Customer Reviews
BEWARE THE LCD SCREEN 
2008-07-25
There is NO EXCUSE for a $700 Consumer Portable Radio having problems with the display! Mine had a line through the LCD Display right out of the box BRAND NEW! This is unacceptable!
Very disappointing performance. 
2008-05-09
There must be something wrong with this radio. I own three other shortwave receivers; a Panasonic RF-B65 which I purchased in 1989, a Zenith Trans-Oceanic 3000 from the early 1960s, and a Zenith Trans-Oceanic G500 tube set which was built in 1950, and is about the size of a small suitcase, and uses tubes instead of transistors. Either one of these radios, in shortwave mode, will completely blow the Eton E1 out of the room. As I said, there must be something wrong with the Eton E1.
Best shortwave radio possible! 
2008-03-03
This Eton E1 shortwave radio is nothing short of fabulous. Every conceivable option is built into this midsized portable radio. The sensitivity is great and the selectivity is easily changable from the panel buttons. I always wanted a good shortwave radio, and now I have one! I'm a ham radio operator and my transceiver has a built-in shortwave radio. This Eton is almost a sensitive as my transceiver.
Very good, but has issues. 
2008-02-27
After a year mine had to go get fixed, I'm very glad that I paid for a 3 year extended service. The sw, and fm are good, but listening to am is terrible. While my E1 is at the factory being repaired I took out a Sangean 818 that cost me 10.00 dolars used at a swap meet, and has never had any problem after many years of use, I am also using a Sony 2010 that is about 10 years old and never given trouble.
Well worth the price for the features and performance 2007-12-26
Great radio combineing the best aspects of portable (though no carry handle unfortunatly) and table top. Circuit City (where I got mine) is selling these for half of Amazon's price currently. It comes with a pretty steep learning curve compared to your average radio but if you fully read the manual all things are made quite clear. This is the next generation of Grundigs after the Satellite 800 of the mid 80's but with a new brand name and a product recall for about 2k of them. Me I've had no problems with mine so I guess I got lucky with the manufacture of it, made in India as it is (cheap labor can be taken for what it's worth).
Expect to shell out another $50 or so plus the price of subscription to XM satellite commercial free airplay, maybe if I fell so motivated I'll spring for that but at present I'm safisfied with all the entertainment and news that's available free of charge.
Please read the manual before judging this device, the paper one is well printed and they also include a cd disk with some additional facts and so forth.
On the whole I'm thrilled with it as it's without a doubt the best radio I've ever owned and I've had any number of portables and table tops over the past 30 years.
A mixture of good and bad 2007-09-27
Eton's popular E1 portable shortwave radio now lets you tune into XM signals in this new version! The E1XM is the world's first radio to combine AM, FM, Shortwave, and XM Satellite Radio technology into one ultra-high-performance unit. The finest port-a-top in the world, the E1XM offers powerful reception through its digitally synthesized PLL tuner with synchronous detector, passband tuning, and selectable bandwidth filters. Offering rich sound, the latest in radio technology, (up to) 1700 station presets, and memory scan function, the E1XM is designed without compromise, giving you direct access to news, sports, and music from around the world. Dual Conversion Superheterodyne Circuit - results in minimized interference through superior selectivity. High Dynamic Range - allowing for detection of weak signals in the presence of strong signals. Superior Audio Quality via a bridged type audio amplifier, providing high output power with battery operation Calibrated LCD signal strength meter Separate, continuous bass and treble tone controls Headphone Jack Stereo Line-Level Input - allows listening to other devices such as a CD or MP3 player through the E1XM Stereo Line-Level Output to another device such as a home stereo Dual-Event Programmable ON/OFF Timers - can be used for recording or alarm clock function Variable-rate tuning knob, direct keypad frequency entry, up/down pushbuttons and auto-tuning Power Source - 4 D Batteries (not included); AC Adapter (included) Unit Dimensions - 13?W x 7-1/2?H x 2-1/2?D (333 x 188 x 66 mm); Weight - 4 lb 3 oz. (1.9 Kg)
Good design, but has quality problems. 2007-09-15
As some reviewers have pointed out, these radios seem to have a higher than average failure rate of the LCD display, among other problems. I returned two for this very reason. The design is quite good and performance outstanding, but numerous complaints suggest that the build components may not be top quality.
Also, should the radio need repair, you may be unpleasantly surprised to find out the manufacturer will not honor their own factory warranty, -unless- the radio was purchased from an approved vendor. I'm not criticizing that policy, just stating a fact.
