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For TECSUN PL-380, 53 customer reviews collected from 2 e-commerce sites, and the average score is 4.2.

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16.7.2015

As a radio frequency design engineer, I carried out considerable research before buying the PL-380 to replace my aging Grundig YB-305. My listening preferences include BBC Radio 4 on FM and international broadcasts on AM. I’m also a licensed radio amateur and I wanted the option to tune through the Russian FM band which is 64MHz to 108MHz because it includes the 70MHz (4m) amateur band.There can be no doubt that this set represents a quantum leap in domestic radio technology in terms of performance, user friendliness and value for money. The excellent sensitivity, DSP filtering options and huge range of functions are nearly all provided by a single integrated circuit, the Silicon Labs Si4734-D60.Having so much functionality in one component significantly increases reliability, and keeps production costs down. In this case it also provides exceptionally long battery life.The audio is crisp and clear. The 50mm diameter speaker is fine for speech but I normally use headphones when listening to music. In FM mode, with a reasonable signal, the noise floor is so low that it’s a pleasure to listen to serious music on a good pair of headphones. Users in very weak signal areas can select mono mode or use the clip on wire antenna supplied with the radio. Received signal strength and signal to noise ratio details are available by means of the Display button. As I write, I am listening to BBC Radio 3 in crystal clear stereo at a signal strength of 52dBuV and a S/N ratio of 40dB. For technical reasons, the Si4734-D60 limits the audio high frequency response to about 15kHz. This is not quite hi-fi but I find it perfectly acceptable.There are two automatic tuning modes, ‘Auto Tuning Storage’ (ATS) and ‘Easy Tuning Mode’ (ETM). ATS scans the selected band and stores all incoming carriers into Preset Memories, P001, P002... etc. ETM scans the selected band and stores incoming carriers but does not allocate P--- numbers. The ETM memories can be overwritten without affecting the Program Memories. I use ATM for the stations I listen to every day at home and I find ETS really useful for Short Wave listening. I will probably also use ETS for rapid access to regional FM transmissions when I’m away from home. Of course, manual tuning and direct keypad entry is also possible. The Volume control is incremental; it has sufficiently fine steps to enable the listener to set a comfortable level when using headphones.The radio looks good and feels solid, the ergonomics are well thought out. Button actuation is positive, not in the least spongy or stiff. The LCD display is easy to read and it has an intelligent backlight function which comes on for three seconds whenever a button is pressed. This can be disabled. There is also a Light button in the top left corner, close to the headphone socket. This turns the backlight on for three seconds. It’s easy to find the button in the dark by running your fingers along the headphone cable to the plug. I find this really useful for bedside listening.The 21 page Operation Manual is concise with clear instructions on how to use the various functions and enable less commonly used features such as Long Wave and extended VHF coverage. I worked through the entire manual in about an hour as soon as I received the radio. Having done that, I am unlikely to need it again. There are no deep menus to memorise, just second functions. The manual supplied was in Chinese but a photocopy of the English version was also in the box. A PDF version is freely available on-line. There were a few goodies in the box too, a soft carry case, a pair of ear buds and a clip on wire antenna for improved reception on SW and VHF FM in very weak signal areas.Medium wave tuning steps can be set to 9kHz for use in the UK and Europe or 10kHz for use in America. My radio was set to the UK standard by default but when I changed it to 10kHz to test it, the temperature display changed from Celsius to Fahrenheit, brilliant! SW tuning steps are 1kHz. A DSP filter is used to set the AM bandwidth from 6kHz to 1kHz. This is a very powerful function which will be enjoyed by SW/MW DX enthusiasts. Technically minded readers may be interested to know that two de-emphasis time constants are available within the Si4734-D60. I think these may also be automatically selected to suit local pre-emphasis standards in the EU/USA but if so, there is no mention of it in the manual.In summary, the PL-380 is a top class radio which, despite its low price tag, easily out performs the classic super heterodyne receivers which, in their day, were far more complex and very expensive. I would recommend it to anyone from the casual listener to the MW/SW DX enthusiast. It’s easy to use and packed with features which have been well thought out. Thank you for reading this review, I hope you found it informative.
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10.1.2015

