Kevin Sees Some Needs for Improvement in the Kchibo D96L

As with the G8, the Kchibo D96L's forte is not SW if you are in an area with strong AM stations, since it will cause overloads problems that bleed into the SW band. One guy has speculated that the problem stems from the AM loopstick being indirectly connected with the whip antenna. Whatever the cause, one would not necessarily buy the D96L because of SW prowess. It's designed for the Chinese domestic market, so apparently SW is not a big deal there, and/or there aren't as many AM station as we contend with in North America. In Europe, where there are few AM stations left, the G8 was absolutely great.

On AM, two areas for improvement I see for the D96L. The backlight for the display injects noise into the audio, so you have about 5 seconds of "hash" every time you adjust the frequency or volume: I have come to ignore it by now. The other is that if you detune by a khz to avoid interference, the audio drops about 10 dB due to a soft-mute feature; so, I turn the volume up a little and it's fine. Also, the little keypad can be difficult to use, but once you figure out the memory and manual tuning methods in the manual (I posted an English version to the Yahoo UltralightDX group), it's fairly user-friendly.

Comments

[Kevin S]

A caveat - lest you think that the D96L is not a good receiver, it most definitely is! The multiple AM bandwidths are fabulous, the sensitivity is very good and does not need to be aligned (unique among portable receivers), QC out of the box has been good, and FM performance is about that of the Grundig G8 (namely, great). The shortcomings listed above are likely not deal-breakers since they don't affect AM reception once you let the backlight go off and adjust the volume, and since sensitivity and selectivity are both "best in class" this constitutes a lesser list of issues than most any other receiver has. If the items above were addressed, it would verge on being an unbeatable AM and FM portable.

[Val]

Twice I exchanged Grundig because G8 had same SW overload problem.

[Paul]

Kaito CEO reviews his own products on amazon

... slightly off topic, but an interesting discovery:

http://cobaltpet.blogspot.com/2009/08/kaito-ceo-reviews-his-own-products-on.html

[stetsi]

I'm keen to know how that 1000mah battery holds up in the Kchibo D96l. I understand some of the lower mah rated batteries in the new Kchibo portables are pretty lousy - battery life of 6-10 hours, etc, which is not acceptable for travel portables, particularly when there's no generic (AA, AAA) fallback option. I'd want min 25-30 hours ave. per charge.
Anyone with experience?

[TrafindCom]

this is good the quality.the kchibo brand, if you want buy. please visit our website:http://www.trafind.com

[TrafindCom]

trafind com. buy Kchibo D96L IS USD:52.99.
http://www.trafind.com/product_info.php?cPath=102&products_id=704

[Norman Parke]

Kchibo PORTABLE DSP AM FM SW PLL SRETEO D96L RADIO.
Hi, you mention above that you emailed
an English version of the manual.
Can you tell me where I can access one please ?,
Thanks,
Norman P

[TrafindCOM]

becaus the kchibo is chinese the brand. not have a english the manual. you didn't get the english the manual. the buy url: http://www.trafind.com/product_info.php?cPath=102&products_id=704

[TrafindCom]

this item Kchibo D96 is discout. only need the usd 50.99.buy the fast.

[TrafindCom]

the Kchibo is china brand. the factory didn't supply the english the manual. i am so sorry. if you want buy, the buy url is:http://www.trafind.com/product_info.php?cPath=102&products_id=704

[TrafindCom]

the kchibo brand supply the new item model :6110. this item feature like the D96. the other differect is use the AA Battery. the buy url:http://www.trafind.com/product_info.php?cPath=102&products_id=874