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Jay Allen reviews the new (hot) Sangean DT-160 mini portable...

I tried the narrowband on AM, Didn't make any difference. I was just in NY, Philly and DC the last couple of days and I took along the 160. AM seems fine. DXing at night there is virtually no difference in reception from any other radio, save the DR 5.Walking around the mall in DC yesterday morning, I was amazed at the FM performance. I was getting 105.7 out of Baltimore next to a strong 105.9 located in Arlington,for example. Unlike the 120, which was the predecessor to the 160, there was no bleeding whatsoever.

The sound of the unit with the Deep Bass switched on is incredible. Using a decent set of earbuds, I'm amazed at the sound of this thing.
 
pianoplayer88key said:
Bruce, I'd like to see that 8-foot loop completed. Also if you could record some videos (and compare with other smaller loops you have) and put a comparison on youtube, it would be greatly appreciated. :) I'd like to hear/see how much of a difference they make.

I wonder if you might be able to get KFI with one, if you're in a quiet enough location? ☺ You might have to duck around the 640 in Juarez though.

As for the DT-160 though ... looks like it's one I won't be rushing out to buy anytime soon. :( I was hoping to find a similarly-sized/priced radio that was a vast improvement on AM over my CC Pocket, SRF-59, SRF-M37W (with narrow filter), and Eton Traveler III.
There are situations when I'm at a location within a mile or less of a 50kW AM station, and I want to hear a distant station in the same direction that's 10 kHz different in frequency, at midday in summer. Said station's signal might almost be barely strong enough to hear at a different location away from a strong transmitter, but the nearby AM station overwhelms my radios.
I also like using my radios "on the go". Like, when the radio is clipped on me and I'm moving around, having the station fade in and out because I turn is annoying. I'd love to have one that sacrifices the directionality / nulling ability, but makes up for it (by the same number of dB) in skirt selectivity and overload resistance. (With my PL-606, with careful positioning, I can reduce a 120-130 mV/m daytime signal to pretty much nothing.)
I'd like somewhat better sensitivity too, even in quiet locations, and suburban locations like my home location. (Nearest 50kW is about 7 miles away at night and 9 miles daytime.)

At a nearby location in a park / preserve somewhat away from powerlines/houses (32°45'20"N, 116°56'36"W, or 32.755556, -116.943333), some stations I would like to be able to listen to (without skip/tropo enhancement) on a radio the size & form factor of the CC Pocket or similar radios, without splatter, are: 550 KFYI, 580 KMJ, 660 KWVE, 680 KNBR, 700 KALL, 720 KDWN, 770 KCBC, 810 KGO, 840 KXNT, 1100 KFNX, 1140 KNWQ, 1180 KERN, 1200 KPSF, 1230 KXO, 1260 KMZT, 1400 KCYK, 1560 KNZR, 1570 KPRO, 88.5 KPSC, 89.7 KSGN, 90.1 KLRD, 90.9 KPSH, 91.5 KUSC, 92.7 KYLA, 93.7 KDB, 95.9 KFSH, 97.9 K250BG, 99.5 KKLA, and 105.1 KVGH, among others. Another station I'd like to be able to hear is 103.3 KZPO (Kings Radio 103.3 from Lindsey, CA), but I don't even know if it's still on the air. If not, what's another similarly-formatted station within range?

About bass boost making the DT-160 muddy sounding ... I don't have one, but I'm wondering if it, like many other things I have heard so-called consumer-marketed "bass boost" on, is boosting too high of a frequency? I've heard "bass boost" where around 150-200 Hz or so is boosted, and to me that makes things muddy. :( I'd rather have a bass boost mostly around 15-30 Hz, that is if my headphones/speakers could drive it cleanly. ☺
Click to expand...

I will probably finish the loop - sometime soon. Right now, my priorities are writing the fifth edition of my book (due by March), and completing a 3 way move of my dauthers old toy room to attic, library to game room, and my lab to the old library (so it can be locked from access by my 1 year old granddaughter).

