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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
K7CF Rating: 2008-01-05
Good Radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Someone on QTH.COM said Circuit City was having a sell on this radio for $224. Sure enough, they were. It was out of stock initially, but checked early one morning and there was one available. Received it with 3 day shipping for about $240 with tax. It was new, the radio had plastic on LED face, the wrapping was factory. The serial number was 23XX so apparently had been sitting on the shelf for a while. I bought a XM min-tuner and home adapter for about $44 from local Circuit City, there was a special on for three months free XM radio service offer with the mini tuner purchase and no set up charge. So for about $280, the E1 XM radio, the XM mini-tuner and home adapter and three months free XM service.
Not a bad deal. Still learning the radio, the XM is OK but hate paying for a radio service. The radio locked on to XM quickly with the antenna on the window sill facing east. SSB is good, the pass band tuning is good. The radio has 45 MHZ and 455 KHZ IF frequencies, I read somewhere that our own RL Drake engineered the radio. So, the bottom line is the first few hours of learning the radio, it is a good buy, XM portable radio, SSB, AM/FM and the only thing missing is analog TV channels like CC Crane, but those channels will disappear next year so not a biggie. I checked Circuit City, they no longer have them offered. They must have run out.
N0AH Rating: 2007-12-27
Eton-Phone My Home!`` Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
XYL got me this great radio for X-mas 2007. But radio was obviously repacked. While no dings or scrathes, their was no enclosed warranty card, the radio's plastic wrap had been obviously opened and just put around losely, and most of the shrink wrap around radio box was gone, and the AC cord was not wrapped. Even the enclosed CD had a scratch with finger prints on it, etc......

She got this direct from Eton. I was #@$! She really spent the $$$ for me and went out of the way to hide it. Trust me, if it RF, I find it. But not this time......

Well, like a dog from the pound, after listening to it for awhile, I wanted one.

I just wished someone at Eton would respond to my emails, answer the phone, announce that they are closed for the holiday week on the ph or web etc...so far, no answers on Dec-Wed 26- Thursday Dec 27.

Moving on......I used a Hustler 6BTV for all of the HF comparisions to a Pro III.

I just tuned around on the FM band with their internal FM antenna.

For the money, not bad. In fact, it is more pleasurable to listen to for me on every mode but CW. Over-all selectivity and sensitivity were beyond expectations to what I was comparing to.

I believe that this short wave receiver had a lot of thought on filter bandwidths on their part as well as a super dynamic speaker. I would imagine with the XM feature, they did not skimp on this.

The CW is a bit choppy but you are comparing a $3,000 Pro III to a $500 Eton E1XM.

After receiving this radio in the condition mentioned above, it was going straight back to Eton. But after testing it all day on AM, FM, SSB, etc......I want one.

I just would appreciate getting a unit that is not some accidently re-stocked radio. Maybe someone had a problem with the attached HF vertical as it hears nothing but our local am stations......but I was not expecting anything else. You need a real SW antenna for HF, right?!

Two things that I really don't like about the radio.

One, the display screen is difficult to see from any angle except head on. The adjustable back lighting, as some have mentioned, helps but not to any real degree. It really needs a contrast control.

The second item is the radio's PAL HF antenna jack. It needs a hard to find PAL to F adapter (a PAL is an European TV plug which is reccessed into this radio case and can be connected to an antenna using a F adapter (Radio Shack part #278-265B)) will work with a Male F-F coupler which can be fed with a 259 to F coupler). Dizzy yet??

I'm sure that their is a simplier way to do it but not from my immediate resources around town. And only a few radio Shacks in Denver had the PAL to F adapter.

I have a lot more to discover about this radio. I know I want to have it set up in a room away from the shack to either a long wire or simple 20-30 foot vertical. I feel it is a great family room radio. Also, I can't wait to hear XM radio was that gets set up.

On a very short test drive, I have really enjoyed the radio. But I would suggest to avoid buying direct from any company who also sales through dealers.

You'll pay the full retail price and so far, customer service is questionable. I know this would not be happening with AES or HRO. I would have had my exchange in process yesterday.

