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Reviews For: Eton E1XM [E1 XM] : E1 AM/FM Shortwave Receiver with XM Satellit

Category: Receivers: General Coverage

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Review Summary For : Eton E1XM [E1 XM] : E1 AM/FM Shortwave Receiver with XM Satellit
Reviews: 48MSRP: 500
Description:
Eton E1XM [E1 XM] AM/FM Shortwave Receiver with XM Satellite Radio (Optional)

The E1XM [E1 XM] is the world’s first 'portable' {Port-A-Top} Communications Receiver to combine AM, FM, Shortwave, and XM Satellite Radio technology into one ultra-high-performance unit. The finest 'portable' Radio in the world, the E1XM [E1 XM] offers powerful reception through its digitally synthesized PLL Tuner with Synchronous Detector, PassBand Tuning, and Selectable Bandwidth Filters. Offering rich sound, the latest in Radio Technology, 1700 Station Presets, and Memory Scan function, the E1XM [E1 XM] is designed without compromise, giving you direct access to News, Sports, and Music from around the World.
INFO =>
SPECS =>
Product is in production
More Info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ETON-E1-XM-Radio/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00484.2
TERRYW Rating: 2009-07-30
Review of my 2nd E1 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My second E1 doesn't have the problems my first one did, so deserves its own review update.

Pros:
very sensitive, maybe a hair more than E5/G5
three filters, all good sizes
excellent Passband Tuning to +/- 2 kHz
excellent Synchronous Detection, locks onto very weak signals, holds well, removes all distortion from Fading Distortion, with selectable LSB/USB/DSB
excellent SSB with 10 Hz tuning
a lot of useful info on display screen
selectable DX preamp
a bit of kicking bass on the speaker
170 memory pages with ten slots each, 500 slots allow individual labels, rest allow page labels
memories are scannable
memories can be tagged for separate Tag Scan function
adjustable squelch on the S meter so you can scan for signals above the threshold
rotary tuning knob with good ergonomics
Atomic Clock sets itself via Sackville when radio is off

Cons:
no carrying strap
flip stand too short
speaker sound is flat, S350 is much better
no ferrite bar for MW because display generates a lot of RF noise - use external
some streaking on display when it redraws
external impedance 50-75 ohms
no DRM or RDS

I spent a day storing stations on the factory Country pages. The next day I set the squelch and scanned through them. Easy and very useful.

Great radio. I hope those TecSun components hold up this time.

----------------------
Earlier 0-star review posted by TERRYW on 2008-08-12

Great design meets poor manufacturing.

My LCD screen started glitching and streaking after one week, my external antenna jack went deaf after six months, and the SSB/AM Sync developed an unlistenable distortion after nine months.

I gave the E1 to my brother to play with and bought a Ten-Tec RX-320D instead.

The E1 should have been a great radio, but not with the poor QC on those unreliable Tecsun components.
W6JHO Rating: 2009-05-12
Best Receiver I Have Owned in 65 Years!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am 81 years of age, my Dad was a SWL during the Depression in the 1930's and listened to Hitler's speech's on DuetscheRundFunk shortwave with a floor model Philco and longwire! That formed my impression in later life.
I have used most every receiver in SWL or Amateur Radio in all these years. Believe me, there are many great receivers out there! I've had the Icom R-75 and the latest Palstar (with the recessed knob) and both are very good receivers. However, for AM and SW DXing I much prefer my Eton E1XM! I have purchased a second unit "just in case". Be sure you get the higher serial numbered unit. With my 150 foot sloper and 4 foot indoor amplified loop I can hear most everything and better than the R-75 or Palstar. Granted, there are some quirks, etc however they are easily overcome. such as a FingerDimple for the knob. Al W6JHO
SCANNUT99 Rating: 2009-04-23
Way Better Than Imagined Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have an unusual review. First off, I own a Panasonic rf2200 which rocks and an icom r-75 which in moving wound up needing $200.00 repair so the Rotary Dial would work again. About a year ago I gave my Dad an Eton E 1 (62xx) for his Birthday. He never used it. Tragically, he passed away in January so I inherited an unused Eton. Recently I moved to an apartment of sorts where I set up a dipole way high up and plugged it in with adapters to the Eton and the R75 and started the comparison.

