XHDATA D-608WB really impresses against Qodosen SR-286

This is the video that many people have asked for: a comparison of the Qodosen SR-286 and the XHDATA D-608WB. These two radios differ widely in terms of pricing, but the D-608WB has quickly become one of my favourites. I have been really surprised by its build quality and its very sensitive reception across all bands. I also love the deep, rich sound from the speaker. The Qodosen, of course, is just excellent on all bands.
In this comparison, the D-608WB really surprised me. I have done several comparisons of the Qodosen with other radios, in all cases the Qodosen mostly outperformed the other radios, like the XHDATA D-808. But here, I think the little D-608WB, in some cases, is as good, or maybe even slightly better than the SR-286. The good-quality speaker sound definitely helps, it makes stronger signals sound much better on the D-608WB than they do on the SR-286.
However, as expected, on very weak signals the Qodosen SR-286 clearly outperforms the D-608WB, which seems to lose audio on very weak signals, while the SR-286 maintains a fairly constant audio level.
There are a wide variety of signals here, all received at my usual location in Johannesburg, South Africa. The signals come from North and South America, Europe and Asia. They include Voice of Korea, WMLK from Pennsylvania, Radio Inconfidencia from Brazil, Radio Farda and others.
Recorded on 28 February 2024 at my usual location in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a 10 metre (27 feet) wire.
00:00 XHDATA D-608WB vs Qodosen SR-286
00:44 Radio Farda from Biblis, Germany
02:45 Voice of Turkey from Emirlir
04:51 KNLS from Alaska
05:40 Radio Inconfidencia from 5 kW transmitter in Brazil
06:46 Inconfidencia jingle and ID
08:56 Nice Inconfidencia reception on SR-286
11:11 Weak WMLK from Pennsylvania
13:00 Voice of Korea from Kujang

[@W4BTK]

Loving my 608! Thanks for the video

[@oktayakin5854]

I have qodosen I also have Grundig Satellit 700. It”s 30 years old and it has RDS ❤

[@swlistening]

That's quite amazing, never knew they had RDS back then already!

[@dadwire1483]

Since the BIG names in radio manufacturing are long gone, it is best to purchase the brand name SANGEAN..! They should use the TE6686 car radio chip and put it into the new SANGEAN ATA-909X3, as it would be ultimate DX’ing machine even better than the Panasonic 2200 or Sony icf-2010..! The thing that O don’t like in SANGEAN is that they have seconds flashing in their time display and they have 5 minutes SNOOZE, instead of 10 minutes…! No one heard of the name Quodosen before this sexy radio came out, a montb ago..

[@swlistening]

Just imagine, a TEF6686 chip in a Sangean radio! That would certainly be one of the best DXing radios ever. I do think Tecsun or XHDATA should also consider this chip, they make some very good radios. Even Eton as well.

[@any_username]

Wow, XHDATA D-608WB is good indeed. Would never look on it closely because of its "construction worker toolkit" design. The screen quality and sensitivity is on the top level there for sure. BTW, @swlistening: Either your mic or video software makes unusual things to the sound like it was trying to make stereo of mono; just noticing as someone who's listening very carefully in headphones.

[@swlistening]

It's actually a top-class performer, exactly what an emergency radio should be! If there were a real emergency, you'd want something that can really pick up distant signals, and that is what this radio offers. Which means this is a great DXing machine. Thank you for the comment about the sound, I think it is my mic, I haven't really been happy with the performance of the mic for some time. I am looking for something else.

[@StratmanII]

The D-608WB is the nicest looking emergency radio I've seen at its price point. It has a bass port baffle at the rear which makes the audio sound more natural and not tinny. Tecsun's hand cranked offerings don't have digital frequency tuning and look too utilitarian. Sangean does make rugged, weather proof radios for outdoor/construction work use but they're much more expensive. My D-608WB has a software bug which affects the audio volume after doing an ATS scan. For some reason the volume stays low until the digital volume control reaches about 25 units and the radio suddenly becomes very loud. Then there's the main tuning knob that gets very stiff to turn after several revolutions, becomes loose for a couple of rotations and gets stiff again. I'm not sure if mine is from a faulty production batch or I happen to have gotten a lemon. 😐

[@swlistening]

@@StratmanII I agree, I think it is a very nice looking radio. And it feels very sturdy to me, like it has been built to last. Sorry to hear about the flaws on your version, mine does not display any of those flaws. I think you should return it, it does sound like a faulty version.

[@StratmanII]

@@swlistening Thanks for your input, Andre. I did send a message to the seller to properly test it for defects. 😐 Since this is the first and only D-608WB which I have tried, I don't have another unit to compare it to. I do know that both units of the D-109 which I've bought have smooth turning tuning knobs and I expected this radio to behave likewise. Guess it's time to contact the seller for a refund.

[@swlistening]

@@StratmanII I agree. Mine tunes smoothly.

