Tired of Sissy Radios and Want Something Manly? Look No Further: The Grundig Eton Satellit 750

Looking for a manly radio that tells the world you don't mess around with little frilly electronic gadgets? Looking for a radio that looks like you could use it to repel bullets as it could double as body armor? Then get the most manly radio ever built--the Grundig Satellit 750. It measures 14.65 x 7.24 x 5.75. For photos of the original Tecsun version, CLICK HERE. For the Ultimate in Manliness guidelines,  CLICK HERE. 

Comments

[Mike Walsh]

I've been waiting for the Satellit 750 since I first saw the prototypes late last year. Even though $300 is pretty steep for what amounts to a glorified AM/FM radio - worthwhile shortwave content being pretty scarce nowadays - it still falls into the must-buy category for me because it's as close to my notion of the ideal radio design as I've ever seen produced yet, in effect, the radio I've wanted since I first got bitten by the radio bug.

Two quibbles :

(1) ?Cual es mas macho?

I will concede to Jeff that the Satellit 750 may be the second most manly radio ever, but first place has to go to the rig that got us through the cold war, the R390A :

http://www.dxing.com/rx/r390a.htm

Last I heard the Navy was buying them back because even in the microchip era, nothing gets better longwave reception. Not that I ever owned one, I'm just a poser.

(2) Retro Tube Set

Another radio design I've wanted to see for years was someone combining tubes with transistors in a quality AM/FM receiver, preferably with distinct and switchable antenna connections for each band. Well, here it is :

http://www.questforsound.com/tuners/tuners_R601p.htm

It presents the only doubt I have about buying the Sat 750. Not that I trust the review completely, it looks a little too "in house".

I'll probably just get the 750 and take a pass on the tube set.

[Mike Walsh]

Hmmm...just checked the frequency coverage on the R-390A, and I may be wrong about the "longwave" part (guess I really am a poser), but I did read the Navy was buying up old ones to be re-installed in subs.

[Jeff McMahon]

The R390 is macho indeed.

I've seen those tube radios for a year now and they don't intrigue me. I'm with you on the Satelit 750. Its dimensions aren't too big either. For me, the perfect radio. I hope it performs better than the S350 and the Katio/Redsun 2100. And I hope the speaker sound is exceptional.

[Mike Walsh]

Well, the 750 is to some extent a smaller and simplified Satellit 800, one of which I own.

I take for granted that the 750 will be a better receiver than the 350/2100 type portables, in fact, shame on Tecsun if it's not.

Somehow I expect the audio quality on the 750 to be good but not great, so I'm not expecting another BA Receptor sound-wise. The lineage here is communications receivers, not audiophile FM radios. It doesn't seem to have an external speaker connection; perhaps as well, as that defeats a key advantage, portabiliy.

[Jeff McMahon]

I'll probably buy it. My wife like it's too. I might end up buying two. One concern: For space purposes, I would put the 750 on a table adjecent to my office computer desk and I worry about computer interference. There wouldn't be any other logical place to put one. My wife wants one for work, a classroom in Palos Verdes, which demands strong reception.