Tecsun PL-505 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black

• AM/FM Shortwave receiver with DSP (Digital Signal Processing) & ETM (Easy Tuning Method)
• 30" telescopic antenna extender greatly enhance FM & Shortwave reception
• Tecsun's patented ETM tuning offers easy & comprehensive access to all local stations
• Alarm clock + sleep timer + 550 memories
• Compact size with outstanding sound quality

For years the only way to get OEM Tecsun radios in the US was to import them from Asia or buy the few models rebranded by Grundig/Eton. Lately Kaito has been selling them domestically, at approximately the same cost that "price + shipping" would amount to if you imported one yourself. Plus you have an English manual, support/warranty. Win-Win.

Like many Tecsun radios produced over the last few years, the basic circuit design centers around SiLabs DSP chip which directly converts RF to audio. This makes it very easy to produce an inexpensive radio that outperforms similarly sized and priced superhet sets as have been manufactured for decades. Features that would cost big money on a portable radio (like high-performance selectable bandwidth filters to reduce interference) are part of the chipset itself, cost nothing, and out-perform their analog cousins by a mile.

The PL-505 is basically a re-work of the earlier PL-606. By all accounts it performs in an identical manner and has some annoyances fixed (e.g. problems with the buttons "pressing themselves" after months of use is addressed by making them stiffer to push).

Both radios are basically scaled-down versions of the flagship PL-310 model. What's been removed, for the most part, is the numerical keypad. This means you can only tune stations using up/down manual tuning, saved memory channels, or the extremely useful ETM (Easy Tuning Mode). ETM scans the band you've selected (e.g. FM) and creates a bank of "scratchpad" memory locations based on the strongest signals heard. It functions better than anyone would expect and i use it all the time. What is NOT scaled down is the internal AM ferrite antenna it's large for a radio of this size, and the MW sensitivity benefits greatly.

In actual use, the sensitivity, selectivity, and immunity to interference.overload is head and shoulders above superhet radios. In order to make the radio small and light, the telescopic whip is intentionally kept short but there is an outboard extension that bolts onto the end if desired, making it the equal of larger sets.

Negatives: the speaker audio quality definitely reflects the size and price of the radio, but through headphones it's quite decent. Like the PL-310, (but NOT the PL-380 and PL-390) the radio also suffers from an aggressive implementation of the "soft mute" function of the SiLabs DSP chip. This annoying function causes the volume of a weak station to suddenly drop off a cliff once it falls below a certain preset level. (Kinda like a reverse AGC, which makes a weak station WEAKER STILL, instead of boosting it). If you're into AM DX and the station is fading in and out, the soft-mute compounds the problem, making the audio even harder to follow.

Buy Tecsun PL-505 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Black Now

This unit has a fairly basic and serious problem. The buttons do not work consistently. For example, pushing the power button may or may not turn on the radio. Ditto for all other buttons. That makes it useless so I have to return it. Other Tecsun radios seem to get good reviews so maybe this is a defective unit. There is no assistance available through their website to help figure out what is going on so back it goes and I'll be ordering a different brand Eton/Grundig and hoping for better results.

For the record, other aspects of the radio seem quite good! It is very compact. The dimensions in the Amazon description are incorrect. The dimensions in one image posted by the seller are accurate. Actual for the radio: 4.8" wide x 3.1" high x 0.78" high.

Sound quality is surprisingly good given the small speaker. It is lightweight and it lacks the sturdy build quality and feel of older Sony AM/FM/SW radios such as the ICF-SW1. Then again, it also costs a lot less.

It seems very sensitive on the FM band, pulling in somewhat weak stations in my area very well.

The ETM scanning seems handy. It automatically finds all signals in your area on a particular band. You can then scan through these stations rather than scan by frequency (which is also available separately).

If the buttons worked reliably it would be easy to set the clock and alarm.

Reliable buttons are, though, pretty much a necessity!

UPDATE:

As mentioned above I swapped this Tecsun PL-505 for a Grundig (marketed by Eton in the USA) radio, ETON Traveler II Digital G8 AM/FM/LW/Shortwave Radio with Auto Tuning Storage. It's about the same price point as this Tecsun PL-505 unit. For starters, the buttons work reliably! Build quality seems higher on the Grundig, buttons have a higher quality feel, overall very good features. It is slightly larger than this Tecsun unit. I recommend the Grundig.