[@Kw1161]

Thanks Andre for this video…my $27 D-608WB almost ties with the much more expensive “Q” SR286 on short wave. I still am in the process of budgeting for the “Q” as I want to use it for FM E-skip on my upcoming summer storm months (I Hope). 73! Have a great day!

[@swlistening]

Sure! I think the D-608WB came very close to the Qodosen here, except on the really weak signals. I will also try my hand at FM DXing with the Qodosen, it is not something that I know, but I will learn. I have one of the best FM DXing radios in the world now, so I might as well try :-)

[@digitalmediafan]

$21 wow that's cheap I thought mine was a good deal at $35 incl postage

[@F4LDT-Alain]

That's the shootout we've been waiting for indeed, André. Thanks for this. Well, my take is that there's not a whole lot of difference between these two. I hear a bit more noise and distortion from the D-608, it also tends to lose the weakest signals completely at times when the SR-288 can still dig out a tiny bit of audio. But otherwise really not a world of difference. It the Qodosen worth 100+$/€ more? I think that we can't tell from a single comparison done on a given day in a given place. From my experience, radios tend to do better or worse than others one day when at one location and the contrary another day at another place, on a different band maybe. You'll know in the long run... I've had some issues with the D608 regarding overloading and interference (e.g. FM breakthrough), is the SR-286 more immune to this?

[@swlistening]

Thanks for your comment Alain! I absolutely agree with you, a shootout on one day does not provide definite answers. That being said, I think the Qodosen keeps proving itself as something special, again and again, as I've shown in my other comparison videos. I do think it is worth the quite hefty price. I think in this video, as you say, the D-608WB is actually pretty close to the Qodosen on many of these signals, which says a lot about the D-608WB. I actually think it fared better than the D-808 in similar comparisons. But where the Qodosen continues to excel is on the weak signals, none of my other radios perform like the Qodosen on weak signals. That alone makes it a good buy, in my opinion. I do also sometimes experience a little bit of overloading on the D-608WB, but not really that serious, to be honest. I haven't experienced overloading on the Qodosen yet.

[@canyondan]

the d-608 has a place in one's arsenal of receivers, however the sr-286 has a better overall performance in my opinion after watching your videos. Thanks again my friend.

[@swlistening]

Thanks Dan, I agree with you. I think these two radios make a formidable pair, and then one would need one more with SSB, like the D-808 or the PL-368. That would be a great collection of portable receivers!

[@Sankara2000]

IDK BUt the number of Vids on YT on Qodosen SR-286 seems a bit suspicious, Just thinking aloud.. Any thoughts from SWLers?

[@swlistening]

Before I got my Qodosen, there were actually very few videos, strangely, considering how good this radio is. But since then, lots of videos have come out. It's simply because the radio was released around the end of last year, so people started getting hold of it and doing tests over the past few months. Because it is so good, it is the current buzz in SW, FM and MW circles, which would explain all the videos. There is a lot of interest in this radio.

[@ArnieDXer]

Thank you for this comparison, André 😀 well, I was quite surprised to see that there was hardly any difference between these two radios on most signals 😮 Qodosen did excel on the weakest ones though. Although I believe the D-608WB could've sounded better on Radio Inconficencia... I think something in your audio chain ruined it 😂 and no, it's not the mic! The mic did improve the audio on fading, and for most of your recordings I just lived woth that, but here there was just so much cancellation of all audio except background noise... Do you record in mono or in stereo? Maybe there is the problem? 🤔 In fact... I've just begun to wonder why there's so much fluttering on whatever you record? Is it really just like this to your ears when you listen live? Here, I can get a similar effect if a signal is affected by Aurora somewhere along the path from transmitter to receiver. But there can't be any Aurora on the way between South Africa to Germany or Korea XD unless there is a really strong CME... which hasn't been actually happening recently 🤨

[@swlistening]

Hi there Arnie, thank you for your comment! The D-698WB really surprised me here, and also on the Bangladesh Betar video that I uploaded yesterday as well. About the audio. The fluttering that you hear especially strongly on the 608 with Inconfidencia and WMLK is, in fact, what the signal sounded like here on my side. The 608 seemed to pump out the signal very strongly, then just drop it completely. It went on like that all the time. The same effect was not audible on the Qodosen itself while I was listening, nor in the video clip of the Qodosen. The audio was recorded in exactly the same way for both these clips, and for all the clips in the same video. In this video, the fluttering on the D0608WB with Inconfidencia especially was very noticeable on the radio itself when I was listening. The Qodosen just managed to catch that weak signal and process it in a way that provided continuous but weak audio, that has been my experience of the Qodosen in general since I received it. But do you hear fluttering in all the audio in this video, even the strong one like Voice of Turkey? To my ear, when I listen back to this video and the other clips, like Farda and Turkey, I do not hear any fluttering where the audio is strong. Those clips were recorded in exactly the same way as the Inconfidencia one. So the only thing I can think of is that my video editing clip, perhaps, has some built-in audio boosting when sound is weak. I never make any audio adjustments myself when editing my videos. I am not sure if my phone records in mono or stereo, there are no audio settings in the camera app. I will need to look into that, because that might be part of the problem. I am a bit concerned about the audio in my recordings anyway, but mostly related to my voice-overs. Something that I experience is that my voice-overs are often low volume - at first I thought it was the mic, but now I think that it might be the voice recording app, which I use to add voice-overs later. I use the same mic for that. I'll have to look into all of this and maybe experiment with different phones and with a digital recorder and compare the results.