This radio is fantastic, and considerably better than I was expecting. Tecsun should employ a native English speaker to revise the manual and to write publicity giving this radio full credit. Like many others, I have been a long term user of small well made Sony radios on my solitary trips camping up in the mountains of Europe and America. The SW100 finally gave up because of the design flaw in the hinge which now cannot be repaired.I expected the Tecsun to be a bit dodgy and sloppily made and it's the opposite! What a bargain. It may not actually have single side band or Sony's long excellent synchronous detection, but it brings in stations as if it has. Maybe it's this wonderful DSP chip?I have so far tested it out on what it will be doing in Europe- the World Service frequencies and it's doing really well- this is a good test as these frequencies are not broadcast 'to Europe' any more. I'm hoping it will work with the ultimate test: R4 LW down in the Pyrenees, but that's a tall order and even the best radios can only do that at odd times in the middle of the night.The Easy Tuning Mode uses memories which are distinct from the 500 or so user controlled memories- you just set ETM going in your chosen band FM, MW, LW and SW (it does all SW bands in one ETM instruction, but you can stop it when you like) and you then have a collection of received stations which you move through using the excellent notched tuning wheel (I mean that you get a palpable click as you move to the next station). If you like one, you can store it in one of your hundreds of memories (chosen either with the same wheel, or direct from the keyboard like 2-3-7) without losing your place in the ETM memories. This means that it is simple to re-scan the entire band whenever you want and all the ETM memories will be replaced, but your own stored memories will be retained. This is excellent design! (I'm having to keep using excellent- it applies to everything except the manual which considerably undersells the radio).You have several settings to enable or disable audible 'beeps' (I always disable mine, but they must be useful for the visually impaired), intelligent screen lighting (very useful, comes on when you move the wheels), internal charging of the 3 AA NiMH batteries (or you can use disposables- it seems to be very economical on power). In the box you get some perfectly acceptable stereo earphones, a long wire antenna which you clip onto the telescopic aerial (not quite as posh as the Sony one many of you will know which winds up into the round black case, but still good- I won't know how good until I try it out in the hills, with the other end fixed to my walking poles), a very handy zip bag for the radio, and another little bag for the antenna and earphones. All you former Sony users- this is what you need!. Of course, I don't know how durable it is but externally and with the 'feel' of the controls, it seems comparable with Sony- it looks like the original Sony 7600 which is 30 years old and which I still use at home, but smaller. Only a little larger than the SW100.
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12.10.2018

This radio is exactly what I need to take to work and carry in my van between jobs during the day, as I work on my own a lot, and I need to keep in touch with news, weather, roads etc! Do not be fooled by the size or the price of this little gem! For less than 43 nicker, it packs the punch of a radio twice the price! Very high quality for the money, very functional, highly portable, easy to use! I can't fully test the battery life, because I only got it today, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt with 4 stars because the 3 AA bats I put in have not budged from full charge after at least 6 hours running! I do intend to get some rechargeable ones for it at the weekend! This radio 'rocks'!I took it up a hill in Lincolnshire tonight trying my first 'DX' with it, the highest point near where I live, and it easily pulled in 100 AM stations and 51 FM stations. SW was a little dissapointing and only pulled in 21 stations, but SW appears to be unpopular in the U.K. currently, but you can still listen to other foreign English speaking channels! There are 2 ways to scan the wave bands automatically, one way using 'ETM' which is great, and this creates its own temporary preset pages that are easy to scroll through. The other is to 'auto tune', and again it creates it's own preset pages, easy to scroll through all presets. Or, you can dial in the frequency and enter it, or you can literally scroll through until you find the frequency - just like a normal radio of old! Reception on 'most' stations it scans is very clear and bright! Distant stations are obviously very crackly as expected, but I could clearly hear SW stations in the USA, Russia and mainland Europe tonight. I've plugged it into my amp later tonight and been listening to very high quality stereo FM stations in excellent hi if! It sounds wonderful through my Bose Soundlink speaker and Sony headphones too! Radio's own speaker is 'ok' for it's small size, does what it needs to do, but NOT fantastic and could be better (which is why I give it 4 stars), but when I'm on the move, I will use the radio with my Bose Soundlink speaker via the 1.5mm jackplug lead! Would advise people to watch clips on YouTube where they show clear and concise testing of this radio. Can't wait to carry around and use it at work and out and about, really glad I bought it!
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27.4.2015

