All,
I have a few Panasonic RF2200's and a GE SuperRadio 1 or 2 running
here and I am looking for reviews on who does what best. Insofar as
sound, the GE has it all over the RF2200 (with all due respect, the
speaker is about twice the size), but insofar as getting those hard-to-
reach stations, the RF2200 wins hands down, if you're OK with the
sound quality. Has anyone else done such a comparison? Is there such a
thing as a set that has the reception of the Panasonic RF2200 and the
absolute sound of the G.E. SR1 or 2??
rgds,
Mark S.

The Grundig Satellit 210 and the Satellit 3400 are the best of the Satellit
line. Both of these radios used Variometer tracking of the RF amplifier. Not
only are they more sensitive than most portables, but they have the best
sound by far.
Out of the modern radios, the Eton E1 seems to have the best performance.
9-pole ceramic ladder filters are used in the final I.F. of this
upconversion design.
If you want to go a little bit smaller than the Grundig Satellit radios, the
Sony 6800W is also a good receiver on the MW band, with its 3-gang tuning
section. Make sure you get the "Orange" version with a serial number above
30000. Earlier units had PLL problems, due to ageing transistors in that
section of the receiver.
I know that the RF2200 has a pretty good reputation, but it is not as good
as the radios that I have mentioned. I've had a couple of them over the
years...............what was really good in the RF2200 was the FM section.
Very good adjacent channel rejection.
It is interesting, that your GE SR radios aren't as good as your RF2200. My
experience has been that the SR1 and SR2 both have better performance on the
MW ranges. The SR3 is a different story......unless you go through a
detailed realignment of this radio, it is a brick when it comes to
performance. Poor front end tracking is the main problem.
If you can ever find a Sony ICF-S5W, that is THE best AM/FM portable that I
have ever seen. A 6-element Murata CFWS-455H is used in the 455kHz I.F.
strip, and a JFET is used as the RF amplifier. Unfortunately, this radio
only uses a
2-gang tuning capacitor, so image rejection could have been better. Still,
for general listening, it is probably the best radio, certainly better than
the CCRadio.
The Sony 2010 is a good performer on the MW band, but the used price is
pretty steep, approaching that of what you can get an Eton E1 for. The E1 is
good on MW, if you mate it with a passive loop antenna. Unfortunately, it
has a problem with conducted emissions, whereby the ground system is being
modulated by some artifacts from the microprosser. If you use the built in
whip antenna, performance is similar to a very good auto radio. I have no
problem hearing WLW on 700kHz, here in the Chicago area, in the daytime
hours. The Navtex station on 518kHz comes in clearly every night, as do the
TIS stations on 530kHz. Performance of the E1 is similar to a Drake SW8. At
the 225 dollar price that Circuit City.com was selling them for last year,
it was a steal. At the 419 dollar price, it isn't bad.
I haven't had any experience with the RP-2100, but that is supposed to be a
very good MW performer. Since it is a pretty good upconversion design, image
rejection on the MW band should be nonexistant.
If you are ever lucky enough to find one, the LoKata SSB/RX is a very good
LW/MW receiver, better than any of the others that I have mentioned so far.
They are very rare in the USA, but they do turn up on eBay once or twice a
year. The SRX is a synthesized general coverage version, similar to the
Brooks & Gatehouse Homer series of direction finder radios.
I hope this helps.

Pete

wrote in message
...
All,
I have a few Panasonic RF2200's and a GE SuperRadio 1 or 2 running
here and I am looking for reviews on who does what best. Insofar as
sound, the GE has it all over the RF2200 (with all due respect, the
speaker is about twice the size), but insofar as getting those hard-to-
reach stations, the RF2200 wins hands down, if you're OK with the
sound quality. Has anyone else done such a comparison? Is there such a
thing as a set that has the reception of the Panasonic RF2200 and the
absolute sound of the G.E. SR1 or 2??
rgds,
Mark S.