Eton Grundig S450DLX Deluxe AM / FM / Shortwave Radio - Black, NGS450DLB

While quality control issues have plagued this radio for years, the fact remains that if you get a good one, it's an excellent radio and a great value. I got lucky, I guess because mine operates as it should and that's very good...and I got a great price from Amazon ! This radio is excellent for the AM broadcast band DXer and mine does not display any of the issues on AM that have been mentioned in some reviews...no birdies, no oscillation, no spurious noises of any kind and it is very sensitive. I truly believe the AM broadcast band is this radio's strongest feature which is what I bought it for. It's also quite adequate on FM with no issues and it also does a nice job on the shortwave bands. I consider myself a tough critic because I'm a shortwave listeners, broadcast band DXer and ham radio operator with over 50 years of experience operating all sorts of radios

Model: Grundig S450DLX Serial#: 20130401479 Total Price Paid: $48.94 Condition: Refurbished as new (display model) My mother always used to say “Don’t judge a book by its cover, it’s what’s inside that counts”. The Grundig S450DLX certainly follows this philosophy and the many reports of poor construction are true. Dubbing this as a “Field Radio” is a misnomer. The case is made of light, cheap, brittle plastic – the kind that doesn’t crack but shatter on impact. The bandwidth and band selector knobs feel loose and have a considerable amount of play. The buttons feel cheap, especially the Light and Snooze buttons on the top, which are flimsier than a $5 clock radio bought at a dollar store. The battery door (made of the same cheap plastics) is removable and two small tabs latch into the bottom before closing it. I anticipate these small tabs breaking over time since a considerable amount of force is needed to close it after batteries are installed. The tuning knob on mine is stiff and difficult to use with the finger dimple, but it doesn’t affect tuning in general. The memory system isn’t intuitive and is a bit lacking in terms of available channels, and splitting the entire shortwave band into three sections is downright archaic for a digitally tuned PLL radio. Needless to say my first impressions of the S450DLX were pretty low out of the box, but what was to come completely changed my mind. After installing the 6 D cells the radio went from feather light to something that feels more substantial. I used 4 small self-adhesive rubber feet on the bottom to keep it from sliding around on smooth surfaces. With the weight of the batteries and rubber feet the radio stays rock solid stationary with any button press or turn of a dial. After powering the radio on I was impressed with the display, the frequency digits are large and easy to read with good contrast. The backlight is cool blue and activated by using the tuning knob or “Light” button on the top of the radio. Fidelity from the large internal speaker is above average but a bit lacking in bass response on MW and SW no matter how much you adjust the tone controls. FM sounds excellent, though, and is room filling with a lot of low end throw equivalent to an expensive tabletop model. The audio amplifier is very clean with no detectable hiss at minimum volume even when using headphones. To my surprise sensitivity on MW and SW was rivaling my Tecsun PL-600 and DX-398 using just the telescopic whip and internal ferrite antenna at less than optimum band conditions late afternoon. FM performance is good but nothing to write home about, several of my smaller and cheaper portables trounce the S450DLX in this department. Selectivity is good but I’d like to have heard a tighter “narrow” setting, this one sounds like it could be 1kHz tighter without sacrificing audio quality. The “wide” setting is too wide, stations bleed all over each other when dialing through a congested band but is nice to use for full fidelity of powerhouse broadcasters. Discovering that this radio had better than average sensitivity I was hesitant trying the external antenna connections. Other than my DX-398, large antennas bring small portable receivers to their knees. Even though the S450DLX isn’t a small radio and has connections for such antennas I still had my reservations. First I connected my G5RV. This is a dipole that’s 102’ long end to end and I used no tuner or pre-selector. Typically I would expect to hear shorwave broadcasters all over the band where they shouldn’t be due to overload, but this wasn’t the case. No imaging ANYWHERE and this was with the radio switched to “DX” and the gain control wide open, I was floored and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I switched to my 56-foot end-fed longwire with 9:1 Unun, same result, no imaging or overload. I tested both antennas connected for the MW band with the same excellent results, even late at night when the bands were open. Testing FM with a discone antenna improved reception but not much better than the telescopic whip which surprised me. To surmise this radio loves long antennas on MW and SW and handles them with ease. The DX/Local switch and gain control are very effective but found I very seldom have to use them. For MW and SW listening I never expected the S450DLX to be this good, it’s in a class of its own for this purpose and it leaves other portables in the dust. This is becoming my “go to” radio when the Icom 746 Pro isn’t on. It’s a shame the S450DLX is constructed so crappy because it could easily be rated an overall 5, otherwise here’s how I rate each feature. Construction = 2.5 Memory system and ergonomics = 3 MW Performance = 5 SW Performance = 5 FM Performance = 3.5