This radio is a very much smaller version of my Sangean. Indeed it is very similar to my Grundig Yacht Boy. It's small and easy to travel with. Is has a zipped pouch to carry the radio and all the bits and pieces, earphones, long wire for SW reception, and USB cable for charging. So, with a USB charger you can with the appropriate plug, charge it in the car, or charge it at home from a wall socket, or charge it from a computer. With rechargeable batteries, it just all too easy.The audio quality from such a small radio is better than most, and if you are a Radio 5 listener, you will be glad that it has the ability to drag in the AM signal in the evenings, when other much bigger radios will have so much noise on them,that you can't hear the station you want. The ETM tuning is really good. It scans and keeps any decent stations in memory. So, if you scan the SW bands, it will locate and store the stations that are acceptable to listen to. This also works very well on AM, but in a heavy use area for FM such as London, you will end up with every station in memory. However, it's an easy matter to just turn the knob until you have the one you want to listen to. There is a more conventional and permanent memory system available as well, but in my case I just use the ETM, as it gives you the best stations, in the area where you are located.If you're an SSB/BFO type of listener, then pass this one by. However, they do have the bigger model that does have the side bands etc. This model is for the person who arrives somewhere and wants to quickly listen to the strongest signals in that area. Good for travellers, and certainly simply to use. It's not flimsy, and I would put the build quality as similar to the Sony's, and Sangean's ie durable and long lasting.As I said before, the audio quality is good, and surprisingly good on AM for such a small radio. With the supplied headphones the FM stereo is of the highest quality.I would recommend this radio to those that want something decent for travel, and also as a better than most type of home radio.
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12.9.2012

I am not a big tech guy having extensively travelled the world in the days before internet. So when I was set to head to Africa and my trusted Sony shortwave radio I had been with for 20 years decided to stop working I was forced onto the radio purchasing scene which I hadn't visited in years. My Sony did everything I wanted, stored stations, searched for them, had an alarm ,world time etc. When I started researching I kept getting drawn to the Tecsun PL380 because of its positive reviews. Well I will not repeat what others have said, it is a smaller version of my now defunct Sony, and has filled in all the missing features I would have liked to have had without realising it until I had them.What a brilliant well though-out radio the Tecsun is. The seller I bought it from did not include the recharging cable, but when I got in touch, Jasmine was terrific and went out of her way to send me the cable free of charge before I left for Africa. It was just an added bonus to the delight I had receiving the compact radio with all its great functions. The one downside is the notched volume control. It is a good feature in the tuner, but a tad annoying with the volume, but not enough to lose a star over. Other than that I can't fault it. It doesn't give world time, but in this day and age having one time is enough to figure out the rest! The display light is perfect and can be switched on to stay illuminated for those late night, shared room radio station searches - one really big plus I find to my old Sony. The ETM is brilliant, and all in all I am a very satisfied customer, and thank you Jasmine for being so kind about the cable.Joe
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27.6.2012