It just really miffs me about no one being home when I called for an explanation on the radio's condition when I opened it. To be continued.......

W6UXB Rating: 2007-12-22
I do like this radio Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well it appears there are two versions of the E1 out there, ones that work great and ones that don't. I bought a new E1 (non xm model) from Universal about three weeks ago and have done some extensive testing, overall the radio works great the only problem I have found is the FM stereo is a bit 'iffy' on it's lock seems to get better after time. Mine is totally on frequency, all knobs, switches etc tight and firm and the S meter(without the pre-amp on) tracks my Icom 718 perfectly, the noise floor is really good and I love the memory function. I am afraid to say it does beat my Ten-Tec RX320D in overall performance and is only just edged out by my Icom 718 (buit that has Collins filters installed) so in overall I guess if you buy the cheap early serial numbers from Circuit City on the cheap you get what you buy, I bouight the latest serial number non xm model from universal and have no regrets (Eton even sent me an RA number to send it back to Drake to fix the FM stereo problem) together with excellent customer service form both Eton and Drake in my opinion this is a radio to get and keep, 73 Geoff
KE6YX Rating: 2007-12-22
A real dog!! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am sending my new X1 back!!

It arrived yesterday, and I went directly to radio shack and picked up the coax connectors and hooked it up to my coax switch.

Doing A/B tests against two of my ham rigs, a Ten Tec Corsair II which just came back from a factory alignment, and a 4 month old ICOM 746 PRO. They were all going directly to a trap dipole resonant on the CW portion of 80, 40, and 30 meters.

I never expected the ETON to do as well as the ham rigs, but I was still disappointed. I set the ETON to the narrow filter, and the ham rigs without the CW filters in. Signals that were S8-S9 and easy to copy on both ham rigs, were hard to copy, muffled, and weak on the ETON, Both Ham rigs have s-meters that agree within one S-unit. A signal that was S-9 on the ham rigs were 15 to 20 over on the Eton S-meter. I guess if you cannot deliver a good signal, just crank up the S-meter.

I next took it upstairs to my bedroom where I have a new DEGEN 1103. With both radios side by side using the whip antennas the DEGEN was way better in weak and strong signal reception, and sound quality. This is from a $48.00 radio.

I did like the ergonomics and tuning of the Eton X1, but the while the screen is large its quality is quite poor unless you are viewing it from the perfect angle. This is with the contrast and brightness cranked up. Just looking at the two radios one as big as a house, and the other small and easy to place on the table, you just want to ask what they are doing with all that space. No amount of neat features can make up for poor performance.

Overall, I think the ETON is a loser, and I have packed it up, and will return it to my local Circuit City as soon as the holiday madness is over. Save your money, and buy a DEGEN 1103.
AKSWL Rating: 2007-12-21
E1 on sale at Circuit City $225 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just ordered another one of these great portables at the above Circuit City bargain price. My last one had a bad display and it went back the following day, so I did not get much chance to try the radio as the display problems were affecting the CPU and the radio did not work. (no rx)

For $225 it's a bargin so I'll try again.

73 and good DX'ing
KD8JHR Rating: 2007-11-29
Good but not great... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased this receiver and tested it for about a week against my other radios. Ultimately, I was not sufficiently impressed to keep it.


==== I was pleased with the following: ====

* Overall sound fidelity (although it was a bit too bass-y for me...) -- but as a multi-band radio, it sounded fabulous on FM and the AM BCB - just a bit boomy for SWL

* Overall reception on both the whip and an external antenna (although the radio is only acceptable on the whip, it really does much better on an external antenna)

* Overall feature set is quite impressive for a mere "portable" rig - it does a lot that other portables cannot

* Filter selection was appropriate and seemed to work as intended - something I cannot say about many of the less expensive portables (such as my ATS-909 or Kaito KA-1102)

* Tuning the various SW and amateur bands was pleasing and easy - it was fairly easy to capture and tune up both broadcast stations and ham operators on SSB - better than less expensive portables, but not necessarily better (but very close) than tuning a tabletop receiver with a ham geneology, such as my Kenwood R-5000 - as a portable it came real close to tuning like that type of tabletop receiver - a real plus.