[@ArnieDXer]

​@@swlistening I haven't tested it yet as I rarely record from anything but an SDR, although I think it will change somewhat soon as something wrong had happened to my Windows & I can't fix it... Anyway, I have an app called Open Camera, which is a more elaborate, feature-rich (and ad-free!) app than a built-in one, and in its settings I found an option to force either mono or stereo audio - with a note, if stereo is actually possible with your mic. If that doesn't change anything, then it must be something else... phasing? And your voice-overs sound OK :) Oh and yes, I do hear a lot of flutter on VOT. Even though the audio is still readable on both radios. Plus a het... I wonder what this could be? 🤔 too early for Voz Missionaria, not to mention they're usually 5kHz up... But they can actually drift quite far away, although more like 9666 😜

[@swlistening]

@@ArnieDXer Hey Arnie, thanks for your reply, I did some tests today and I have a feeling it's the mic. I think the mic is picking up the background noise or static noise that comes and goes all the time, and seems to amplify it very strongly. Then it becomes louder than what I actually hear while I am listening. I tested on a couple of signals with the external mic and with the phone's own mic. When using the phone's mic the audio sounds more natural, the background noise, or static noise, sound kind of like what I hear while listening. But the audio quality is not as good overall like when I am using the external mic. But with the external mic the background noise or static sort of flows in and out all the time, which I think is the fluttering that you hear. Also the audio itself on weaker signals seems to flutter a bit, although the effect seems to be less marked on the actual audio. On very strong signals it does not seem to happen. I don't know if it is my camera app causing this, but it seems to happen only when I plug in the external mic. I have downloaded Open Camera, thanks for that. I will try it and see whether it makes a difference when I record in mono, I think that might be part of the problem indeed.

[@ArnieDXer]

@@swlistening so you may also experiment with gain of your external mix, and perhaps more settings if there are any. You may then try boosting the audio in a video editor as you edit the recordings, if you find the volume too low :)

[@swlistening]

@@ArnieDXer I don't have any mic settings, unfortunately. But I continued my experiment late into the night last night and I think I found the real culprit, five minutes before midnight 😀 I use a 10 metre speaker wire as my antenna, works really well. At a hunch I decided to test whether the radios wouldn't sound better if I just wrapped the wire around the whip antennas, instead of clipping an exposed bit at the end of the wire to the whip. It made a major difference, on the D-608WB, Tecsun R-909 and also the Qodosen. The sound was a lot better, with less of that fluttering, or cyclic fading. I think it was a combination of issues in the end, the mic amplified both the noise and the audio, and the wire seemed to cause the fluttering to a great extent. I hope in future you will experience less fluttering, I certainly noticed a difference last night when I just wrapped the wire around the whip.

[@peterkeller5977]

What are these odd S/N numbers on the SR 286? Compare with the XHDATA numbers , that seem to be correct.

[@swlistening]

Hi Peter, they are odd indeed. They are always very different from what I see on other radios, I don't know why that is.

[@oz_dx]

S-286 is much better on very weak signals because D-608WB has an aggressive AGC as in all Si473X based receivers. This AGC drops very weak signals into zero.

[@swlistening]

I think it is on the weaker signals where the SR-286 really excels. I agree with you that the AGC on the 608 and other similar radios is too aggressive, the SR-286 seems to get it right.

[@X_azf]

qodosen - tef6686, xhdata - ?

[@swlistening]

That is actually a good question, I haven't seen any clear information as to which chip the D-608WB uses. I assume it is the same one as in the D-109WB, just because these two radios seem to share so many similarities. So that would be the Silicon Labs Si4734.

[@any_username]

Not sure. Subbed to see replies...

[@StratmanII]

I agree with the SWL King, there's likely to be a Si 4734-A10 DSP chip in it. XHDATA and Sihuadon use this chip for their DSP radios with a digital frequency readout but doesn't have FM RDS and SSB demodulation. The D-109 and R-108 have been confirmed to use the Si 4734 chip, while the D-808 gets the Si 4735 variant.

[@swlistening]

@@StratmanII Thanks!

​​@@StratmanII My personal rant is that there are many nice radios today but the lack of RDS with at least PS and automatically setting time by CT is in 2024 a no-go for me. So I have to stick to my D808 and the SR268 which do both RDS.