My S450DLX arrived today. Installed fresh batteries and I had that uneasy feeling...you know...like the one you get the night before the boss send a memo that he would like to meet with you in his office tomorrow.... Perhaps it's because 2 other Grundigs I've purchased from amazon brand new have arrive defective before and my S350 which did work fine till it suddenly developed internal noise, static, oscillations which spread throughout the bands like a virus. It's synthisizer went south.. So, I turned on the S450DLX, It powered up and then I tried to rotate the tuning VFO to change stations...nothing happened..it spun and failed to change stations..The up down buttons worked ...well a few times before the radio locked up and I has to do a master reset... In a nutshell this radio should have been branded Fisher Price rather than Grundig.. Reviews on Youtube and Eham reflect the poor quality and problems with this radio. Now before you shoot the messenger....I realize that some of you may have had better luck with you S450DLX. But, I am a licensed Extra class Ham operator and for 40 years I have collected many many ham , communications and shortwave sets of all types. I can tell you from experience that Eton-Grundig s quality control suffers and they are banking on the Grundig tried and true name to produce cheap low quality receivers that they hope YOU will buy. Older Grundi's are fine NOT the ones made in the last 5 yrs. Best new radio I've used in the last 5 yrs is the Satellite 800 and for the value & performance the Degen DE1103 and the older Panasonic RF2200. Eton Grundig cannot even include aProduct detector for USB-LSB reception in it's junk boxes. The Degen 1103 has all that and is really sensitive and sounds great plus has USB-LSB modes. Also for great sound. Except for the strange battery..the TecSun PL-880 is hi fi shortwave. And anything C-Crane sells is super quality. But AVOID the S350 and the S450DLX as well as the Grundig new FIELD radio like the plague. They are a major disappointment. btw..the new FIELD model when you tune it mutes as you tune it so you get a chuff-chuff-chuff sound as you tune it. Eton-Grundig...will you people wake up ? OK, I had second thought s and GAVE this model a second chance.. I ordered another from Amazon. It arrived today & had NO VFO issues as did the first one... Although the Factory not the shipper packs the S450DLX in cheezy wimpy packaging, the second 450 operates well. Note..the Band and Bandwidth controls ob BOTH radios are loose and flimsy and Special care needs to be taken when using operating the switches as not to break or wear them out quickly. Eton/Grundig could have done a much better job in design and manufacturing of these radios. They are low to mid quality . Keep in mind that for the under $70 they are now selling for new. They are entry level . Still the other models I referenced above sre much better radios. I am a collector as well as a user of these sets and I doubt that 20 yrs from now this radio will still be working.. My S350 failed partially after 3 yrs. The S350 has better audio than does the S450DLX . So I say to you, buy the radio if it has a replacement warranty , it's cheap to buy & if it fails after a few yrs no big deal I guess. I'm just really disappointed at Eton / Grundig 's Quality control and R&D division. How great would it have been if this S450DLX would have had a BFO or product detector so you could listen to tha Ham radio bands ? Sangean , C-Crane & Degen do.