* Overall appearance is really good - this rig looks high tech and looks modern and timely - and I have no objections with the appearance of the screen - it tells you what you need in a clear way. Not a cool color LCD monitor like a Icom 756Pro III - but it does a good job of telling the listener what he needs to know


==== Things I did not like: ====

* Sound to me was heavy on bass and a bit muddy - I prefer a more crisp sound - there is too much high and low end to suit me - I ran it though an equalizer and it really improved clarity. I like clarity. My Kenwood R-2000 has better over audio, but the E-1 audio is way better than, say smaller portables like my Sangean ATS-909 - which I use with a small external speaker to get good clean, full sound - but we are talking about a radio, and not a radio + speaker combo.

* I did not like the feel of the knobs and buttons - felt mushy and loose (soft) to me - They worked, but not real well. I experienced static and crunchy noise if I put any downward pressure on the knobs as I turned them - making me realize I had to turn them very softly if I did not want to get any noise as I turned the volume and other knobs.

* I did not like the feel of the rubberized case and feel the case is lightweight for such a valuable instrument. Both my Kenwood R-2000 and R-2000 have a handles and are, therefore, more portable than the E-1 which is nearly as large as a tabletop and while it is a portable, it is almost so big as to qualify for membership in the tabletop category

* While better on the whip than my ATA-909 (everything IS...) it was not better on the external antenna - there was nothing I could get on the E-1 that I could not get on my ATS-909, Kaito KA-1102, Kenwood R-5000, and even my venerable old friend, the SONY ICF-5900w portable - which I dearly love using. All comparisons were performed on the same two external antennas: 1) a Wellbrook ALA-100M loop and 2) a 75 foot random wire with 9:1 transformer/balun with grounded coax feed.

* AM BCB performance was OK, but just OK, and I have other radios that do as well in this category. A RadiosPlus Quantum 2+ antenna did not save the day, either - besides, this is really a SW radio and I do not think anyone is buying it because it has stellar MW performance.

* Overall fit and finish did not impress me - certainly not good enough for a radio bearing such a large price tag.

Conclusion = it did not feel like a $500 radio, so I returned it. I can buy another radio, with better fit, finish, and feel, with a more solid case, better working buttons and knobs, and equal or better receiver performance in the same price bracket. I respectfully disagree with the suggestion we should compare this radio only with portable radios, and not with any table top models. Given its hefty price tag, it is not unreasonable to consider its performance and relative value against other radios in the same price range. I only consider how much radio can I get for the money. At this price, it should not be granted any special dispensation or allowed any comparative weakness because it is a "portable" - after all, the E-1 is as large as some so called "table top" receivers, and the E-1 lacks a transport handle, while my so called "tabletop" R-5000 and R-2000 each have handles. So under either the "size" or "handle" criteria I guess those other rigs are "more portable" than the E-1. (They are certainly more rugged... and in that sense are more "portable" as well...)

So, really good radio - just not good enough for the money, in my view. Thank you for considering my opinion.

NOTE - I do not believe Eton's published specifications for the radio. Eton claims it has Image Rejection equal to, and IF Rejection 10 dB better than, that of, say, the receiver section of the TenTec Omni VII - a $2600 transceiver, or the receiver sections of the $4,400 TenTec Orion or $2600 ICom IC756 Pro III transceivers -- all such rigs having stellar receivers. But then Eton admits it has an IP3 intercept point rating of only +10 dBm@20 KHz spacing, while those other rigs boast (an appropriate and expected) 90 dB @20 kHz spacing. Eton claims SSB/AM selectivity is in the same league as the ICom ICF9000.

Like Yosemite Sam says... "Something around here just don't add up...? That may be what Eton says, but after using the radio for a week, I do not belive it.


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That is MY take, anyway.

Happy trails and 73 to all. /// KD8JHR ///
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PHILNIC99 Rating: 2007-11-08
Impressed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Been a big fan of my SONY ICF2001D ever since I bought it back in the mid-80's, however several repairs to try and resolve a reoccurring memory loss problem lead me to consider options available in terms of a replacement.
Saw the reviews here and came to conclusion that a lot of the apparant issues occurred early on in the life of the ETON E1, and with stocks in the US (may have been coincidence).
Took the plunge and bought one, started it up with the telescopic aerial at my bedside and was gobsmacked; my passion is civil aviation HF, so was more than happy to hear Shanwick clearly booming out on 5598 khz with planes over the Canaries coming in clear.