Non-warranty repairs are currently refered to the R.L. Drake company. Their quoted service fees are $20 per quarter-hour (1 hour average repair time), plus the cost of any parts. Getting a bad display fixed will run you $200-350 out of pocket depending on parts/time required.
Bottom line, I can't recommend the E1XM radio at this time. Perhaps in the future after Eton sorts out the quality issues. If you decide to get one, make sure it comes from an Eton-approved vendor so you get the factory warranty. Vendors are listed on the bottom of the E1XM product page at Eton's website. Spring for an extended warranty too, if available, because you may need it.
Awesome portable - until the components fail 2007-07-18
*** UPDATE, nearly one year later: While I'm still impressed with the radio's design and performance, two issues have now degraded my ability to enjoy it. First, the unit is going deaf on its external antenna jack and second, it's now allowing ghosting of a strong local FM station across the entire SW spectrum. I will not be sending the unit in for repair as there is no guarantee it will be repaired properly and I don't feel like spending $200 to fix a radio that is ten months old. I will also never buy another Eton product. While the design is excellent, the component construction is unreliable. My next radio will be a Ten-Tec. I will buy another E1 if I see one for less than $100 new. ***
The Eton E1 is the BEST SW receiver I've ever owned. After 15 years of enjoying the Radio Shack DX-380 and DX-398 (Sangean ATS-909) models and the Grundig Yacht Boy 400 PE (now sold as the G4000A,) I was unprepared for the huge leap in listening quality and quantity the E1 would offer. It's one amazing machine.
For starters, it's VERY sensitive even off the whip (which is beefy and extends about three and a half feet.) My 398 was and is quite hard of hearing, but the E1 excels and impresses. True, it uses the whip antenna for MW reception (since the display generated too much noise to include a traditional ferrite bar) but performance there is also impressive. When using even a 60-foot non-engineered do-it-yourself antenna, there's no overloading, and an external antenna improves both SW reception (as it should) and MW reception alike. The FM reception is also impressive. The external antenna jack is non-standard for the US, using a European PAL television cable jack. My E1 did NOT come with an adapter to get from PAL to standard coax, but I found an inexpensive one at Radio Shack. There are handy switches for choosing between the internal and your external antenna, one for SW/MW and another for FM. Further, there is a preamp available for SW/MW and FM, which also functions very well. It actually seems to increase the signal to noise ratio, rather than just increasing the noise floor along with the signal.
The sound through the speaker is very good, with continuous adjustment knobs for both treble and bass. Yes, just the one speaker as on most SW radios, so that's just mono for FM and XM (but there are stereo headphone and line-out jacks for stereo listening.) The speaker sound is a bit flat, however. It is certainly outclassed by the E1's analog brother, the S350DL. The E1 has a 'bigger' sound than a small portable, but not all the dynamic range you could hope for (but not bad, either.)
The synchronous detection is absolutely SUPERB, and is selectable for USB, LSB and DSB (dual sideband.) It's fantastically effective at eliminating or greatly reducing fading distortion and usually completely negates adjacent-channel interference as well. The feature really makes an unlistenably distorted SW station sound enjoyable, and as such, it greatly increases the number of stations you'll find you want to listen to. This 'AM Sync' also locks onto incredibly weak stations nearly totally buried in noise, and it holds the lock permanently in every case I've tried. EVERY SW listener should seek out synchronous detection (available much more cheaply in the Sony ICF-SW7600GR as well) as it's truly the difference between night and day.
The SSB reception is PERFECT. With 10 Hz tuning, you can zero-beat every SSB transmission you find, and the stability is also perfect. SSB also works perfectly for AM stations in SW and MW, if you want to use ECSS instead of AM Sync. Sometimes a 'scratchy' SW station will sound much cleaner in SSB than the AM Sync will give you, so there are numerous tuning options at your disposal. Tuning in general can be done at 10 Hz, which is very fine indeed (though the tuning knob is also a bit touchy; it's harder than it should be to land on the exact frequency you want - a little like trying to land on an exact-dollar amount without going over by a penny when the gas prices are too high - though the up/down slew button allows you to tune exactly in 5 kHz steps on SW.) Further, there's continuous Passband Tuning, so you can slew up and down within a sideband, to get away from interference and maximize the audio quality. The performance of this PBT is superb as well. There's also a selectable 30 dB boost for rejecting the unwanted sideband.