This radio has a complex set of controls on its front. However, after a few moments reading the accompanying owner's manual all became clear and their uses became intuitive. The radio's AM reception is unexpectedly sensitive after local night, and the FM includes all our preferred stations. For convenience, we already have throughout our home a number of basic AM and AM/FM radios, including two small pocket Grundig radios (the Mini 300 and Mini World 100 PE, which I often carry while on travel, and which convinced me to buy the S450DLX). We clearly prefer the DLX because of its evening sensitivity and clarity. I primarily use this radio for background music when working in my home office. We also have, and use frequently, a Yamaha CD player; a Sony digital audio, video control center; a Denon turntable; a pair of ADCOCM speakers with a GFS-3 selector; a pair of ADS speakers for the living room; elderly Realistic speakers for the sun room; and KOSS Mini-Plus speakers for the basement workshop.

This was a great radio for about two hours. But, after two hours of listening, the whole AM/SW side went dead. That's the bad. Here's the good. I like the size of the radio and quality of the audio. AM sensitivity and selectivity were superb. I was picking up an intelligible signal every 10 kc across the band in the middle of the afternoon. Shortwave sensitivity and selectivity were good but not really communications receiver quality. Still, I could tell that once I got used to the digital tuning setup, it was going to be quite useful for what it is designed to be, a large portable. As I said, I had a great time with the radio until the AM and SW just went dead. Nothing but internal noise coming out of the speaker. I have asked for a replacement and will give it one more shot. But, Eton/Grundig should really get it's act together. I bought this unit, despite the bad reviews based upon the number of good reviews from satisified owners and the fact that nobody else makes a radio in this class anymore for less than a hundred dollars. I figured that I had a good change of getting a good one and will give them one more shot. But, buying an Eton/Grundig product shouldn't be a crapshoot and a game of shuffling products until you get one that works. I will probably not buy another Eton/Grundig product after this experience. They obviously have major quality control problems. Postscript: The replacement unit for the defective one arrived yesterday. Cannot fault Amazon or the seller for their response to the situation. Absolutely flawless. The second unit appears to be working fine but seems to be somewhat less sensitive than the first which literally filled the AM/MW band with readable signals in the middle of the afternoon. This unit does not but is still better than most portables in its price range. It is stable and the audio quality is good. SW sensitivity is so so but is made up for by the stability and bandwidth selector which allow you lock down on a signal. Listened to news from China and pop music from Australia this morning over coffee. This unit may not be the ultimate DX machine but the price was right and it will do for normal listening. Postscript 2: Battery life on this unit is excellent. I use it from two to four hours per day and it looks like a set of Duracells can be depended upon to last in excess of 30 days at that level of use. However, I am still astounded by the difference in sensitivity of the two units, the one that was originally shipped and went dead in two hours and the one I have now. The first unit literally picked up an AM station at almost every frequency allotment in the middle of the afternoon. During that glorious two hours that it worked, I was getting five hundred mile AM dx with ease. Based upon that, it would have been amazing after sunset. But, the new unit is far, far less sensitive. Usable. Better than a normal table radio but still not what the other unit could have been. Quality control on these units must be very, very lax. I wish that (1) it came apart easily and (2) I had access to an alignment procedure for it because I suspect that there is a very good radio hidden in there .... POSTSCRIPT 3 - After three months, the radio is still going strong on the set of Duracells I installed in January. This would be a great radio for folks living off the grid. Battery life is amazing for a radio of its size and audio power. Sensitivity is only so so. But it is a workhorse for what it does. Stable, good audio quality, long battery life. Could be worse.

I have a few portable shortwave radio's (the Grundig YB400pe and the Kaito DE1101) I bought this primarily for the larger speaker compared to my others. Performance on shortwave with the whip antenna beats out my Yacht Boy with an amplified loop. I live in southwest Michigan and was able to pick up North Korea's signal during the late morning, something my other radio's could not do. AM performance is better than average but combined with my Terk loop antenna it picks up very well. I like the fact that you can decrease the steps and fine tune the signal. I find FM to be very good but my Yacht Boy beats it out just barely. The radio sounds great for talk, having separate bass and treble knobs is wonderful. Overall a very good general performer and I'm very happy with this purchase. The only real downside to this radio is that it is a little flimsy and I'm thinking that it would not handle a fall very well at all (cheaper plastic casing and knobs)

