Joe Analssandrini wrote:
Hello.

While Drake's synchronous detection circuit is generally excellent,
when it is locked on variable-strength signals, it often "warbles."
While this is not often noticeable on a "talk/news" program, it is
often VERY noticeable on music. (It is often noticeable on the Voice of
Russia - whose signal is often quite variable - musical shows; it's
also noticeable on the Voice of VietNam's musical shows as well as
Radio Bulgarias's and others.) The pitch of a note changes annoyingly -
as if the music was "sour-ing." If you own one of these receivers, try
it for yourself on a musical show.

I've had two R8B's in the past six years. I've listened to hundreds of
hours of music and never heard what you're describing. I did hear
something like that on an R8 which was made in the early 90's but that
model had a completely different sync' design than the R8B.

This occurs on the Grundig Satellit 800, the (later-production) Drake
SW8, and the Drake R8B, all of which use the same circuit. (I do not
own the Drake receivers, but I have heard them, and this effect, at
friends' houses and at my own house.) This, in my opinion, is NOT
really a "major flaw." How often does one listen to music on SW
nowadays? Once in a while, my personal Grundig Satellit 800 will
"almost" lose lock on a deep fade. Only twice that I can remember (in 6
years of ownership) has it actually lost lock.

However, this NEVER occurs on my AOR AR7030 Plus which "locks"
perfectly and completely and which, in over two years of ownership, has
NEVER lost lock.

Neither have my R8B's. Sometimes it will take a second or two to lock on
a station but once locked it never loses it, even during a deep fade.

Another practical test (and example) is when the BBC (and a few other
stations) shifts transmitters on the same frequency. There is then no
signal for 10 - 30 seconds. My Grundig Satellit 800's lock will
generally not re-engage - with the radio's AGC set to "slow" and the
sync "on" - when the new transmitter comes on the air (I cannot say
wthether the Drake R8B or SW8 exhibits this phenomenon as I have not
personally heard it on those sets) but my AOR's ALWAYS does, and
perfectly too, with no delay.

As I said, the R8B sync' can occasionally take a second to lock,
particularly under the circumstances you describe above. It depends on
how well the sync' circuit is aligned.

With my Satellit 800, I must turn off the sync and then turn it back
on, also setting the AGC to "fast" when doing this and only after the
sync circuit locks can I turn the AGC back to "slow." Two of Drake's
service technicians have told me that this is normal behavior so I
should presume it is the same with the Drake-branded sets. Again, I do
not regard this as a "major" problem (how often does it actually
happen?), but note that it can be overcome. Certainly AOR has done so.

The Sony ICF-SW7600GR's sync circuit is far below those two in overall
quality. Yet, it too generally performs well. After all, a portable
owner is not really trying for exotic DX and, on the types of signals a
portable handles well, Sony's sync circuit makes a BIG difference in
the quality of the audio. Selective-fading distortion has always been a
"bane" of SW listeners as well as MW DXers and this circuit can totally
eliminate that form of distortion.

Others may disagree with me or find Sony's (or any other) sync circuit
to be of little use. (However I firmly believe those users do not know
how to properly use it.) But the circuit can be turned off if the user
does not want it on a particular transmission and I feel it is FAR
better to have this circuit when desired than not to have it at all.
Especially since there is now no price "premium" charged for it, why
buy a comparably-priced portable radio without the circuit?

I recall seeing posts on this group where listeners say they don't care
about having a sync' detector on their receiver because they can not
hear any significant improvement in the audio quality with one. I don't
get that. The improvement seems obvious to me. This does not include the
R-75, which has a poorly designed (defective?) sync' detector.

But I digress. Having compared Drake's synchronous detection circuit
and AOR's side-by-side, I can confidently state that, while Drake's is
excellent, AOR's is superb.

Is the difference between excellent and superb equivalent to "far ahead"?