Review on Tecsun PL880 Portable Digital PLL Dual Conversion AM/FM, Longwave & Shortwave Radio with SSB (Single Side Band) Reception - Silver by Brett Zhu

TLDR: Excellent sound quality, excellent first-class performance (sensitivity/selectivity but with SSB/timing problem), ease of use, battery operation, excellent value for money, best quality control that Revain offers. I've been into DXing since I was a kid because my dad was also interested in radio when I was a kid, collecting crystal radios etc. The original only Radio Shack store was in the town where I grew up. A weekend stroll with my dad at The Radio Shack has always been an adventure. As a teenager I had Hallicrafters for my bedside radio. Fast forward to the 1990s. He lived in a high rise building with a balcony where you could put a great antenna. I found E&B Electronics (now closed) 20 minutes from my house selling high quality SW, Ham Radio Transceivers, UHF Scanners, but ended up having to move to an apartment with no balcony and generally lost interest. I have a Drake R8, an Icom IC-R7100 (no lock), an AOR 3000A (no lock) and the legendary Sony ICF-SW77 in my closet. My bedside radio for the last 10 years has been a small Sony portable radio with 5 presets. ICF-M410V which I paid $60 for. (It's still available on Revain, but the link is longer than a paragraph). It served me well and had good sound out of its 3 inch speaker. His tuning knob now only works one way, so I decided to replace it. I must have watched at least 50 YouTube comparison videos and have come to the conclusion that for performance and sound quality I can't beat the PL880 (the PL 600 was top of the performance scale but my main use of the radio would be for listening of FM, and the sound quality was very important to me.) Besides the performance, the only factor that made me choose this Tecsun PL880 was the quality and the quality control. There's the Grundig 750 because it looks so cool, or the Sangean 909x because of its display (but the performance is below average without an external antenna), or the CC Crane, but when you look at all the reviews for it, there are too many looks then dead on arrival or short-lived radios. almost none of what I've seen. When I saw yesterday that the PL880 was being offered with same-day shipping, I impulsively pulled the trigger and was glad I did. This radio exudes quality. The sound quality is just amazing. I have a Grundig S3250DL on my desk. Grundig is known for its excellent sound. If you weren't comparing side-by-side, unless you're unmusical, you'd have to admit that the PL880's sound quality is superb for both voice and music. It can also be pumped at space-filling volumes. Side by side, although I can hear a subtle overall difference, the PL880's sound is almost indistinguishable from the Grundig. Kudos to Tecsun! Although I'm new to operating the 880, 5 minutes after the battery was installed and fully charged, I scanned the FM/AM/SW bands; 1.) FM band. I was blown away by the number of stations I missed with my Sony and the great radio I have in my car. Everything is crystal clear; 2.) AM was ok but much better than expected. Given the building I live in, the way it's configured and the materials it's built from, the AM is hardly worth the trouble, yet the 880 has some stations I wasn't aware of that they exist, cut off well; 3.) SW - I then said hay and connected the supplied antenna, led it in through the window and did a SW scan. I wasn't expecting anything but I got 39 views :-) Some were very strong and clear but as they were all in a foreign language except one I have no idea where they broadcast from. Looks like my DXng days have been revived. I agree with those who say that the last top antenna extension is extremely thin and fragile. For this reason I will not extend the antenna to its full length. After living with this radio for a few days I find accessing saved channels a bit cumbersome and unintuitive but I guess that's the price you pay when you have THREE THOUSAND memory channels :-) If you can save money and if you're looking for an outstanding solid battery operated, portable, beautiful radio (with the added benefits of SW/LW/Emergency info.), buy a PL880 - you'll love it. The way I see it, at my age, if I can buy a thrill for $169, that's a lot :