am signals that prevents the drop-out signal behavior that has been found by many to be more common on the Grundig G8 (Tecsun) clone and on the Tecsun PL-310 for example. As with all technical developments this is by necessity a compromise solution which will probably be further enhanced overall in the near future.
13) I personally actually prefer the Tecsun PL-310 overall as a useful lw/am/fm/sw radio, but the PL-380 does have some very nice enhanced features that are now incorporated as noted in 12) just above. There is also now an even newer Tecsun, the PL-360, a quite small, vertically oriented DSP receiver that also seems to be a fine quality radio product as well.

CONS:
1) Smallish speaker, but the sound quality is very good for its size.
2) There is no external antenna port on the PL-380 which is surprising since the internal ferrite rod antenna is shorter on this unit in comparison to the Tecsun PL-310 for example. It is also somewhat surprising since the Tecsun PL-380 is also slightly longer overall that the Tecsun PL-310. An clip-on external antenna is also provided with the unit however.
3) No synchronous detection circuit (for controling of fading due to interference) is available which is present on the SONY ICF-7600GR for example.


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1,30 rotational electronic volume control.2,use of optimum design of thin-film high-sensitivity speakers, sound and beautiful; use headphones to listen to FM stereo radio.3,trouble with the radio ring / beep sound trouble, you can boot from time to time to listen to a pre-stored radio stations, and can be set in 1 - 90 minutes automatic shutdown.4,has a smart power switch function: You can set the boot 1 - 120 minutes after the automatic shutdown, but also cancel the automatic shutdown feature.5,This machine is very energy-saving, the use of three R6 (V) battery-powered; also can choose to use nickel-metal hydride battery-powered (battery random distribution, buyers also need their own sold separately),And the use of the machine USB external power jack intelligent charging.

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