The station memories are MASSIVE and nicely laid out with 1700 memory slots for your use. 500 have the ability for individual 14-character labels and the other 1200 are in pages of 10 stations each (for 120 pages total) with page labels for each of up to 39 characters over three lines (good for subdividing the page for different stations.) These page labels are factory-set with 111 country names (the others being blank,) all of which can be changed to your liking. The 500 can include any band except XM and are accessible via a button called MEMORY, while the 1200 are only for SW and are accessed through a button called COUNTRY. Scanning is available for both banks, and for the bands in general. There's even a squelch knob, which you can set at the background noise level, so scanning will instantly find the next signal above the noise. This is a great help for band-scanning and using the memories, though for stronger stations of course. You can also 'tag' any of the 1700 memories and scan only through the tagged stations.
Also, each of the memories recalls several modes, calling up not just the exact tuning, but also the sideband, the AGC setting (which is available in Slow, Fast or Auto,) the Passband Tuning offset, and the filter size. There are three filter sizes (7 kHz, 4 kHz and 2.3 kHz) and all are excellent (sadly, there's no 12 kHz filter, which would enable DRM reception.) Being able to scan so many memories using the squelch means there's always something on you want to listen to, with no trouble finding it. The squelch can be set either to mute or not. I prefer hearing the noise to discern what might be lurking there.
Again, there's NO DRM RECEPTION, but at this time, only a few stations are even experimenting with digital shortwave, so you're not missing much (Deutsche Welle's European service is now DRM, but their African service is still analog.) It should be possible to mod the E1 to pick up the 455 kHz signal prior to the IF, feed it into a 455 to 12 kHz mixer (which you'll have to buy online separately,) and then run that signal into your computer's audio input jack (to decode with the appropriate software,) but that's only for those comfortable with fairly detailed soldering work. I haven't personally seen any mods for the E1 yet.
The display screen is the LOW POINT of the radio. Not only does it have an unattractive blue/grey glow that some have likened to an Etch-a-Sketch, but it is only visible from a few angles, and the dark graphics on the display tend to streak while tuning (apparently due to "state-change noise" as the microprocessor redraws the screen.) Sometimes, chunks of the graphics disappear and reappear even when not tuning. This is unacceptable in a radio at this price. I find the streaking to be very distracting and it continually gives me the impression of a junk component having been soldered on to an otherwise fabulous radio. Eton really dropped the ball on this aspect. Further, there are many reports of complete screen failures, both out-of-the box and after one year of use. The radio is nonfunctional after the display dies, and you'll have to mail it to a third party for repairs. Most units seem to have no display failures, but an unacceptable number do (about 20% in one unscientific sample from a Yahoo group.) However, for all its drawbacks, the display screen does offer an UNPRECEDENTED amount of useful information in a SW radio. Great idea - bad component construction.
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Eton is finicky about their warranty policy. Check ahead of time that you are buying from an Eton Authorized Seller to make sure you get the one-year warranty.
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All in all, the radio performance is absolutely fabulous. There's also XM for those of you wanting to buy the antenna and the XM subscription (which I haven't been inclined to do, being primarily interested in shortwave.) And for some reason LW is included as well (though no one uses that outside of Europe and Africa - it certainly isn't used in North America, which is the only place one can get XM.) There's also no RDS info for FM, but I never cared for that. My 398 gets RDS and most of the time the info wasn't too useful (just station ID which I knew anyway.) There are two clocks, with an auto Daylight Savings Time option, and the time sets itself atomic-clock style from the SW time beacons in Colorado when the E1 is turned off. Subsequently, it keeps very exact time.
The radio itself is quite large and HEAVY (especially after inserting four D batteries,) yet there's NO carrying handle (still, I consider this one a tabletop radio rather than a portable; I wouldn't want it bouncing around in the trunk of my car!) The buttons, switches, and knobs are nicely laid out and have a good feel (though my tuning knob had some slight off-center chafing upon first use, though that went away after a few minutes.) The brown color is pleasant (nice to have a radio that isn't silver or black) and the rubberized coating feels great (though it does tend to drink up dust and oil more than you'd want.) I found the overall ergonomics to be excellent and the radio easy to use, even with all the options. Also, I've noticed no ghosting of stations, either from strong stations within the SW bands or intruding from MW or FM (which happens all the time on my cheap analog radio.)
