Tecsun ICR110 mp3 player recorder

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.