Went one step further and (based on reviews again on eham) purchased and installed a Par-Electronics EF-SWL wire aerial with earth-grounding; the results were astounding. I regularly get Gander over the arctic on 8891, with the aircraft themselves just about laudable towards the Canadian arctic and beyond going towards Russian airspace .New York ARINC also regularly comes in as does all the traffic in the Caribbean later in the evening, together with Murmansk Radio on 8950. I also receive HF ACARS pings over China, South America, Guam, US Mid-West (just as examples).

On the negative side, I agree that the radio is bulky although havent yet needed to transport anywhere; would also be nice if there was some kind of PC interface to back up and manage freqs against. I did contact Eton about the connection point contained in the battery compartment but they advised that this is only for use by service personnel.

Minor gripes but overall very pleased with the set. Performs well at 3,5,8,and 13 Mhz levels.

SM6011SWL Rating: 2007-11-01
Great performer Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Nice radio, got it just recently and have a lot of fun listening to the ham stations. It's absolute winner for the beginner's radio. But if you are experienced SWLer you should look for something else as your base equipment and can get this one for bed stand. The level of noise is high but signal is stronger. Sound is outstanding, and 10hz step is helping to improve quality of reception. Sensitivity is great, can pick up really poor signals well. But if you have source of noise (e.g. laptop power block) around... hard to distinguish words. If you expect this radio to be like-desktop-performer do not buy it, it's the best WorldBand receiver I know. I don't have a problem to read the screen info, would be good though to have buttons highlighted. Otherwise it's a greatest radio I ever had
KG7RS Rating: 2007-10-14
MW DX'ers Take Note Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I guess I have to admit, when it comes to communications receivers, I'm a bit of a snob and my opinion on the current crop of portable "shortwave radios" is not very high. Many of them are perfectly fine for casual listening to international broadcasters, but beyond that it becomes an exercise in frustration. Some are just plain junk at any price. A friend told me he had read good things about the Eton E1 and wanted to buy one. This same guy is quite an accomplished LW NDB dx'er, so he knows how well a receiver needs to perform to DX down there. I thought he was out of his mind for considering this "overpriced consumer piece of junk". A few months ago I saw an E1XM on display at Fry's Electronics for $399. I was skeptical at first why this receiver was selling for a full $100 less than it appeared everybody else was selling it. I had to buy one, albeit this was still an expensive impulse buy. Shortly after powering the thing up, I was blown away. The first thing I noticed is the syncronous AM detector. I would be hard-pressed to say it performs any differently than the one in my beloved Drake R8B. Adjustable AGC (including automatic), three bandwidths, PASSBAND TUNING, preamplifier. A real tuning knob that doesn't "chuff" the audio while tuning for a portable radio...how can this be? 10hz synthesizer steps. Very nice build quality. A huge display you can't help but admire. A very usable bargraph s-meter. This is a consumer portable radio?? Yes it is, but it performs better than most sub-1000-dollar desktop communications receivers, and I've owned and used most of them. One of the most notable features of the E1 is that is VERY quiet. Just like my Drake R8B. In fact, this receiver is very Drake-like in many respects. My primary interest in radio nowadays is MW DXing, a very tough environment for a communications receiver if one is serious about the game. The E1 really performs on MW. In fact, I sold my Palstar R30 shortly after the E1 purchase and now use it for my road-trip AM DX receiver. I don't have to DX in ECSS mode like I did with the R30. The sideband-selectible sync-AM takes care of adjacent frequency splatter and combined with the quiet receiver and excellent audio, the recovered audio from weak broadcast stations puts the R30 to shame.
Yes, the E1 has some drawbacks. There is no carry handle. It's relatively large and heavy, especially when laden with D-batteries. I suspect the quality and reliability may vary from example to example. This is, afterall, a consumer portable radio. There is no built-in ferrite loop antenna for MW. The E1 instead uses the same telescopic whip used for all other bands. Surprising, this setup works for in MW, but not for serious DXing here. Plug in a Quantum Loop or CCrane Twin-Coil Ferrite antenna and you have a nice portable MW DX package. Finally, I consider the XM capability to be a drawback as well. Or more accurately, a gimmick. I suppose it may be useful, but I'd prefer to see this radio offered without XM and priced more competitively as a result. In my experience, the astounding performance far outweigh the drawbacks.
Finally, some have commented on the FM broadcast band performance of the E1. I immediately noticed the weak-signal resolution and excellent selectivity the first time I tuned around on the FM band. I suspect the E1 would be a good performer for FM DX during e-openings. I learned a valuable lesson about preconceived notions when I purchased my E1. This product is an outstanding challenge to much more expensive desktop communications receivers. Before trying one myself, I would have bet money that fact was not the case.
73, John, KG7RS
N4CQR Rating: 2007-09-04
Could use some improvements Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Eton E1-XM Serial Number 086xx


