« Jules Updates His Tecsun PL-390 Review | Main | Bob C. Explains the Volume Difficulties of the Tecsun Radios »
The Tecsun PL390 is a wonderful small radio in terms of sensitivity and selectivity...but there are two aspects that bother me about it: In my opinion the sound isn't great even considering the size of the radio. I've bought a dirt cheap mp3 fm radio (chinese of course) smaller than the 390 and the sound is far more pleasant.
The other aspect also linked to audio is the factory setting for the digital volume, the lower setting is too loud..
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So which radio is the dirt cheap one with the pleasant sound?
Posted by: A. Black | December 04, 2011 at 08:07 PM
It sounds much better than the PL-310 & PL-380 - and all of the other portables that I have of a similar size. My only complaint about the volume is that it doesn't get loud enough...but for a cheap little radio I was very pleasantly surprised. The only Tecsun DSP that I haven't tried is the PL-606 - that one has received good reviews, and is supposedly even more sensitive. Hopefully one day we'll see a DSP radio with full SW coverage and SSB...will be first in line to buy one.
Posted by: Jules | December 04, 2011 at 10:12 PM
For some reason, all of the Tecsun DSP radios seem to have a volume control issue with respect to the feed from the headphone jack. Set it to one volume level and it's too low while the next step is too high. I've also noticed that the volume on the AM side of both my PL-606 and Grundig G8 tends to drift upwards to the extent that you eventually have to turn it down to a volume level of "2" - "2" because you can't hear anything on "1". And "2" is too loud (no pun intended)!
It's so bad on my little Tecsun F-110 (an otherwise great little unit) that I use Pioneer earbuds with an adjustable volume so that I can cut the audio back when listening in a quiet area. This issue most certainly is associated with the DSP chip as it seems common to all such units.
Posted by: Bob C | December 05, 2011 at 06:00 AM
@ A.Black: this is the crappy fm radio that sounds much better than the 390 http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/341457596/Promotion_FM_radio_rechargeable_portable_speaker.html
Posted by: Pablo | December 05, 2011 at 06:44 AM