My personal shortwave listening experience goes back a couple of decades,
having owned at least two dozen portables and several tabletop receivers.

Having used mine extensively, I believe that the DE1103 is the best
performer in its price class by far... there isn't even anything close that
I'm aware of (except for maybe its little brother, the DE1102!). For around
$50.00 US for the direct-from-Shanghai version, you absolutely cannot go
wrong. Yes, there are receivers out there that'll blow away the DE1103 on
their worst day, but be prepared to shell out mucho dinero for them.

I was recently lent a Sony ICF-SW7600GR to play around with for about a
week. This receiver is often touted as one of the best portable performers.
It's got the sychronous selectable sideband feature that the DE1103 lacks.
Yes, the Sony is a very good performer, but it's also 3x the price of the
DE1103.

After the good-performing portables are taken into consideration, the next
step up in performance will have you looking at paying perhaps 10x the price
of the DE1103 for a good tabletop receiver. You can spend anywhere from $500
to $5,000 in that category.

Jackie