Ah - youtube! I am stuck in a nightmare of tape, translated to DVD, a computer demanding video codecs or whatever. I owe KellyA a demonstration of the local oscialltor jamming HD effect, I owe everybody a side-by-side comparison of DX portables showing the SR-3 coming out on top, and now a loop demonstration. It doesn't help that I no longer have access to my father's house in Lubbock with crazy good ground conductivity - he passed away 10 years ago. If somebody knows of some FREE PC software that already contains all necessary video codecs or whatever they are - something lets me load a DVD with my home movies (these demonstrations) on it, or a video file already ripped, and has the translation capability to youtube - even uploading to youtube on demand - I would sure appreciate a referral! NO cripple ware, limited time / feature demo, etc. I've had a lot of them, and stripped them off my computer in disgust when they didn't do what I needed, put branding on the video, limited me to 3 minutes, nagged me to buy the full version, told me I needed to download video codecs without telling me where, etc. I need something that WORKS without hassles!!!!

As for KFI - my main limitation is a station in Oklahoma City, I can definitely hear it - although very weak, with a good radio and a loop. I would have to throw the null towards Oklahoma City, leaving Juarez wide open. Although that would be feat in itself! I was under the impression KFI still had problems and isn't what it used to be. A real target of the 8 foot loop would be Florida or Mexico on 540, while nulling the 540 in Dallas - which is also troublesome, in fact I don't need a loop to hear it. I suspect I have heard WFLF daytime, but a time delayed stream matching over the air does not matter until I can hear an ID. Or at least local commercials the area.

As for bad bass boost, I'd get in there and change out the caps controlling that boost, make them lower in frequency. For headphones, I use Beats - best headphones I have ever heard. Great definition, crisp sounding speech - I can pull out ID's that I couldn't with just speakers. Yes, they have bass boost - but it is in right place, where a subwoofer would normally kick in. I have never heard "muddy" sound from them like some reviewers. My pair of Beats at the radio station has some noise in the right channel - probably from the things being slammed down by other on-air talent. Not a big deal when I am just using it to verify the mix going over the air. When we get some budget, I will replace them.
 
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Great thread. I really appreciate the information here. I'm also very familiar with some of the locations that have been discussed here, so that's useful as well. I'll probably still go ahead with with the DT-160, but I'm not in any particular hurry to get my hands on one. I am definitely looking for better FM performance than my SRF 37. As for AM, my test station is WMT (600). It's weak, but perfectly listenable on the SRF-37. Better on the ATS-505, and almost sounds like a local on the Supe-II.

If it's deaf to WMT, back it goes to Amazon or whomever.

I'm hoping, however, that it does pass. I'm also intrigued by the bass boost thingy.The sony headphones that I use sound good, but a little "tinny" on FM with the SRF-37. Much better...(outstanding actually) on the ATS-505..
 
tomservo said:
I'm definitely curious how it does with WMT at your location (if that's still what's under your name on your posts.) I'll frankly be surprised if you hear anything at all without some sort of loop.
Click to expand...

I'm about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago "as the crow coughs" (Steve Green's line....not mine)! :) R-L pegs me at 165 miles east of WMT's stick. The signal is listenable on a good car radio all the way to the expressway junction that feeds into the Chicago loop. In fact, WMT is the only station with a daytime signal that's listenable for the entire drive from Chicago to Minneapolis. That's about 400 miles!

If a radio passes the WMT test, the "second round" is on 590 for WKZO. WKZO is also 5kw ND during the day, and about the same distance from me as WMT, but has to contend with the lousy ground conductivity of Southwestern Michigan. Both the Supe and the ATS-505 produce an audible signal from WKZO, but the SRF-37 does not.
 
cyberdad said:
I'm about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago "as the crow coughs" (Steve Green's line....not mine)! :) R-L pegs me at 165 miles east of WMT's stick. The signal is listenable on a good car radio all the way to the expressway junction that feeds into the Chicago loop. In fact, WMT is the only station with a daytime signal that's listenable for the entire drive from Chicago to Minneapolis. That's about 400 miles!

