I am sure most of you know about the website. I have no dispute with the rankings. Some might debate the order of the top ten, but not much debate the top 10 deserve to be there.
What is odd I do not see any straight up receivers, just transceivers. Perhaps there are some on the list and I just not familiar the product. Back to the top-rated models and you will quickly notice most are SDR which is no surprise. The other point is they all cost several thousand dollars. You are paying top dollar for the Receiver. A transmitter is just a transmitter.
So why no receivers like an SDR? Is it because they overlooked and dismissed? Or is there something else going on? Affording the benefit of a doubt, I could assume they dismissed them because many are junk Dongles targeted at low ball hams and enthusiast. However, there are some exceptions. Example AirSpy HF+ Discovery is outstanding. Its performance equals exceed most of the top ten. Not to mention can do things no ham receiver can do or ever will do. I have two units and have taken one to many ham friend’s homes with high dollar rigs in the top 10. All but one now uses a $170 RX.
No magic going on here. The use the same DAC as commercial LMR, cellular and high-end ham transceiver. They use open-source code with thousands of add-ons to do about anything you want. I use one of mine integrated into my home A/V system as a FM receiver, a FM HD receiver with CD quality sound, and a high-fidelity AM SW RX because I like to listen to WTNN at night and hear the old rock classics and ham related stuff. Kind of cool having a dinner party or friends over in the man cave with a waterfall and the other displays that come with it on a screen the size of a wall.
So for you budget minded hams, look into a SDR receiver, no reason to spend several thousand dollars. You can have the best for a lot less and run circles around a ham transceiver for less than $200. Any ole two-bit transmitter will do. Have mine setup with a touch-screen monitor. See a signal on the waterfall, touch it, and the SDR switches to that frequency and modulation mode, then sends the data to my hf rig si I can TX if I want. Will even decode most CW. Look ma no hands.