Tecsun PL-606 Digital PLL Portable AM/FM Shortwave Radio with DSP, Silver

This radio has excellent sound quality (at least for talk radio) and is obviously quite portable to take from one room to another. Earphones have good quality sound (not tinny). It does not eat batteries, and gives you a low battery warning on its screen. In addition, when the batteries are near failure, the sound slowly decreases to 0 decibles as a gradual audio reminder, but even during this period, reception doe not suffer at all. I gave it only 4 stars, because its instructions are a little quirky. I even have to keep its manual handy for when it goes off memory, etc. But this does not happen very often; that's why I forget how to correct the same problem from time to time.

Wanted the 3rd radio in my collection of this small DSP type radio from Tecsun so I ordered the PL-606. Unfortunately this particular specimen PL-606 suffers from a constant background noise in the FM and AM bands. Haven't tried SW yet. I listen to radio via ear buds so this noise is not reasonable to hear in the background unless it was the only radio I had on hand. Get the PL-380 or the PL-310et. Those are both 5 star radios all around! The quality of the PL-606 display and the construction of the chassis is good. It has the same display as the excellent PL-310et and PL-380 have. The two separate numerical indicators for overall signal and signal to noise ratio are very useful and unlike any other of the many radios I have. The PL-606 came with a neat little antenna rod extender and a plug in external wire antenna. Both of these can be used on other radios with rod antennas and ext. antenna input. So I'll not be sending this back. TECSUN is still my favorite brand for small DSP radios. I'll likely be buying more in the future.

This is a fabulous radio. I highly recommend it. I live in Manhattan surrounded by many high powered clear channel AM station transmitters (WABC, WCBS, WINS, etc.) On many if not most of the portable and semi-portable radios I have ever owned, I suffered significant harmonic interference from these stations while listening on AM, LW and Shortwave. With this Tecsun PL-606, for the first time the bands are virtually free of these harmonics, making long-distance DX listening possible. I have achieved great success with AM DX'ing and have picked up many new stations I could never hear before, including quite a few trans-atlantic stations, using only the built-in ferrite loop! LW and Shortwave are equally outstanding in reception quality. FM has been gratifying as well. I originally bought this radio intending for it to be a travel-portable (and it really is SMALL, it travels very well), but its performance has far exceeded all expectations and it has taken first place above all my other radios. My previous favorite portable, the highly acclaimed Degen/Kaito 1103 has been upstaged by this radio by a wide margin for its portability, listening quality and ergonomics. On the technical side, the radio consumes very little power and my Eneloop NiMH batteries have gone through maybe eight to ten hours of listening and haven't yet shown even a hint of needing a recharge. The radio's DSP filtering (narrowing of the signal) is an excellent tool. Sound quality is best with earphones as the speaker is tiny and tinny but sufficient. The automatic "ETM" search tool is an outstanding utility when searching for signals. The radio just misses a direct entry keypad but tuning is relatively easy with the multi-speed dial. The external antenna jack is only for SW and FM so if you get bitten by the AM DXing bug like I did, then there is not much you can do to attach an external antenna for that band unless you couple the ferrite rod. So until that truly ideal radio arrives, then for the price paid, you just can't go wrong with this miracle worker.

I recently purchased this product. I put the batteries in and all I heard was static. I could get a few stations, but the sound quality was poor and often interrupted with high pitched static. I returned the product and am still waiting for my refund.

I got the radio used it one day. I loved it. The next day no power . Tried changing the batteries even though they were new, and even changed their position in the radio just to make sure. Nothing. The item has now been sent back. I did contact Amazon and got a return slip and bar code.The size was perfect really disappointed it didn't work well.

This is a great radio. It's small, battery operated, and comes with lot of antennas, and it really gets a good AM/FM signal. However, it's really difficult to figure out how to tune in a station. Just not user-friendly at all. Eventually, you'll figure it out.

This is an update to an earlier review. Over the course of two years I have had THREE TECSUN PL-606 fail on me. Two radios were no longer responding to ANY keyboard input; DEAD. The third radio had a "hop-skip-and-jump" issue with the frequency selector: After you scan with ETM, you can no longer systematically access SOME (not all) of the ETM stored frequencies. Since apparently I now have a "fix" how to reset the PL-606, I adjust my rating to five stars (*****). -- The above described failure modes of TECSUN PL-606 radios are real and frustrating. I contacted Amazon about the issues. Amazon was most accommodating and everything is resolved. Now for the "FIX": I could reset the PL-606 radio, after it refused to respond to ANY keyboard entry. (The PL-606 does not have a "reset button"). The "fix" works as follows, take out the batteries. Wait for FOUR hours (no less) until the display goes "blank". Then re-insert the batteries (and in my case) the radio works again.

A nice low cost radio, love the auto tune, just select the wave band, press a button and it auto loads the stations into its memory, for $50 you can,t go wrong.

The radio came on time but was shipped the black exterior version rather than the silver as ordered. No complaints with the performance as it brings in AM and FM stations very well. Rechargeable batteries give it lots of life. Unfortunately, the instruction manual that was supplied was in Chinese rather than the English version as advertised. This made programming extremely difficult and took up a lot of time.

very compact a bit complicated for the non-nerd.

Totally a waste of money in my case! Good thing I was able to recieve my refund. The radio came in as a pocket radio. It's a lot smaller than the picture it self. It says it's digital but you do have a turning knob to the right of it. So it's not fully digital besides the display. Last of all it didn't even work. Placed 2 batteries into it and the display lite went on but nothing digital came out or any sound at all. Broken radio it was thats for sure! I honestly wouldn't pay 10$ for it. But it cost me $10 now to send it back to them. Nothing but a disappointment!

The radio in question is a gem. FM . AM. SW. All bands are great, Battery life is wonderful. Small and compact.