OK, the Icom has fun bells and whistles such as twin pass band tuning, one hz tuning, ecss tuning, etc. But despite all that and that the radio was hooked into an amplified computer speaker system using Winamp and an equalizer, it did not even come close to the performance of the E1!!!!

The Eton has a great sync and great rejection of adjacent noise. I can not believe the audio and the far better signal it has. It may have less features, but it caught stations in every band 500% better than my Icom. I was very surprised.

I think what it boils down to is that the Icom has bells and whistles that really do not work very well and the Eton just out performs the heck out of it.

The buttons on the e1 bug me a little cause you really need to hold the radio when pressing the little round ones. But the features and great sound coupled with top notch performance far exceeds my expectations and the r75. I will still use the Icom for sideband use, but for sw programs? There is no comparison.

I owned 2 2010's by Sony, and this Eton e-1 is far superior in image rejection and locking in on stations. It even has passband tuning and 3 filter settings not to mention bass and treble.

This radio is special to me because of the memories it brings of my dad. And it is an amazing porta-top radio.

No wonder everyone gets mods on the Icom r 75. It needs them. The Eton E-1 needs nothing. It is a gem.

W5RST Rating: 2009-01-05
Remarkable Performance in a Portable Radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ok, to be up front about the quality control issues that plagued the early serial numbers of this radio - I got lucky. My E1XM seems to match specs exactly and needed no service. And, as a follow-up, Eton/Grundig seems to have mainly gotten things solved on QC in recent releases of the radio.

The overall performance of this radio for listening to world band shortwave is superior, and much of this level of performance is due to its dynamic range, first-rate AM synchronous detection, selectable bandwidths, and passband tuning. The E1 definitely gets a "5" here. For utility and ham monitoring, the lack of a noise blanker and narrower filters make the radio more of a 4.5 to 4.6. Still very respectable, but not in the league with high-end desktop radios like the Icom R75. Still, if you check out the test measurements in Passport to World Band Radio, you will see that the E1 smokes every other portable available (and you pay for it, too). Overall, excellent performance. I have the XM satellite module, which works very well.

A few comments: 1. The memory system is excellent and very user friendly, storing frequency, mode, and filter. Verbose labels can be added to every memory. 2. Unlike cheap portable radios, connecting the E1 to an external antenna does not overload the front end. In fact, out of band interference is almost non-existent. I was concerned with the lack of an attenuator, but in reality, the radio shows no signs of overloading. 3. The S meter is remarkably accurate. I verified this fact using a calibrated test set-up. 4. The lack of a dedicated ferrite rod antenna for MW and LW is a major design goof by Eton. What were they thinking? Actually, the AM broadcast band is OK with the whip antenna, but LW reception is poor without an external antenna. However, the radio receives quite well on LW with a proper antenna (in other words, it is not deaf below 530 kHz). 5. Since I live in a noisy urban setting, I wish that a noise blanker had been included. 6. Even though this radio is a "portable," it is pretty large and does not have a carrying handle (another "What were they thinking?"). I have found that a carrying bag designed for a laptop computer works well.

So, after a year of use, I am very happy with the E1 and its performance. I think that the unfortunate QC issues with the early runs of the E1 have done a lot to damage its reputation. However, when working to specs, this is truly an impressive general coverage receiver. If Eham allowed fractional ratings, I would give the radio an overall 4.7.
WU7X Rating: 2008-12-05
Could be the best ever Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Like many others, I have a love/hate relationship with this radio. From a technical standpoint, it is the very best SW/AM/FM portable I have owned. I love the audio quality. The menu system is easy to learn and the radio's capabilities are incredible. I consider it much better for my listening habits than the DX-390, IC-71a, IC-75, and R5000 that I have also owned.

