An old receiver updated with a new company badge? An OEM manufacturer too cheap to redesign a case? What's the story here?
What's the deal? Grundig Satellit 750 is now a Tecsun S-2200X?
- Thread starter Omega-TI
- Start date
Dan Robinson Reviews the New Tecsun S-2200X Portable Receiver
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor and supporter, Dan Robinson, who shares the following review: Tecsun Delivers The S-2200X – New Life For A 16-Year-Old Cabinet Design by Dan Robinson Note: Pl…
swling.com
Dang! I seriously doubt it's worth $130.00 more than a Sangean ATS-909X.
I would agree, but I am not a Tecsun fan anyway.
TAC4
Member
That is exactly what it is and they want a pretty penny for it.
It would never hold a candle to the Sangean ATS-909X2.
That review shows it better than the 750 and I am sure it
will sell. But man does it have a very toy grade plastic look to it,
It reminds of Eton's E1 going to the Elite Satellite. What a
f****** disaster that was. It is all because of greed at the top.
Cut quality to maximize profits. We the consumer pay through
the nose for garbage.
Attachments
Well I gotta tell ya, seeing the low prices of some radios already coming out of China and their price-point, want they're asking for it is way out-of-line. Oh yeah, when you add in their currency manipulation...
13dka
Member
The Grundig company ceased to exist in 2003, the brand name was sold to a Turkish electronics import business IIRC and was then used to label e.g. Chinese radios with that badge by Lextronics USA. That's how the Tecsun S-2000 became the "Etón" ("Grundig USA") Satellit 750" (AFAIK on the US market only) - basically an analog radio like the PL-660/680 in tabletop format.
Little is known about the S-2200 yet, except that the circuit description indicates much that this could be - more or less - just the tabletop version of the PL-990, with the old S-2000 case being modified to host the different innards. The apprehension is that these innards are just the latest iteration of the same old "triple-conversion" receiver line (starting with the PL-880), with the "3rd IF stage" being the same old Si473x giving it exactly the same old properties and quirks.
Blackswan73
Active Member
It is basically a repackaged H-501/x with the only differences being a real s-meter and RF gain control has been added along with optional operation with conventional batteries. Nice features, but not worth $100+ dollars over a 501. Bring it down to around $300 and it would be a viable option
B.S.
B.S.
I don't think I saw it on the 2200x but the H-501X has great Bluetooth capability and also a micro SD card slot that I put music and podcasts on.
They could have at least added those features unless I missed it.
Blackswan73
Active Member
I don’t think anything currently on the market will be able to replace my thirty year old Drake R-8 as my primary sw receiver
B.S.
B.S.
TAC4
Member
EPIC !The Drake R8 was the sexiest looking radio of it's time (IMHO).
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
The price notwithstanding I hear that it's already sold out on the Anon co website. The reviews have been generally positive, with the only exception that Tecsun still can't get the SYNC feature to work properly. The 660 was reportedly the last Tecsun to get it right, but after that, nada. Likely due to the chipset they're using
Mike
Mike
Probably so. The SYNC on my Sony 2010 is still amazing.
Here's a good 2200x review on YouTube. I watch this guy a lot and enjoy his content.
13dka
Member
11:00 - that explanation for the "wobbly SSB above 20MHz" from Anon-Co may be technically true but sounds phrased to pass the buck to the Skyworks (formerly known as Silicon Labs) chip, at least in Gilles' retelling. However, their "fault" is that their chips simply don't do SSB, which is why Tecsun had to make their own BFO and apparently keeps struggling with its stability.
Speaking of "triple conversion" - the reason why the pricier Tecsuns don't "automute" is that they are actually pretty oldschool "PLL" radios in front of a 3rd, tacked-on IF stage employing one of the Si473x chips saving all the parts for demodulation/filtering/switching... Gilles is praising that the calibration procedure is the best of all Tecsuns on the new 2200X but my understanding is that there wouldn't even be a need for such a procedure and a cause for such non-linearities with a more modern day receiver concept.
I'm sure the big speaker will make for a fine broadcast receiver. They obviously needed a replacement for the discontinued S-2000 and I did not expect them to do anything more than adapting their only slightly younger, current "radio platform" to the old case molds.
Speaking of "triple conversion" - the reason why the pricier Tecsuns don't "automute" is that they are actually pretty oldschool "PLL" radios in front of a 3rd, tacked-on IF stage employing one of the Si473x chips saving all the parts for demodulation/filtering/switching... Gilles is praising that the calibration procedure is the best of all Tecsuns on the new 2200X but my understanding is that there wouldn't even be a need for such a procedure and a cause for such non-linearities with a more modern day receiver concept.
I'm sure the big speaker will make for a fine broadcast receiver. They obviously needed a replacement for the discontinued S-2000 and I did not expect them to do anything more than adapting their only slightly younger, current "radio platform" to the old case molds.
TAC4
Member
Mine also is amazing.
TAC4
Member
Issue I have is the asking price, there is no value, also the
CDN dollar does not help. I would get a SDRplay much better value and performance but that's just me.
CDN dollar does not help. I would get a SDRplay much better value and performance but that's just me.
13dka
Member
I just checked the prices over here out of curiosity... 499€, that's $555. That's quite a lot of money for a radio that shares its backend tech with $79 portables. However, I've watched a few SSB videos and it does sound like some of that extra money went into more kludges to mend the AGC problems so it's kind of OK-ish most times, the overall sound is still the same though. It will absolutely sell like hot cakes.