I've been looking for another radio for some time now, and have read loads of reviews and descriptions of both DAB and analogue items. I spent a while last week in John Lewis, listening to several but couldn't get my head around the price versus quality features of the wide range on show. That despite my long-held view of the value of John Lewis's ranges across their stores.In the end I took the plunge with the Tecsun PL-380, given its price and despite my nagging feeling that at the price, it must be too good to be true particularly as I'd never heard of Tecsun before. The purchase arrived very promptly today and I put in three AA batteries (not supplied) and switched it on . Wow!It's very quick to tune (ETM mode) and quite easy to put stations into memory, once you've re-read the manual. The trick here , if you want the stations in Rdadio 1,2,3 etc order , is to fill the memories in Station order, otherwise they fill in the order you take the stations (obviously , really!).I sometimes have some difficulty with Radio 2 in our rural location and sometimes with Radio 5 Live. No problems with this little wonder. As I type this , I'm listening to Euro 2012 on 909 MW. Reception is unwaveringly clear and the sound quality , whilst not hifi, is clear and more than acceptable.I think it's easier to operate than my old little multi-wave Sony world receiver , sadly stolen in France a couple of years ago, and it's much much cheaper. The footprint is tiny and truly pocketable, and it seems decently made.Easily worth £42!
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30.4.2017

A good value set with lots of features.I found mine would not tune down to LW as supplied and there is no help in the manual. An e-mailed request for advice has not been answered.By experimentation, I found the solution: with the radio off, hold down the MW/LW button until you get the 'LW On' message.The set is quite sensitive on MW, SW and FM. Certainly good enough for both everyday domestic listening and short wave hobby use. Performance on LW is not so good: reception of BBC Radio 4 on 198kHz is noisy. This signal is fine on all other radios I have, including (for example) a £35 Roberts analogue portable.If tuned to a MW or SW signal which is varying in strength, the PL-380 sounds a bit rough or 'juddery',similar to the effect of a worn out volume control. That's not the cause in this case; I suspect it's the uneven way the circuitry compensates for fading.That aside, the sound is surprisingly mellow and pleasant for a radio this size. On MW and SW, the bandwidth setting can be altered to adjust the tone as well as reduce splatter from adjacent stations.All in all, a useful set to take with you on walks, holidays, or to the garden shed.Mine was sold by Idol Radio and was promptly sent from within the UK.
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16.8.2019

I bought my Tecsun PL 380 from Amazon UK to take with me to my family's home in the Philippines. I was initially hoping to use it to follow the cricket scores during the Ashes test matches but unfortunately the BBC world service coverage is very poor in South East Asia. However as a travel radio this Tecsun is superb. It is so small and yet it is packed with useful features and the sound is very crisp and clear. Even when not in use it still gives a clear read out of the time and room temperature when switched off. It also has an alarm and sleep function. Using the ETM function (Easy Tune Mode) along with an external wire ariel bought very cheaply from Amazon at the same time I'm able to pick up literally dozens of stations on SW broadcasting from China mainly and also South Korea.Some very interesting stations broadcasting in English some teaching English to Chinese speakers and visa versa. On FM and MW it will pick up many Filipino stations broadcasting mainly music. For the money if you are looking for a SW travel radio look no further than this one. There are some very good reviews of this radio on Youtube notably from "Two hands and a radio" and also "Todderbert"
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14.2.2016

This is an astonishing little radio. Obviously you are not going to get Hi Fi sound from something this small, but in terms of its ability to receive distant stations on all wavebands, plus it's wide range of functions, it is amazing value for money. With headphones in, the stereo sound is wide and clear. Battery life is unreal (I use rechargeables, and still haven't had to recharge it after many hours of use). If you're a shortwave fan, it works very well (amusingly, or perhaps spookily given its place of manufacture) it seems to home in on Chinese stations...... For any Test Match Special addicts out there, it has long wave, although that is a little hissy - listenable, nonetheless.You have to turn LW on though (it seems to come disabled) - with the power OFF, press and hold the MW/LW button until LW on appears on the display. It has an alarm (by radio or buzzer) function, sleep settings, shows the temperature, has a sensible back light which comes on briefly every time you press a button and the build quality is very good.. Overall I'm surprisingly impressed!
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31.3.2015