If a radio passes the WMT test, the "second round" is on 590 for WKZO. WKZO is also 5kw ND during the day, and about the same distance from me as WMT, but has to contend with the lousy ground conductivity of Southwestern Michigan. Both the Supe and the ATS-505 produce an audible signal from WKZO, but the SRF-37 does not.
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I'm about 30 miles SE of Cyberdad and WMT & WKZO are both listenable on a good radio. WMT is not very strong, but steady all day.
 
I found WMT to be listenable on my walkman at a Lakeshore Drive condo and at Wrigley field in the middle of the day during summer.
 
I mostly use my Sony SRF-M37W Walkman for listening to music on FM and the one little AAA battery lasts so long.
 
radioman148 said:
I'm about 30 miles SE of Cyberdad and WMT & WKZO are both listenable on a good radio. WMT is not very strong, but steady all day.
Click to expand...

I decided to check R-L. And, as I suspected, WKZO is actually about 20 miles closer to me than WMT. But WMT has the stronger signal here due to much better ground conductivity. Southwestern Lower Michigan is primarily sand.
 
My DT-160 was delivered to me yesterday. Operation was found to be easy and straightforward.

FM stereo performance for strong signals is very good. For weak-ish FM stereo signals it reverts to mono.

AM reception is mono, only. It receives weak, daytime AM signals arriving here such as from WGN (Chicago), KMOX (St Louis) and WHO (Des Moines), but not as well as either my Tecsun PL-880 or Sangean PR-D15 -- not surprising based on the length of the loopstick antennas they use.

There is no built-in provision/input socket for an external d-c power source.
 
Does the DT-160 have soft muting? I.e., when signals drop below a certain level, the volume cuts way, way down?

I know that another Sangean SiLabs DSP equipped ratio, the PR-D5 doesn't.

But some other SiLabs DSP chipped radios have that 'feature'.
 
boombox4 said:
Does the DT-160 have soft muting? I.e., when signals drop below a certain level, the volume cuts way, way down?

I know that another Sangean SiLabs DSP equipped ratio, the PR-D5 doesn't.

But some other SiLabs DSP chipped radios have that 'feature'.
Click to expand...

Yes, absolutely.

I finally got around to having a little "DX session" with it and it's very annoying.

During the day, weak signals will just about mute completely. At night, there's audio on every channel but unless it's a strong local the volume is about 70% lower.

As an extreme example, I was able to tune to a local (1220 WABF) which is extremely weak where I live, but audible. The Sangean actually put out ZERO audio while other radios were noisy but 'there'. When I brought the Tecsun loop over, a loud and clean signal popped out of the nothingness.

So, great for FM DX, terrible for AM DX because ya never know if something is there. Or risk turning the volume up to 30 and then blowing out an eardrum when you hit a strong signal.
 
^^^^ That's how the Radio Shack Pocket Radio is -- it has soft muting. It's OK for AM DX though. Has the SiLabs chip that works with mechanical tuners -- probably has similar performance to the DT-160. The Pocket Radio will grab onto a much stronger adjacent, though, except when using a loop.....

The soft muting can be a bit irritating at times but it doesn't get in the way all that much.

It's too bad about the soft muting on the DT-160, though.... I was thinking about trying one out, but I already have enough radios.
 
tomservo said:
Yes, absolutely.

I finally got around to having a little "DX session" with it and it's very annoying.

During the day, weak signals will just about mute completely. At night, there's audio on every channel but unless it's a strong local the volume is about 70% lower.

As an extreme example, I was able to tune to a local (1220 WABF) which is extremely weak where I live, but audible. The Sangean actually put out ZERO audio while other radios were noisy but 'there'. When I brought the Tecsun loop over, a loud and clean signal popped out of the nothingness.

So, great for FM DX, terrible for AM DX because ya never know if something is there. Or risk turning the volume up to 30 and then blowing out an eardrum when you hit a strong signal.
Click to expand...


Weak signals mute completely?

That reminds me DTV reception. LOL The signal is either there or not, no in between.

The reason I miss analog TV.

Thanks for that report. It made me decide that I'm going to look for another smaller radio with fairly good AM reception, something that's more portable than my PR-D5 and has better reception than my SRF-M37 Sony Walkman.
 
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