Just got my "new" Sony ICF-7601, which can be seen as the "last of the
analogs" in the "7600" line. Boy, that thing was dirty, must have been a
workshop radio or such (lots of brownish dust inside and some paint dots
outside - but it still works, apart from the small LED for the MW
button; well, it's a SONY). So, after ripping it all apart and cleaning
things up, I gave it a go.
Nice sound via the speaker, and when you plug in some good headphones
(not plugging those in the whole way will give you audio on both sides
for stereo ones) you quickly notice why: Bass expansion. Still, nice to
listen to music with. The tone control does a good job, with normal bass
and noticeably dampened highs in the "NEWS" position.
The overall feel is quite good, even if my SW7600G is heavier.
Scales: Quite accurate on SW2-10 (about 10-15 kHz low on 49m, and
virtually spot on on 13m), decent on SW1 (larger range), fair on MW, too
little marks on FM.
Off to some DX side by side with the ICF-SW7600G (both on the whip):
* SW1, 75 meters: Both are about equal, with a slight nod towards the
7601.
* SW3, 49 meters: Separation of Deutsche Welle (6075) and Bayerischer
Rundfunk (6085) not a problem. Looks like two stations 5 kHz apart
would be more critical. No comparison to 7600G here yet.
* SW10, 13 meters: RAE on 21700 comes in quite listenable on the 7601
and even lights the TUNE indicator sometimes, while it's barely
audible above the noise of the SW7600G! Amazing. Gotta love these
analogs - the 7600G is a "quiet" rig for its price, but it looks like
the muddiness in the audio of weaker stations (as already noted in
comparison to the AR7030 with its very quiet DDS synth) can be
attributed to its PLL. Not a problem for the 7601.
* MW: Gets RTL on 1440 quite well, interference on the same frequency
is more of a problem than sensitivity, ferrite rod seems reasonably
directional.
* FM: Does receive there . Selectivity is not as good as on the
7600G, but the latter got 110/150 kHz filters recently so that would
be an unfair comparison.
* Drift: Not really noticed so far, if you tune to a frequency the
receiver pretty much stays there.
* Quite sensitive to user-antenna contact. Haven't experimented with
"more antenna" much yet.

I'll do more tests later this evening, but so far it looks quite good
for the 7601. Of course it doesn't have the synch detection, SSB, FM
stereo and digital readout that the 7600G has, but as a no-frills
receiver it seems to perform quite well so far. I'll be looking out for
images on 60m.

Stephan
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