However....after nine months, it died. One evening while listening to CBC Radio One out of Calgary 1010 kHz (why don't we have stations like that down here? Their weekend programming is better than NPR's.) the screen died and the audio disappeared. I was able to get FM audio back after hitting the reset switch a couple of times, but no screen. The radio was blind and crippled. A quick call to Eton, and after emailing the company a copy of my receipt, I was issued a RA and given Drake's shipping address. I certainly cannot fault Eton for customer service!

Now I am awaiting the radio's return. Hopefully, R.L. Drake will do it's magic and I will have back in my pocession one of the best SW radios ever made (post-fix).

Would I buy another one? I certainly would, providing it came with the same type of warranty and customer service this one has.

Dale WU7X
AA7LV Rating: 2008-12-03
GREAT PORTABLE RADIO IF... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
MY ETON E1XM IS/WAS A GREAT SW PORTABLE RADIO. I REALIZED IT AFTER I SOLD IT! I MISS IT THAT MUCH! HAVE TO BUY ANOTHER ONE SOON AFTER I FINISH MY TWO HF OPERATING POSITIONS (DRAKE TR-7 AND YAESU FT-1000 MP). IF YOU GET ONE WITH NO PROBLEMS AND A FACTORY WARRANTY FROM AN AUTHORIZED DEALER YOU HAVE A WINNER.I THINK PERFORMANCE WISE IT IS AS GOOD A PORTABLE AS REASONABLE MONEY CAN BUY.I KEPT THE PAL TO UHF ADAPTER AMD CLEAR ANGLED STAND I ORDERED FROM UNIVERSAL RADIO. SO I AM READY TO BUY ANOTHER E1XM AFTER I FINISH MY HAM PROJECTS. THAT IS THE BEST AND HIGHEST ENDORSEMENT I CAN GIVE ANY PIECE OF EQUIPMENT!
WDX7DBG Rating: 2008-12-03
Don't understand all the negativity about this radio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had this radio for about a year now, so I feel like I've gotten a pretty good feel for its strengths and limitations, and its pluses and minuses. In terms of performance, this is simply the finest portable I've ever owned.

In a lot of ways, I consider it to be more of a tabletop receiver in a semi-portable-sized box than a true "portable" receiver. (For one thing, it's a lot bigger than most portables.) In terms of performance, this is what the Sony 2010 could have been if Sony had kept engineering it and adding features to it instead of stopping and calling it a day in the early 80s: three filter widths, bandpass tuning(!), sync detection with selectable sidebands, etc.

In terms of sensitivity, it equals or exceeds my venerable Sony 2010, and compares very closely with my Kenwood R-5000 desktop. Against smaller portables it's not even a contest.

Though it's not mentioned in the literature, I strongly believe there's some DSP circuitry in the audio chain as well, as the Eton somehow sounds cleaner and crisper on a noisy signal than other portables I have. It is perhaps a little bassy at times on weaker signals, but on the other hand the increased bass makes it really sound great on a stronger signal.

I said I think of this radio as more of a portable-sized tabletop, and that's how I treat it. It's pretty big to just tote around the house, so its' main use is as my "DXpedition" radio. I regularly take mine out into the countryside and hook it up to a 1/5-mile beverage antenna and it handles beautifully, with no overloading or images that I've noticed. (That leads me to one of the few drawbacks: the wonky PAL jack for an external antenna. Universal sells a PAL-to-UHF jumper cable, or the solution I eventually settled on was that I found a PAL-to-F adapter and hooked that up to an F-to-UHF adapter. A bit clunky, but it works.)

The other drawback I've noticed is that when trying tune use the sync detector on a weaker station adjacent to a powerhouse 5 kHz away, often the sync detector will "pull" all the way over to the stronger station. The solution which usually works is to set the E1 in the narrowest bandwidth before turning on the sync detector, then back out to a wider bandwidth once it's locked on the desired station.

