Grundig Satellite 750 AM/FM-Stereo/Shortwave/Aircraft Band Radio with SSB (Single Side Band), Black Review

I've been playing with my new Grundig Satellit 750 for several weeks and believe that I am now ready to give it an honest review after making performance comparisons with my other receivers, namely, the Panason RF-2200, the Sony ICF-6500W, the Sony ICF-2001D, and the GE Superadio III.

Build Quality:
I removed the back of the Grundig 750 and was amazed to find a very well layed out design. Looking from the rear, the speaker, with its huge magnet, was sitting there all alone with plenty of room for reverb. For a portable radio of this size, an impressive looking audio amp was the only component sharing this compartment. To the left of the speaker was a large printed wire board (PWB) that was mounted to what appeared to be a box in a box (with the radio chassis being the main box and the inside box framing everything on the front panel except the speaker). The PWB had its wire side facing to the rear of the radio and was essentially the cover of the box I mentioned, so I was not able to observe the number of components inside the radio or on the PWB. This main PWB had two large metal shields soldered to the wire side of the PWB, obviously to eliminate spurs. I removed about 8 screws from this main PWB in an attempt to remove it to view the rest of this beauty but decided not to go any further because there were numerous hard mounted plugs around the edges of the board and I did not want to risk breaking anything. So I stopped the disassembly process. I'll just say this. It was obvious from the design that this is a modern, clean, computer generated design.

The only build quality cons worth mentioning are: 1) this radio direly needs a foot to prop up the front (I used a 15 inch triangular architectural-ruler which worked perfectly); 2) the bottom section of the whip antenna was too tight ( I expect that many Grundig 750's, like the Panasonic RF-2200, will end up with a broken whip antenna.); 3) the ferrite MW antenna must use spring contacts that seem to lose contact at times - MW reception goes blank at times and a slight movement of the rotatable antenna corrects it - not a big issue, it only happened once during the week of testing.

Performance in a nutshell: For Shortwave, I would say that with the exception of the lack of SYNC mode, this Grundig 750's selectivity, sensitivity, and SSB usefulness are as good or better than the Sony ICF-2001D (2010). Tuning the SSB Ham bands was easy, and once tuned, it remained rock steady, absolutely no drift was observed. MW performance was the same as the Sony ICF-2001 except at frequencies above 900MHZ the Grundig far outperformed the Sony. FM performance was superior to the Sony plus the Grundig provides FM Stereo when using an external amplifier or a stereo headset.

Cons:
1) I find the memory usage of this radio to be too complex with the exception of using it in conjunction with the ATS mode which works very well. This is one area where the Sony ICF-2010 beats the Grundig. Sony's simple direct memory buttons are very handy and useful when compared to the memory sequence required by this Grundig (again, except ATS). By the time you finish sequencing this memory system you may as well just punch in the frequency directly. Speaking of memory usage, the radio provides a push-button switch labeled VM/VF. Via the manual I know that this switch is used to change the PAGE mode, but what does VM/VF mean?

2)The manual is severely lacking. It does not give proper information of the workings of the up/down switch and its relationship to the FAST/SLOW switch. Also, the manual fails to point out many of the features of this radio including its SCAN capabilities versus bands. (For those who may not know, this radio is capable of scanning the bands identified as Broadcast Bands by holding either the up or down switch for more than a couple of seconds. While Scanning, it will stop on strong stations for 5 seconds and can be stopped by hitting the up/down button again. Also while scanning, it will automatically skip the non-broadcast bands - I like that.).

Pros:
1)Very pleasing audio. After listening to this radio for hours while working at my desktop computer, I can say without hesitation that it has the most pleasing audio of any of my portable radios. I would call the audio quality extremely pleasing for personal listening. I agree that the GE Superadio and the Panasonic RF-2200 have great audio, but they are both a little boomy compared to this Grundig.

2)Except for the lack of a front foot to prop up the front, the design layout and ease of use could not be better. The feel and usability of the main frequency dial is superb.

3)The rotatable MW ferrite antenna works great except for the scratchy contacts that I hope Grundig corrects, but I would not put off buying the 750 for this reason.

4)Like most Grundig's before it, the 750 has the looks of a serious, great looking, communications receiver.

Conclusion:
To me, the discontinued Sony ICF-2010 has met its match, or should I say its replacement. And unlike the poor audio quality of the Sony, this Grundig has very pleasing audio. The only advantage of the Sony over this Grundig is smaller size and the fact that the Sony has a SYNC mode. So if you are looking for a great entry level digital portable radio, and the discontinued Grundig 800 is too large, this may be it.


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