SDRPlay RSPdx Comparison

[NN4FParticipant]

Ok as some of you may know, I started the facebook group for SDRPlay as an unofficial group, then I started working for ELAD, but I continued to be a tester for SDRPlay, over the past few years, I’ve managed to gather a small collection of SDR’s , all the SDRPlay Range from the 1 to the latest RSPdx, and obviously all the ELAD Radios, well I do work for them… 🙂 and a few more, including the revered Perseus.

Last night the LW signals work amazing here, so I decided to do a comparison test, trying not to be biased towards Elad, but they are in a different price range, the next step up from SDRPlay SDR’s My Location is just outside of Charleston, SC in the USA, and the target station was Medi1 out of Morocco on 171kHz

 

All signals just above the noise floor,

Perseus Just about see the signal, audio is just

about readable,

Airspy HF+ barely see the signal, can tell audio is there but can’t make it out.

LimeSDR hmmm joke waste of my money

Elad S2 just about hear and see the station, readable

RSP1 Nothing

RSP1a just about hear and see, just about readable almost as good as the Perseus

RSPDuo Similar to RSP1a

RSP2Pro worse than 1a to be expected I guess

RSPdx good signal and almost perfectly readable

Elad S3 just a wee tad better than the RSPdx, clear audio ($800 more)

Elad DuoR using SW2 about on par with RSPdx ($700 more)

Using 120ft longwire via a 9:1 grounded, couldn’t compare S3 in Uno as extio’s are not available yet (Radio isn’t publicly available yet)…all tested at about 500khz Bandwidth or as close to. I do have better antennas but this was the setup at the time

RSPdx was in HDR mode LW button, then improved signal by using LIF 1.536mhz at 16 decimation 200khz and it was that was closest to Elad-S3 and better than the RSPDuo

All with noise floor around s5, signal showing around s6-8

So in order of best to worst

Elad-S3, RSPdx, Elad DuoR, Elad-S2(add-on filters not used), Perseus, (RSP1a, RSPDuo Both about same) Elad-S1, Airspy HF+, RSP1, LImeSDR

 

This isn’t a LAB grade test, it was made using the MK1 Brain, Eyes and Ears, We could go into details, but whats 0.1 of a dB between friends…..and if you can’t hear the station, what’s the point of all the noise figures…

 

Paul – NN4F –  EladUSA Guru / SDRPlay Mike ladd Wannabe 😉

 

Pic is the RSPdx using latest 1.33 SDRUno using HDR mode on Antenna C

 

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[W1EGBParticipant]

I noticed you left the RSP2Pro out of the final comparison. I’m also wondering why you felt the RSP2Pro should be a little worse than the RSP1a.

[NN4FParticipant]

That was my mistake, i would put the pro right after the 1a, and the filtering in the 1a/duo are improved over the rsp2pro…

[FrankOParticipant]

Interesting results.

What’s the fastest way to buy an RSPdx in the U.S.? I see that HRO has it listed as a product, though it isn’t shown as being in stock at any stores.

 

[G4ABQAdmin]

The current schedule is that all the SDRplay channel partners and resellers will receive RSPdx  stock around the same time, towards the end of the week ending Friday 22nd November.  It will also be possible to buy directly from the UK on  http://www.sdrplay.com/purchase at that time

[tudorParticipant]

“Airspy HF+ barely see the signal, can tell audio is there but can’t make it out.”

The longwave performance on the original Airspy HF+ units is intentionally reduced unless you performed the R3 bypass modification (did you?).

I’m curious how the RSPdx compares with the Airspy HF Discovery (which is much better on LW than the original, unmodded HF+).

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[FrankOParticipant]

I’m curious how the RSPdx compares with the Airspy HF Discovery (which is much better on LW than the original, unmodded HF+).

I have an Airspy HF+ (bought in early 2018) that I’ve used a fair amount, and a Discovery that I’m just beginning to use. So far, their performance on LF/MF seems similar. I’ve heard others describe the Discovery as offering similar performance to the HF+, but in a smaller package at a lower price.

Is there anything out there worth reading that discusses (and hopefully quantifies) ways in which the Discovery shows better performance?

 

 

 

 

 

[Patrick73Participant]

I’m curious how the RSPdx compares with the Airspy HF Discovery (which is much better on LW than the original, unmodded HF+).

It would indeed be a very interesting test ; the Discovery is, to date, the most sensitive RX I have ever used on LF/MW (the ELAD S2 and Perseus were not bad though !). I also used a RSPduo that was clearly inferior in the NDB range when searching for real DX (but fine on VLF).

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