Several New Grundig G3 Reviews

Thanks, Terry:

Several new G3 reviews:

From kd4das:

On paper, this one really looked like a winner, but the Grundig G3 is poor on
several fronts. On MW, its sensitivity is simply awful. Only moderately strong
stations are at all listenable and there are several whistles throughout the
band. Shortwave is a bit better, but still not nearly as good as my Degen
DE-1103 or Kaito KA-1102. The sync detector is an absolute joke. It doesn't do
anything at all, unless the signal is at moderate strength.

I will give it high marks on FM, though. It is apparently using one of the newer
DSP circuits, because sensitivity and selectivity are both very good. It also is
pretty much immune to overload on FM. I live in the shadow of a pretty strong FM
station, and the radio has no issues with that, unlike the 1103 and 1102. The
airband is decent, but you can't scan the band using the buttons on the front --
ridiculous.

As I understand it, Degen made this radio. All they had to do was add sync
capability to the already great sensitivity of the 1103 and G5 and they had a
winner. This is a big time dud, and I'm returning mine.

From Bil:

Last night I went out in the yard and sat down with the G3, G5, and 7600GR. On
some weak SW stations they were almost equal. The 7600GR wouldn't lock with the
synchronous detector and neither would the G3 (of course, as we're increasingly
finding out). The sensitivity was just slightly better on the Grundigs, in
fact, sometimes during deep fades the signal disappeared completely on the Sony
but not the Grundigs. Between the G3 and G5, the G5 won out on those weak
signals because the signal on the G3 faded in and out rapidly and the signal on
the G5 only faded slowly and not quite as deeply. Is that the AGC circuit? (not
sure of some of the lingo). On moderate signals the Sony would lock, and
usually stay locked even when the "tune" display went in and out. But, and I
hadn't done any side by side comparisons in a long time, for me the sync ability
was less important than the sheer SOUND. Comparing, I realized how tinny the
Sony sounded next to the Grundigs. When I just want to play radio, I grab
either Grundig before the Sony just for the sound. And last night in the dark
of the yard I realized how much I like the backlit buttons of the G5. I may be
more disappointed that the G3 doesn't have the backlit buttons than the poor
sync detector.
The air band for me receives really well and I haven't heard any ghosts or other
signals on that band. But not being able to autoscan the air band? wtf?
The display is great and so is the line-in feature.

From David:

I haven't bought a shortwave radio since the my Icom R71A back in 1986 and the Sony ICF-35 whenever it came out, but I've handled many since then. I too am disappointed with the poor performance of the synchronous detector circuit, since that's why I have been waiting for release of this radio. I do like the velvetized plastic case. I love that unlike the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, it comes with an AC adapter and can internally charge 4 NiMH AA batteries (batteries purchased seperately). I find the sound quality is far superior to the Sony 7600 and the sensitivity is on par or better than the Sony. Another fault is the owner's manual states "The F1-7 buttons have dual functions when turned on and off, noted on the diagram under the G3's rear tilt flap." This did not exist on my radio. I called Etoncorp about this and they said it was a misprint carried over from the Grundig G5 radio - I don't understand why this is not on the G3 because they are very similar radios. Altogether though, this is a very good radio for the price and size. It's too bad Etoncorp apparently blew the synchronous detector feature, but if you really consider this a "gotta have" feature, plan on spending upwards of $400 on a larger radio.

From Nathan:

I am a collector of radios, I have over 200 in my collection starting in the 1920's to today. Lets deal with complaint number one, the sync is bad, poor would be a better description. This discription will also apply to almost any radio under $1000.00. The SYNC on this radio performs as well as the Sony 7600GR which is not very good either. I personally have found this feature to be of dubious value.

Now to the good stuff:

The SSB feature on this radio is the best I have seen on any small portable radio. You can select either USB or LSB and it also allows fine tuning via a tuning knob. A great inprovement over the G6. The aircraft band works very well from my location ( about 10 miles from DFW airport). FM stations come in very well up and down the dial. The local AM stations come in great, even in my office building.To be fair I live and work in Dallas,Tx and there are many AM and FM stations close by.

The shortwave performance seems very good as well, on a par with My favorite portable radios the Sony 7600GR,ICF-SW100E, Grundig Yachtboy 400, DEGEN 1102 and ATS 909. The radio itself is quite small, smaller than the 7600GR. It feels like it is well made, only time will tell for sure about that. It also has RDS capability. I have not found any stations to test that feature on yet. The radio also has a line in/out connection, this is a bit unusual for a small radio.

The internal memory store is easy to use. I really like this while using the aircraft band.

All of my testing has so far been using only the built in whip antenna.

Comments

[vic]

iI too have purchased G3 .. but quickly was disappointed , re. hiss even on strong stations on am and sw. sync det. useless it caused a howl after about a minute or two..and signal sounded bassier...but hiss was an issue even with full signal strength... signal to noise ration was really terrible.Agc is faulty as well on weak signal.Birdies on am ... fm appear to be ok. aircraft freq.I could not test.. I may be to far from airport .. Scanner apears to pick signal but not G3 ,..compared to G5, G3 Sucks ... nice display and backlit works but not as bright as G5...I would give it 2.5 out of five..In a way I am disappointed and thinking of returning it back to the store

[maha]

http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/frontgate-grundig-g5-am-fm-sw-radio-reviews