I live in the Midwest, and thanks to the superior sensitivity and synchronous detection of the E1 I can now regularly ENJOY music from Greece, Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Kuwait, Ukraine, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, to name a few (and 'enjoy' isn't a word I could use to describe SW audio quality until now - for me, that's HUGE.)
If you're a serious SW listener who doesn't mind spending four or five bills on your hobby, this one's for you. I just wish the display quality was on par with the rest of the radio.
Watch Out for the Display Failures! 2007-07-13
I've had the radio for exactly a year and the display just went south on me. It's completely unreadable and useless. In searching the archives on the E1XM Yahoo group, this seems to be a common problem. Some have had to return theirs for the display problem four times! Something tells me I have a $500 lemon now.
November 2007 update: Eton decided to repair the display in July (it actually went to RL Drake) and from the date I sent it out to the date I got it back was less than a week. I let the radio run non-stop, first on batteries until they died, then on the AC power for about 4 weeks total. The radio performed flawlessly and has since then. My advice, as others have stated, is to pay slightly more and buy it from an authorized dealer (make sure you check with Eton as to who is and who isn't an authorized dealer). Once you get it, use the heck out of it for the whole year. Any fault should present itself within the warranty time
While there is no `perfect' shortwave radio, the Eton E1 offers a potent package. 2007-02-27
Physically this radio is fairly large, (13.1" x 7.1" x 2.3"), and at around 5lbs with batteries, surprisingly heavy for a portable. I tend to keep it on a Universal Radio plexiglas stand next to me rather than in my lap. It's an attractive, very modern looking receiver, yet very reminiscent of older Grudig Satellit portables. The radio features an interesting rubberized gray finish that seems to attract dust, but would probably be handy if you move your receiver around a lot and don't want to drop it. The monitor is cool blue in color, and quite large at 4 ½" x 3 ½". With three levels of illumination, it's easy to view in a darkened room, but not quite bright enough for my taste in moderate light. Similarly, the contrast is good, but fades dramatically when viewed from an angle. One thing that Eton did get 100% right in my opinion is the control layout. Unless you change your antenna source often, every function you need is right where you need it on the front of the radio, (including the battery compartment!). Sound quality is represented by four knobs on the left, (Squelch, Treble, Bass, and Volume), while major tuning functions are located on the right, (buttons for XM, FM, SW, MW/LW, VFO, two types of memory, customized and by country, tuning step, plus knobs for Tuning and Passband Tuning). Finer tuning function are accessed by more buttons located below the monitor from left to right and include AGC, 3 filters, PBT, Sync lock, and SSB/USB/LSB. All of this, plus a large step tune toggle button, make band scanning a breeze. You just choose your band, scan by whatever method your prefer, then drill down on any frequency you want to improve. To this affect it should be noted that the Passband Tuning function on the E1 works exceptionally well, as does the Sync Lock. All of the E1's tuning functions used in conjunction will yield useable frequencies that you might never hear on lesser enabled receivers. Once you've zeroed in on your frequency, you have an extensive memory system within which to store it. With a little creativity, the 14 character alpha tag lets you create your own classifications, or just enter them into the preinstalled memory organized by country. The only memory feature lacking is a program time setting that allows one to set the start and end time of individual broadcasts, paired up with the timer system, etc., as was beautifully implemented on the Sony ICF-SW77. This is not a problem if you happen to carry around a copy of Passport to World Band Radio, but I'd still like to see it on a $500 radio for those frequencies that carry multiple stations depending on the time of the day. Once your memories are programmed, operation of the E1 is VERY slick. The main tuning knob glides through memories with very little dead air and no chuffing. Scanning these same memories is as sensitive as your squelch setting. The speaker audio on the E1 is pleasant for a portable, but not outstanding. This is partially compensated for by the separate Bass and Treble controls, but not to the extent of filling the room with rich sound.
E1 distinguishes itself from other portables with it's arsenal of diverse and very effective fine tuning aids. The E1 is quite adept at flushing out weak signals. In this respect it performs more like a tabletop than a portable, at a fraction of the price. If you are considering a tabletop for DXing, the E1 is a tempting, relatively inexpensive option loaded with meaningful features. If you are considering a portable shortwave that also offers high performance, the E1 is light years ahead of anything currently in production and embodies best of some of the great receivers from the past. The E1 is not the best at everything, but in my opinion, it offers the best combination of function, features, and aesthetics of any portable we've seen so far. Hopefully it won't mark the end of an era.
