Let's Hope the Much-Anticipated Grundig Satellit 750 Doesn't Have a "Dull" Sound

One of the more anticipated radios I've heard about in recent years, the Grundig Satellit 750 is a very attractive package with a rotating AM antenna that swirls above the radio like a satellite dish. One concern is sound. As Mike Walsh reports: "I was in touch with someone close to the designers of the S-2000, as the prototype for the Satellit 750 was called, last August. He wrote that the sound was 'dull' and they were working to improve that."

I've never been comforted by reports of last-ditch efforts to improve a product. But we'll just have to wait and see. It's reported that the 750 will be on sale in mid June.

Comments

[Ed S.]

I'm guessing this will sound similar to the Satellit 800, which, while not hi-fi, was pleasant sounding for a communications receiver. The 800 used a 4" speaker and had a couple watts of power.

[Jeff McMahon]

A 4" speaker is pretty big. The Sangean WR-2 has a 3" and the Boston Horizon Solo has a 3.5" so I imagine the 750 should fill a room quite well.

[Mike W]

Ed, Jeff,

I'd be quite pleased if the audio on the 750 matches that of the 800, which while no sonic marvel itself, was good by communications receiver standards, as Ed points out.

It's amazing how little emphasis has been given to the audio stage in many modern communications receivers, considering that in the end all you can do with any radio is listen to it. Manufacturers would throw remarkable brainpower and technology at catching, tuning, and cleaning up a distant radio signal, only to feed it through some tiny little speaker that seemed to have been installed almost as an afterthought. The Sat 800 evolved from the Drake SW-8, which had a speaker not that much larger than that of an old Bell Telephone handset. The Japanese manufacturers especially leaned this way, sometimes even with expensive portables. The Sony ICF-2010 was a brilliant 80's-era technological tour-de-force that sprang from Sony's otherwise failed attempt to commercialize AM stereo, and then they finished it off with a weak, inexpensive little speaker. The Grundig Satellit series didn't have this weakness, they've been loud and proud, and I suspect that's one of the main reasons that the Satellit 700 was a big hit in spite of being pricey and only so-so as a receiver.

Well anyway, that's more than enough of my "little speaker" rant, here's a Radiointel link about how Mike Maghakian modified his 800 :

http://www.radiointel.com/sat800speaker.htm

I read the article, opened my Sat 800, chickened out, and then hooked up a Paradigm Atom speaker externally instead. The results were outstanding, but I still wish I had the stones to do Mike's modification.

[Jeff McMahon]

Mike, not only are you right, but the opposite is true: Great speaker radios like the Tivoli Model One have substandard FM tuners.

[Ed S.]

Well, here it is virtually June 1, and there is not a peep about the availability for the 750. I called Amazon and Eton; they pled ignorance. I can't see it suddenly going on sale in 2 weeks with no preliminary publicity or product launch (ie, early review samples sent out)... I think what we have here is another major schedule slip....I hope it's not on its way to becoming vaporware. Also FYI: J&R in NY will ship it free if you pre-order now, but they don't have any idea when it will be released, either.