Update on the Grundig Satellit 750: A Good But Not Great Radio Not Worth More Than $160

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.

 

Update: After several weeks and comparing it to my $70 Sangean PR-D5 on AM, the GS750 sadly lost that AM battle. My conclusion: The GS750 is a good but not great radio. 

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.

 

Update: After several weeks and comparing it to my $70 Sangean PR-D5 on AM, the GS750 sadly lost that AM battle. My conclusion: The GS750 is a good but not great radio. 

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.

 

Update: After several weeks and comparing it to my $70 Sangean PR-D5 on AM, the GS750 sadly lost that AM battle. My conclusion: The GS750 is a good but not great radio. 

Comments

[Jerry]

Ok..I'm lost. Why review a radio of this type just for its AM and FM? Isn't one of main (and important) features shortwave? How does the shortwave work inside the house and with its existing antenna? Do you need an outside antenna to boost the signal? And how about the radio's SSB mode (another important feature)? Also, the keypad is supposed to have 1000 memories...does that work and easy to use? How does the shortwave compare to the C.Crane CSW?

If all you are looking for is a good AM/FM radio, you are right...this is a bit expensive. It's like buying a BMW 6-series for just making weekly trips to the grocery store.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

SW is not outstanding. You'll do better with a Degen 1103 or Redsun 2100/ C.Crane CSW.

The memories work great and are easy to use. Still, the radio is overpriced.

[Blake]

Have either of you read "Passport to Worldband Radio" 2009 edition? Their review of the Grundig 750 praises it for shortwave reception. They only dock it for lack of synchronous detector and bandwidths that are too wide for SSB (though good for audio quality). Other reviews say they do not have the same SSB issues. After reading the Grundig and CCrane SW reviews in Passport, you can come to the conclusion the 750 has significantly better SW than the CCrane. One key area that the 750 excels in according to Passport is dynamic range so it can get superb sensitivity with a serious antenna without overloading the circuits. They said the CCrance SW on the other hand does not have a very good dynamic range and it does not reject "images" as well. It seems to me that getting a 750 for a 30 day trial may be a safe bet to make sure it fits your needs. If the AM reception is not as good as the best PR-D5 it still may fit your needs.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

SW sensitivity will vary depending on location. The CSW, less than half the price of the 750, equals or surpasses the 750 in my LA area.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Let me emphasize, though, that the most damning thing about the 750: It's a $300 radio that lost in AM power comparison to the $80 Sangean PR-D5.

[Blake]

You point is very valid one especially considering the way the 750 features AM reception with the rotating antenna. With less than excellent AM reception it is nothing more than a gimmick. If I had a good outdoor antenna I may go with the 750 or wait for a better replacement. I am not going to be installing large outdoor antenna so I am going with the CCrane. You can't charge the batteries inside the 750 like you can the CCrane either.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Yeah, the 750's AM is good but not $300 good. And inferior to the $80 PR-D5.

[Angelo]

The thing that damns it is the $300.00 price tag, which says it should be exceptional, not mostly good. Look, if it was $159.00, I think we'd all be happy if it did great on SW and we'd be okay with it falling a bit short of the PR-D5 on AM. When the price tag is $300.00 (You could get about 4 PR-D5s for that price.), it needs to be hitting on all cylinders.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

People would be better off saving their money for a GESRII in mint condition.

[MIKE GEALL]

I like the grundig 750 and have no problems with it.I use a long wire out side ant up at 55 feet and it works great.Over the last 40 years i have been swl,ing i can tell you that NO reciver with a stock antena works as well as when you conect to a out side ant .I have been a ham (ve3mig) for 35 years and have run hundreds of radios over the years and the 750 sits at the top of my list for preformanc and looks and price.

[what to know]

Hey Mike....you said you ran a wire outside for 55ft for better receiving, my question is was it verticle, or horazonal? Us beginners would like to know for we know nothing about these except there very interesting to us now.

thanks
want to know

[androidz]

i want that GS750... :D

[Larry Lanberg]

"SW is not outstanding. You'll do better with a Degen 1103 or Redsun 2100/ C.Crane CSW".

That's a total falsehood. Wow. I can do 50x more DX'ing with the Sattelit 750 than with the Degen 1103/Kaito KA-1103, which is essentially just a lil' travel radio that has somewhat decent reception for a lil' travel radio.

[Jeffrey McMahon]

The SW on the 750 is indeed known to be outstanding. However it's a shame the AM is so disappointing on a $300 radio.