Tecsun ICR110 mp3 player recorder

 

Tecsun ICR110 mp3 player recorder (sold)

LIOnk to the main page    ICR110 and Q3 in comparison This February (2017) had an interest from a friend to order for a radio with recording ability similar to the Tecsun Q3 I use. He seen it and liked it and was ready to order that for him . Following a discussion with Mrs. Anna from Anon Co she advised me that ICR110 is a successor to Q3 with better specifications. All previous times I had a very good belief to her and any orders so far were really successful. For this reason I procured the order so that I could keep the ICR110 and give my Q3 to him.  The set  was received  in the proper time of  3 weeks without the battery and immediately checked it. Chinese  exporters are bound to customs export check if a battery is included  mainly for safety resons. They can send it  with battery  by speed post Shipping then exceeds the 25USD  barrier. The battery used is type 18650  as with the sold  PL 880 two years ago. With some research to the local market and with support  of Mrs. Anna  I picked one  3.5 Ah model Panasonic for 12 Eu while I was  waiting for the radio recorder. There was also a funny  side effect  .Someone from  a nearby village sent to me two advertised batteries  of 6.8 and 8 Ah for checkup Read about them later. It is a PL880 sized model offered  with a USB  cable and  a short user guide though someone can immediately understand on how it works  . Someone can expect  tat it can be quite heavier to Q3  . In contrast the ICR110 is less than two times heavier than Q3 that leads me to think that the circuit is possibly identical to the Q3's in a big case. There are many similarities  and differences to the Q3 : Q3 uses potentiometer for volume control. 110 uses two buttons with 14 vol steps. All functions are  button controlled as with Q3 and with the same procedure Main switch is the same . A simple old fashioned 3 point off/ player/radio button 110 adds MW to radio .it can be changed from the band button. 110 has  60 cm detachable antenna Q3 has nothing. Their own recordings  are split into 59 min sizes.For both recorders -One bad spec  for both: FF and REW (in file scanning )are too slow only 2-2.5 times normal. You have to search for very long  if the  point you look is after the  middle of the file . It is better to use a pen instead of your finger.   In order to have faster comparisons  I used a octopus  splitter with two short cables provided by the company and then connected to110 and Q3 into the splitter and separately DE1103 for rec checking . I used AKG77 and Sennheiser HD497 Headphones to test the audio. I immediately changed to Sennheiser heads that offers more treble. Octopus heavily deteriorates the sound fidelity. Sunshine FM 1077 was used due to its widest spectrum.   These are my measurements in headlines : Q3 vs. 110 mp3 audio =  Q3 shown superiority in bass and rich sound ICR110 shown poor basses and high trebles due tithe bad design of audio amplifier Q3 FM sound is 50% stereo but 110 FM is full  stereo 110 has very good FM selectivity and better sensitivity than all PL models! I could much easier listen to  a station  from Gevgelja on Skopian borders with Greece. MW is quite good there are no local stations so only night to check. Pass band Filter seems  close to 4Khz (totally aural opinion) . I m not intending to listen to MW as other radios of my collation are more suitable for this reason   . Very bad that 110 uses digital volume Also very bad that after switch on the volume starts on 7 .   Recording : Line in recording 1103 to 110 and then play on Q3 : Very good sound Fm recording  110 and then play on Q3 : a bit more trebly but excellent audio as from 1103 1103 recording to 110 is quite strong and same level from inside 110 Rec vs. FM at last 3 db higher audio Rec specifications  : internal mike at  48kHz  /line in & Fm recs : 32 kHz/ Both on standard 128 kbps as tested in Audacity.   Audio Audio is lacking if listening with headphones  .As tested there is very low bass in any mode: playback and radio. But read below for update. With built in speaker the sound is very good.   More than 17 hours  have been  used for FM recording and volume set to 1-2  and  battery still operates. Total  recording time  measured to 23 hours for the 3,5 Ah  battery .Supposedly 30 hours for playback (radio or mp3) Funny : As noticed above a seller sent me two batteries 18650 type for free ,one of 5 Ah and  one 8.8 Ah. Nominal price 5 Eu.  I tested them in a protected system and first checked their voltage. The one was about  2.1V  while the other 4.1V for the 8.8 and 5 Ah respectively. for this reason I didn’t use the 8.8 Ah neither charged it for the fear of exploding. The other was fully pre-charged and tested  to operate the set for  less than 6 hours while the set's  2.5 Ah battery operated for  32 hours.   Total verdict 110 seems identical to  3 in operation terms  and  enhanced recording audio with same fidelity but lacks playback fidelity. This is one important thing to me Only  for this reason I preferred  to give this  radio to my friend Another stupid by design is that the circuits drain too fast. I could wait at least  40 hours of recording with this 3.5Ah battery. You can record around 8 hours with the 600 mAh battery on Q3.   Update Sept 17 the friend given me it later for a new check  using my  AKG K77 headphones to show me some nice surprise  . The sound  now is nearly the same  with Q3 in bath cases if not better and the  quality now is fantastic : FM and  SDcard  .Doesn't it sound peculiar to you? Now  I feel  sad that  I given it to him .He does not know on how it happened. He told me that he used it mainly for  radio MP3 playback for family dancing i.e. using it sparingly with headphones.

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