Incoming Radio — MALAHITEAM DSP4

The title stretches the concept of “Incoming.” My order just put me on the waiting list, with no money changing hands.

It’s supposed to be the same size as their DSP3, which is now discontinued, something like 120 x 80 x 32 mm.

The price for the DSP4 is 25,900 ₽ or $312 USD, plus shipping and maybe import fees. That would be the second highest price I’ve paid for a radio (the highest my Realistic DX-300 I bought in 1979 that would be around $1,000 in 2026 dollars). Still it’s promised to be a significant advancement over the DSP3, more over the clones, and a a monumental improvement over the DX-300.

The advances of the DSP4 over the DSP3 are:

The model has the following features, differences and similarities with Malachite-DSP3:

1. The DSP4 has a higher bandwidth – 650 kHz instead of 192 kHz in DSP3;
2. The dimensions of the body and the placement of controls are completely identical;
3. The power supply circuit is completely identical – DSP4 is also powered by one or two 18650 elements connected in parallel;
4. The dynamic range for blocking is significantly higher than that of DSP3 – at least 100 dB for DSP4 compared to 85 dB for DSP3;
5. The IQ signal transmission bandwidth of DSP4 is slightly lower than that of DSP3 – 162 kHz for DSP4 instead of 192 kHz for DSP3;
6. DSP4’s power consumption is 1.5-2 times higher than DSP3’s, depending on the operating mode. It’s worth noting that DSP3 (yes, DSP3) is a low-power receiver, and few compare favorably to it.
7. DSP4 significantly improves RDS reception from FM radio stations;
8. The DSP4’s received frequency band is somewhat narrower – from 100 kHz to 1.7 GHz, but it is continuous and does not contain “holes” like the DSP3’s;
9. The sensitivity of DSP4 is better than that of DSP3 – no worse than minus 140 dBm on the HF range, the sensitivity on VHF is noticeably better than that of DSP3, in some VHF ranges it is about minus 140 dBm;
10. DSP4 has a built-in clock chip and Bluetooth module;
11. The rest of the functionality is the same as DSP1-3, the quality of DSP processing remains just as high;
12. The radio receiving solution of DSP4 is more advanced and sophisticated.