Herculodge First Look: The Grundig Satellit 750

Greg, a reader from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was kind enough to Fed Ex me his Grundig Satellit 750, which has a Kiwa speaker upgrade. Therefore, I have to assume the stock 750 speaker sound has less fidelity than the one I'll be using by my bedside for the next two weeks. 

As I will be using the 750 as a bedside radio, I'm not too worried about fidelity since I'm not cranking the thing up by any means. All that I ask is that its AM sound not be as harsh and punishing as my C.Crane CSW. Thankfully, the 750 is easier on the ears. 

When I took out the 750, I was amazed like other Tecsun radios at how light the radio is (Tecsun makes many Grundig and Eton radios, including the GS750). I prefer my radios to be heavy like tanks, which is why several months ago I went on a vintage radio spree, getting my grubby hands on some classics so that I could use them as a point of comparison for some of today's radios. 

Here's the bright side of the GS750's light weight: It makes a very good portable radio, much better than I initially thought. It's easy to handle and not as big in person as you might think. If you're a camper or do a lot of outdoor radio listening, I can recommend the GS750. 

One thing I like about the 750 is the way it looks on my bedside table. Its cockpit control styling makes me feel like a little kid on a toy airplane or flying in a pretend rocket to Mars. 

The 750 by your bed says boldly, "You have arrived at the Mothership." Before I geek-out too much, let me transition to function and performance.

The learning curve for time controls, direct key entry, and presets is fairly easy. It took me about five minutes to comprehend the manual; however, I have toyed around with Tecsun radios before, so I am fairly familiar with their functions.

As a bedside radio, it's nice that you can toggle through your stations with the up and down arrow buttons. 

I haven't used this radio at night yet and doubt it is illuminated sufficiently without my needing a pen flashlight. Clearly, the 750 is more of a general table radio than a clock radio, but I'm using it by my bedside because that is where I listen to radio most often and I want to get as many hours in as possible during my two-week loan.

What about performance? Excellent on FM and AM. I was able to eliminate birdy on weak AM stations by rotating the rotational antenna, called a Gyro on vintage Panasonics. 

The FM antenna is huge and can be rotated 360 degrees. There is also an FM antenna button that gives you varying degrees of attenuation to maximize reception. 

I'd say FM was as strong as my current FM champion, my C.Crane CSW. Better yet, the GS 750's AM sounds much better. 

Truth be told, I am more impressed with the GS750 than I thought I'd be. I love its look, its performance is excellent, its functions and options are plentiful without being too busy. 

I think if I were to buy one on Amazon for their sale price of $220 and free shipping, I'd have to put it in the workout room and move the Boston Acoustics Horizon Duo, a completely different kind of radio, in my bedroom. The question is will I buy a GS750? Hard to say. For about $150, I should be able to get a C.Crane CCRadio 2, which may be a better fit in my bedroom. While I am confident the CCRadio 2, made by Sangean, will match the GS750's AM performance and have richer speaker sound, I am not convinced that its FM will be able to compete with the GS750's.

 

In any event, I don't have to make a decision now. I have another two weeks with the GS750 to think it over.   

Comments

[Mike W]

Happy St. Patrick's Day, narrowback.

Outstanding, a Herculodge GS750 review at last. Looking forward to your feedback here, esp. regarding MW performance, and whether that rotating antenna works as well as it ought.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's a Kiwa upgrade, not Kiwi, which would presumably involve shipping that mostly-hollow plastic box to the antipodes and back.

I see that Craig S. at Kiwa doesn't mention the GS750 on his site yet. He's the one you'll be buying the MW loop from after your radio obsession has crescendoed into near-madness :

http://www.kiwa.com/

[Ed]

$220 (plus Kiwa mods) is still a lot for what--in your application--is basically an AM/FM non-clock radio. Heck, it's not even stereo. The Duo, while about as wide, is definitely a better and cheaper choice for sound and reception quality. The 750 is a radio meant to be listened to in a little "radio shack" in a cold garage or backyard, not in a bedroom. I still would like to try it, to check its shortwave reception. We don't live in a great area for SW broadcasts, unfortunately; mostly Asian and Australian stations hit the West coast.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Regarding Mike's question on AM: The rotating antenna is a clear winner. All radios should have one. That's a selling point.

Regarding Ed's comment on price per performance ratio: Yes, Ed is right: You can buy two Duos for the price of one GS750. But you won't match the GS750's AM performance and you can't rotate the Duo, too damn big. Another selling point on the GS750: It produces loud volume.

Of course, the GS750 is an apple and the Duo is an orange. Radiophiles and gadget geeks will love the doo-dads on the GS750. Having said that, I'm not sure I'd get one. $220 is STEEP.

[doby14]

Wow. This is amazing. After all of the negative reviews I've seen of the GS750 -- it's endorsed by Jeff. That changes my entire perspective on it.

Grundig should use this in its advertisements.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

At $220, I'm tempted, especially with a coupon, but now that I know it's been as low as 220 there is NO WAY I'll fork out 300 for it.

I have to say the AM/FM reception is fantastic. I rather like this radio in spite of the fact that I'm not an SW listener and wouldn't utilize that band.

[kr]

jeff, keep fiddling with it, we still need the final, all encompassing holy grail review of the 750 and then our lives will be complete :-)

by the way, i have that old tube radio hallicrafters s-53a hooked up to a dipole in my bedroom and that thing cleans the freaking clock of the grundig satellite 800 on shortwave. i try to find the same broadcast on both of them and then rotate the dial in the same direction from there, and the hali picks ups tons of things the grundig misses. the shortwave band actually sounds crowded with the halicrafters. drawbacks are its not digital so you dont know where you are on the band, but by god you can hear everything...

[Jeffrey McMahon]

The pros and cons of vintage analogs.

I will give a full review in a couple of weeks.

[kr]

for what its worth if you want to know what is on shortwave radio, basically you have international broadcasters and then domestic religious broadcasters mixed in with hams on ssb. there is not too much domestic stuff that is non-religious. it's pretty close to zero, actually. one guy on there, "brother stair" out of NC, pretty much is a shortwave frequency somewhere 24 hours a day. he says we have up to 3.5 years left on earth, so you may want to head back to that lebanese restaurant fairly frequently.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Doomsday prophets can be a buzzkill. No SW for me.

[georgioskoroneos]

hi all...well unfortunately,this part of the S/W is as weak as it could be,since the ends of the cold war...very little value at all,but first of all ,under no circumstances can i let english go down,US is leading out there these days...and certainly have to maintain the ability for leadership in getting AMERICAN programs on the air,or else one day maybe we are going to be driven to the russians or the chinise.

[Gary Kinsman]

It's too bad they left out the sync detector that's in the Sat 800. It can make really distorted signals sound quite nice.

[jeffrey McMahon]

No one is praising the SW on the GS750.

You get it for the looks and its AM, FM.

[Mike W]

Now here's a little something to look at if you've got a receiver with an antenna input for MW (like a Satellit 800, or for that matter, the BA Horizon Solo/Duo), but no rotating MW antenna of its own :

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=390029325964&Category=3284

Lots of tweaking involved, but would make for a real AM powerhouse.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Too much work for my lazy self.

[Mike W]

I had the TCF also, and got tired of all the tweaking. Still, for a hundred bucks or less it was pretty darn good.

Every so often I think about getting another TCF for my Sat 800. The antenna head isn't really designed for tabletop use, however. It just lays there like a lox.

The McKay Dymek and Quantum loops were real tabletop units, but very pricey.