Thank you for your honest assessment of the PL-990 vs ATS-909X2. I've read that while the Sangean has a much better and more attractive design, its production quality control is inconsistent. Some owners love their Sangean while others returned them to their Amazon sellers. I don't understand the complaint about the volume dropping when the ATS-909X2 is in SSB mode, because the same thing happens to the highly regarded Tecsun PL-660/680! 📻🤔 I have both models and I can attest to this. Tecsun could have installed backlit buttons to make the PL-990 more attractive than the PL-880, but all they did was to place a tiny amber LED near the "5" button. That doesn't really help much. They could have illuminated ALL of the PL-990's buttons (like their PL-398MP/BT) but they're probably afraid of cost overruns that would make the PL-990 too expensive. I like Sangean's wide LCD panel full of useful information and especially its cool white backlighting. The only more attractive looking LCD information displays are the ones on the DeepElec 101 SDR, Malachite DSP2 SDRs and the ATS-25/ATS-120 kit radios. 🙂 I will save up towards a Sangean ATS-909X2 and the Malachite DSP2 SDR. Tecsun's H-501 is not that appealing to me - it's just an oversized version of the PL-990 with dual stereo speakers. Tecsun's S-2000 has been out of production but the company is finalizing the successor model - the S-2200 that uses the 18650 lithium ion batteries (like the Tecsun S-8800/H-501) instead of the legacy D-sized disposable batteries. The front panel looks exactly like the S-2000 but the S-2200 is still in the prototype stage. Tecsun might introduce a fresh new look with features like hybrid triple conversion PLL/DSP synthesis like the PL-990. The S-2200 design project started in 2023 but I think it will be around 2025 before it's produced.
The sangean's ssb volume situation is exactly the same as that of the 660/680, as you correctly noticed and I confirm this, the longer the antenna extends, the higher the volume. The quality of sangean is really different, in my opinion it is because of the unoriginal products. I bought the first sangean x2 from an unknown Chinese seller on the Russian marketplace and this receiver behaved a little strangely, I had to hand it back due to a frequency mismatch on SW. The price of such a receiver was an order of magnitude lower than that of the official sellers. I had to buy the second x2 at an expensive price from a trusted seller, everything is fine with it.
I haven't heard anything about the S2200, interesting information. But why do the same thing with just another battery, I can't understand. It would be great to have stereo speakers in the S2000, but there were no problems with the battery, I had 4 AA cells through D adapters and enough energy for a long time.
@@wavezone2566 I think DSP radios don't suffer from the volume reduction problem on SSB - only traditional PLL synthesized receivers do. The ATS-909 series, PL-660/680 and S-2000 are of the PLL design and it seems that DSP receivers attain the same loudness or volume level in SSB mode. I don't know what Amazon does to its returned Sangean radios but if somehow returns end up in the hands of unscrupulous Chinese sellers, I won't be the least surprised. 😞 Two years ago I saw the ATS-909X2 for sale on Lazada but the seller had not sold a single unit. I felt very suspicious and refrained from ordering one. It looks like Amazon and ebay are the safer places to buy a Sangean. BTW, my regular XHDATA authorized reseller has informed me that the Tecsun PL-680 has been discontinued as of 2024. I don't know why Tecsun introduced a slightly more expensive competing model for the PL-660, which it still makes. They both share the same 6622 firmware and the PL680 is the only Tecsun radio that borrows the firmware from another model.
@@wavezone2566 Lithium ion cells have a better energy density than alkaline, NiMH or zinc-carbon batteries. They're also lighter in weight. If the PL-990 used six AA cells imagine how heavy it would be vs one 18650 LiOn battery. 🙂 The large and boxy Tecsun H-501 has space for two 18650s and you can switch between the two. Why the batteries aren't wired in parallel (to double the capacity) is beyond me, because it doesn't make sense to have a physical A/B switch to select one of the two batteries to power the H-501. The Tecsun S-2200 is very difficult to find on a Google search as this keyword is mostly indexed by China's search engines. Furthermore any discussions pertaining to the S-2200 are limited to Chinese radio forums. I have a feeling that the images of the S-2200 show a prototype or pre-production model. Its LCD panel does show the text "LiON Battery", just as the PL-680 displays "NiMH battery" to remind the user what kind of battery technology is being used. The only way for the S-2200 can have more than just a wide/narrow bandwidth filter is to incorporate the Si 4735 DSP chip, like the Tecsun S-8800 and the PL-990.
@@StratmanII The beauty of the s2000 is that it is not a dsp)). I think they need to work on creating a good analog receiver, and these DSPs are already more than enough.
