The Tecsun PL-660 and PL-680 Twins Aren’t Really Twins

If you’ve never encountered my particular strain of madness, here it is: I buy far more radios than any reasonable adult should. I currently own three that serve no practical purpose whatsoever. This has little to do with listening and everything to do with nostalgia—those plastic boxes with antennas still trigger the same 1960s daydreams I had as a boy, sitting in the cockpit of some imaginary fighter jet. To rationalize the excess, I started rotating my Tecsun PL-660 and PL-680 in the garage, two nostalgia pieces I bought eight months ago to recapture the glow of my 2008 radio-obsession era.

For months I believed the only distinction between them was sensitivity. The 660 grabs 89.3 LAist with ease; the 680 needs coaxing, behaving like a finicky cat that requires just the right antenna angle before it cooperates. But yesterday I discovered the difference that truly matters: volume without distortion. The 680 can punch through lawnmowers, leaf blowers, and low-flying planes. The 660 collapses the moment I turn it past indoor volume. Inside, it sounds lovely; outside, it simply can’t keep up.

I even photographed both radios for this post before realizing they were coated in a fine layer of garage dust. I had to haul them into the kitchen and wipe them down before taking new photos. Whether these performance quirks reflect real design differences or simple Tecsun quality-control roulette, I can’t say. Neither radio is perfect. And if I’m honest, I should have skipped both and stuck with my PL-880—but that’s a confession for another day.

As for my garage setup, I’ve removed the 660 and 680 completely and replaced them with the C.Crane CCRadio Solar—a small, dust-resistant plastic unit with a 3-watt speaker that outperforms the 1-watt speakers on both Tecsuns. 

Final Note:

Regardless of what radio you use in the garage, I learned a valuable lesson: Drape a towel over it. The garage collects dust 100 times more than inside your house. You need to keep your “garage radio” covered and only uncovered when in use. This lesson is perhaps the most valuable one I learned of all during this “adventure.”