Ordered from Amazon and received my radio a few days after Christmas. As a radio enthusiast I have been in search of the perfect radio. My interests are mainly in MW dxing and have been looking for a modern radio with strong AM reception. My location is in North East PA on the outskirts of a small city. I enjoy listening to am stations located in Philly, Chicago and NYC. Two years ago I decided to look for a new radio that would have the ability to pick up my favorite stations during the daytime. I currently own several Grunding radios, the G3, G5 and G6 that I have purchased thru Radio Shack. (As a side note I must have bought and returned those models several times until I found a hot one that performed well). I was in search of a modern radio with AM performance close to my Sony ICF-2010. I must admit that this radio is very close and has better AM reception than my Sangean 909 and Sony ICF-SW7600GR. The 2010 is still the king, but I am very happy with this radio. The FM performance is also very good, however my little Tecsun PL -310 with DSP has it beat. By the way, the 310 also has very good AM performance for it's size. The s450 is a large radio, and when loaded with six "D" cells it gets quite heavy. Included with it is power adapter that in my comparison added little to no extra noise. Overall the radios build quality is decent. The tuning nob and most other switches seems ok, with the exception of the wide, narrow and FM switch. The display lights up well and there is a switch that will also light up most of the buttons on the front panel. The radio comes set with a annoying beep when turned on, but I found that if you hold the sleep button down when the radio is off it will disable this feature. So, in summary, this radio is not perfect but for me comes very very close with terrific AM sensitivity and for the money it is a great deal.

Like other reviewers, I had my S450DLX disaster moment. Afer it lobbed on my doorstep here in Australia's national capital I loaded it with fresh batteries and pressed the Start button. Nothing happened. No light, no sound...no response at all. So I tried the batteries in a tester: all OK. I tried them in a couple of other radios: OK there too. When I notified amazon.com they told me to return it, which I did at great expense. They repaid the money and quickly sent a replacement radio. Full marks for a brilliant performance by amazon.com. But what about the performance of the radio? Well, the first thing to be said is that to a connoisseur this is a Grundig that's not a Grundig. Connoisseurs know that genuine iconic Grundigs were made by the firm established in Bavaria by Max Grundig in 1945. It became a legend in Europe and its great radios became a legend there and to radio connoisseurs throughout the world. When Max retired in 1984 he sold his firm to Philips and the firm continued to flourish until the 1990s when it began to suffer big losses. Philips got out and Grundig went bankrupt in 2003. Other firms moved in, essentially to get the benefits of Grundig's iconic name and reputation. The firm marketing "Grundig" radios in the US is Eton but today's Grundig radios are essentially made-in-China units wearing a Grundig badge. At first glance the S450DLX is very Chinese. Externally it bears a remarkable resemblance to the Redsun RP2100 which is sitting on the shelf next to it. But Redsun it ain't. Internally it somewhat resembles the C. Crane radio blasting away in my bathroom because they both use the same chip. But that doesn't make it as good a radio because, unlike the C.Crane, it's a very ordinary unit when operating on the MW band. The sound lacks clarity, although I get none of the spurious tones others have complained about. Then I place it next to the genuine Grundig Satellit 700 in my bedroom - the greatest general-purpose portable ever made - and I'm reminded of what a real radio should sound like. The spoken word is as clear as a bell and - most distinctively - music sounds musical. This latter characteristic is what distinguishes all the old late and great Grundig radios. It's difficult to define, but classical music in particular plays smoothly and evenly. The Chinese Grundig, like most of the old Japanese radios, plays it as if it is being processed through some kind of arcade music machine. The S450DLX sounds much better on FM. The spoken word is clearer but not quite as clear as the words which pour from my new Digital Audio Band radio. (DAB broadcasts have begun here in Canberra over the past few weeks.) And certainly not as clear as that emanating from the Satellit 700. Music is pretty good on FM but again it is inferior to the DAB and Satellit 700. Most of the controls - Bass and Treble, AM RF Gain etc - work adequately but I find it much more difficult to find my way around them (setting and finding memories in particular). Perhaps this is, however, only a question of gaining familiarity with them. All-in-all then I feel I have eventually got my money's worth and I'm happy to add it to my stock of radios worth retaining.