Pablo Ranks His Kchibo D96L Superior to Other Portables in Its Class

Just want to tell you my experience with my 4 weeks old Kchibo D96L..

It is really a bomb...

Battery (Li-on type, common available Nokya phone type) seems to have an excellent life..at least 2 weeks with a 4 hours daily listening!

Once discharged, just charge it in any usb port or with the provided ac adapter..and in two hours you have full battery again..nice!

Interface is very intuitive, despite the chinese labelling..the english version of the owner´s manual was very handy at first, but I did not used it again..very easy to operate.

Construction is also very remarkable for a radio in this price class...

The display is great, with big size digits an dot matrix section showing time, date, etc....the backlight is excellent, with a nice green causing good contrast.

Audio is ...EXCELLENT..much more enjoyable than the Degen´s I got too (PL380 and 310)..the audio is much more detailed and pleasant to hear. Of course it has almost no bass, which is logic due to the radio´s size.

I hate the digital volume control on radios...always has strange steps, causing too loud volume for lower settings; this is not the case, the steps on volume control actually lets you to set the volume from zero to high leves with a wide range of steps..GREAT!

Reception: first I should say that I don´t listen SW from long time ago, so I don´t make any comment on that band.

AM and FM: just STELLAR (in the same category of the little DEGEN PL-380/310) but, again, with much more enjoyable audio. The selectable DSP settings helps also a lot receiving the weakest stations.

I really love my D96L and strongly recommend to any radio lovers to buy one..fun and great radio in a small package is the reward!

Cheers!

Pablo

Comments

[Wals]

I've yet to try DSP. This could be a possibility as it sounds interesting.

[cam]

kchibo uses a china DSP chip while tecsun/degen uses SiLabs, save an odd model

reviews put the silabs ahead by far on FM, and the kchibo ahead slightly on SW

id love a nice comparison though

[David F.]

Here's a link to a nice comparison. See the review of the Tecsun PL-310.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ultralightdx/files/3%20Radios%2C%20Reviews%2C%20Manuals/Radio%20Reviews/

[new]

http://bbs.leowood.net/forum_read.asp?id=8126472

[Gary]

There is a comparison test of the PL-380, PL-310 and D96L here:

http://www.dxer.ca/file-area/doc_download/290-tecsun-pl-380-review