Not bad for reception of SW,bit tinny sounding, FM really good, i am what is known as a twiddler, the fm seems to pick up the "out of town" stations well,iam quite impressed with it"s rejection of big gun stations when low power community stations are near, some radios swap the little stations,it picks up the big national stations no problem, the smaller MW local radio stations ie, Cambridge, Oxford, St Albans quite a distance from where i live,the radio picks up well,i am pleased with this set, i shall be using it a lot on my travels as it is quite a smart little thing and i will be leaving my BIG receiver at home no point in using a long wire on a holiday camp,so if you are starting out in the hobby of listening to radio as i am it is IDEAL as a starter,easy to use,the alarm clock setting is handy too! Once you explore the airwaves like i do the radio won"t dissappiont you,GET ONE of these radio"s, you really will be suprised this little box has loads of BIG PLUSES,well done AMAZON,you sell a little gem as a radios go!
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20.8.2014

I wanted a small radio that I could use to pick up Radio 4/World Service on LW when in remote parts of the UK or travelling overseas, but also be able to recieve FM Stereo where available. A quick web search revealed Tecsun to be well-regarded and good value, and the PL-380 to be the right size for travel.Really easy to use, once you grasp the basic principle that a lot of the options are set with the power off (I spent a good few minutes trying to get onto LW before realising that this is disabled by default and you have to switch the radio off to change this option!). Apart form LW being disabled, mine came setup for use in the UK.Excellent reception, 'Easy Tuning Mode'is brilliant - I see no need to tune the radio any other way!Being able to use AA Ni-Mh rechargeable batteries and charge them in the radio is great to, and a USB charging cable is provided, contrary to some reports I read on the web. Radio also came with neat carrying pouch, headset and a wire antenna for poor reception areas.
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21.4.2019

Ok so I wanted a radio to take with me on my cycle touring trips , one I could use whilst cycling and in the tent, plus outside in the garden. So pleased I went for this make and model. Previous radios lost the frequency whilst attached to the back of the bike. BBC Radio 5 live is preferred station and it has no problem giving a great sounding audio throughout the bands. Even on FM without the telescopic antenna fully out it receives local stations great. I love the on off button rather than having to dial the volume button back to switch it off as with other radios. Haven't had it long enough to comment about battery life, but used rechargeable batteries and seemed great on 100 mile bike ride!So many little things make this a great portable radio, well thought out hard to find anything negative to say about it really. Recommended
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19.9.2014

I am a licensed radio amateur and professional musician. I am fussy about my radios and audio.Recently my Sony 7600 gave up the ghost after 20 years and so I entered the world of shortwave portables for the first time since the early 1990s.Well it's changed! I didn't want to spend a lot to replace the Sony and after checking lots of radios out on Amazon, settled on a punt on this one.It was a great choice! The DSP bandwidths make AM sound great. Everyone I play it to is amazed at the sound for such a small speaker. FM is incredibly sensitive, picking up stations for miles around that other radios don't even hear.Only concern now is durability, and I can't measure that for a few years.At this price though, it probably doesn't matter.I'm tempted to check out the Tecsun 660 and 880 based on this experience...
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11.6.2018

Very good radio overall.At first the tuning modes can be confusing but a quick read of the manual (which is actually quite good for a Chinese product) fixes this.LW frequencies are locked out by default but can be turned on easily (manual does state this).MW at night is amazing. picks up so many stations.Short wave is good but not brilliant unless an external antenna is plugged up. The supplied clip on wire antenna is ok but a 60 foot long horizontal wire running down a garden will work much better.The best part about this radio is the bandwidth button. it really does workin conjunction with 1khz tuning steps really can pick out stations that are overlapping.only grips would be a lack of sensitivity button.some stations swamp out the receiving circuit.Battery life is brilliant.
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21.2.2020

The Radio is Great best channels all work perfectly, by the way I received a Case and wrist strap, and a Long external antenna lead for better reception as well, this connects to the Antenna installed to give much better reception, pity really as I had opted for the special offer as it looked as if I would need it, that contains a external antenna same as the one received with this Radio and another extension lead for the antenna that is NOT made for this Radio ( wrong Connection ) this model has NOT got a socket to take a plug in Antenna lead. wasted over £17 so beware just buy the Radio as it comes complete with all you need. Speaking again about the Radio it really is a very good quality bit of kit,and of course GREAT Sound I am well pleased with it and ALL the extra bits, Thank you.
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