Initial observations:

PHYSICAL:

Straight out of the box, I noticed a scratch on the tuning knob. Closer investigation leads me to to believe this is a molding issue. The PBT knob has a slight amount of paint missing due to contact with the styrofoam packing. The radio rocks a bit from front to back when sitting on a flat surface. This appears to be caused by a slight rise between the front and rear feet.
That being said and all things considered, I consider the overall apearence to be excellent.

OPERATIONAL:

The display! The only complaint I have here is that I can't hardly see the damn thing. I don't think it looks like a Etch-A-Sketch but the contrast is horid. I have tryed the contrast control which is seems to go from invisabe, to difficult to see, back to invisable. Dark gray text on a dark green background is not a good combination. Leaving the light on (bright) helps but it is still dificult to see.
The AC adaptor adds noise. But also seems to act as an antenna. Disconnecting the AC adaptor drops the signal but also drops the noise. 550kHz WKRC (my favorite weekend station) is pretty much impossible to copy with the AC adaptor in use. With it dosconnected copy is fairly good. Not as good as my 2010
but acceptable. I added a ferite core choke (Radio Shack P/N 273-105) by passing the A/C adaptor wire through it 3 times which did not help on Medium Wave but did help with noise from 20mHz to 28mHz.

PERFORMANCE:

I am not impressed with this radio on Medium Wave. Actually when compaired with a rough, well used 2010, the E1 is left in the dust. WHAS, Louisville Kentucky whis is probably 65 bird miles NW of me and is noisy. This is from a 50KW station. It is 100%+ copy on the 2010 with the gain set to nil. The E1 has real problems with Mom & Pop stations (500 and 1KW AMers) that are 40-60 bird miles from me. 650, WSM in Nashville is poor to no copy while the 2010 is decent to good. Understand the E1 does not have
an internal ferrite bar andtenna. All receiving is done from the whip. Performance outdoors is certainly beter than indoors.

Medium Wave, with the included AC adaptor above 1600kHz is gone. Even with the power supply disconnected there is still some annoying noise and so help me, I believe it is from the display.
Funny thing here. I had the same problem with a SW-8 and a Satellit 800 Mellineum. Exactally the same as a mater of fact. Since Drake had a hand in each of these it makes me wounder about their design and engineering. (Diaplay noise - screwy power supplies - no internal ferite bar antenna etc..)
According the others, the E1 is an exceptional performer on AM when using an external antenna. Of cource that sort of ends the "prortable" part. One thing worth mentioning is ground the radio. If nothing more than a few feet of wire tossed out the window, laying on the ground. It will cut down on a lot of noise.

FM & SHORTWAVE

I would rate the FM as exceptional. Very clean and selectivity is excellent. Shortwave is as good as any upper end SW radio out there. And in most cases beats my 2010 by a nose Even my sw77. Until, like the S800M, you get around and above 20mHz where there is some power supply
noise.

All in all I like the E1. I have a total of $335.00. which was NIB. For that I consider that to be a good value. But I would not consider one at the $500.00 retail price.