People rant about poor workmanship, and there are a few lemons floating around out there. In fact, mine did have a problem where I started getting an intermittent rapid "clicking" sound in certain world band segments. But what most of the detractors overlook is that standing behind this radio is the legendary Drake service dept. I shipped mine out to them near then end of its 1 year warranty. It came back in exactly a week with half a dozen replaced parts and boards, upgraded firmware, and a 3-day bench test(! - over the weekend), and all it cost me was the shipping to Drake. Now THAT'S service. (And it's worked flawlessly since.)

As one of the few E1XM owners who actually used the XM side, yeah, works okay and sounds pretty good. I just wish if they were going to do that, that they'd make an E1Sirius instead, since even after the XM/Sirius merger, a lot of the channels I'd be interested in are still Sirius-only.

If you're one of those people who gets worked up because a radio feels "plasticky" or you don't like the way the tuning knob works, you'll probably find stuff to hate about the E1, and you'll probably come on here and post a review giving it 2/5 or 3/5. But if you're looking for a DX machine that's still small enough to carry around, this is it. Bottom line, if I could only keep one portable, this would be it.
WB9YCJ Rating: 2008-06-13
Improved with Clear radio stand - holds at optimum view angle Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Great value in the sub $250 area. Makes a great bedside receiver for those who want a satellite/DX radio on their nitestand, especially with the Clear radio stand to hold the E1 at optimum viewing/operating angle from UNIVERSAL RADIO. Order #3873. Enjoy.
KC7JBB Rating: 2008-04-17
Very nice radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After reading all the positive and negative reviews on this radio, I decided when a price drop occured, I would get one. I missed the Circut City close out so had to wait.

Then I saw the new Grundig 750 on Eton's site but was dissappointed that it did not mention Synch detect. Not available yet anyway.

Walked into Fry's electronics the other day and the E1 is on close out at 299.99, so I decided now or never. Guess what, none left so I bought the display, no box, no papers, Fry's warrenty though, at 285.00.

Well it seems to be all OK so I start a little comparison to my Son's 2001D (2010) Sony and his Grundig 800, yes He has better radios than I. I also check against my Degan 1103.

Sensitivity..... E1/2010 are both excellent

Selectivity..... Again E1 /2010/800 on par.

Audio/Listenability.... E1/800

Portability..... 1103/2010

Reliability..... So far so good on all.

User friendly features ... E1/800

E1 Pro's: Excellent Synchlock, three filter selctions, pass band tuning, good linear gain control.

E1 cons: No handle, flimsy tilt stand, I wouldnt use it. Noise on wallwart, Dim LCD screen when light is off.

Summary: So far I really like this radio. It performs with the best, lots of features, very user friendly. Just hope I dont have some of the reliability issues mentioned but we will see.
KC2IYK Rating: 2008-01-15
Excellent- after FM lock repair Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I got in on the Circuit City online blowout- for $224 I could not resist what Passband calls the greatest SW portable ever made (I am a fan of Passband's and mostly agree with their past findings). As a SW receiver, I'm quite pleased. On MW and LW, I was even happier despite the lack of internal ferrite. Off the whip or with external antenna, the E1 is hot and I'm doing well chasing NDBs. But on FM... well, my serial #2608 simply would not lock onto stations whether hot, cold, whatever. Eton was great about RMA off to Drake for repair. Drake was quick- changed an IC, upgraded firmware, and FM lock problem solved. As a past 2010 owner, I think it's a bit unfair to try an apples-to-apples comparison as the E1 benefits from intuitive menus/interface, etc- but for sheer receiver performance, I think the E1 does come out generally ahead.

Final analysis- for what I paid, and Eton backing up their product, I could not be happier. For $499 as listed almost everywhere? I'd say wait for a good sale- just a bit overpriced (but then again, we hams tend to be "thrifty").