so ive been using a cheap RTL-SDR v3 dongle for about a year now, mostly just scanning around VHF/UHF and doing some ADSB stuff which works great honestly. but ive been wanting to get more into HF — shortwave, maybe some 40m and 80m band stuff, just listening for now — and ive read a bunch of conflicting things about whether the direct sampling mode on the v3 is actually usable or if its just kind of a party trick.

the SDRplay RSP1C is like $120 which isnt crazy money but its not nothing either. my main question is basically does the RSP1C actually perform noticeably better on HF compared to the RTL-SDR in direct sampling mode, or is this one of those things where the specs look better on paper but in practice you cant really tell the difference sitting in a suburban backyard with all the usual noise floor issues

running SDRuno and also tried SDR# a bit. antenna situation is just a random wire right now, maybe 30 feet, nothing fancy. not trying to do anything serious yet just want to understand what im hearing better

honestly yeah the difference on HF is pretty noticeable, at least in my experience. direct sampling mode on the RTL-SDR v3 works but the sensitivity just isnt there — you get a lot of images and the noise floor is higher than id like. with a 30 foot random wire in a suburban environment youre already fighting your own battle so squeezing more out of the frontend makes a difference.

i ran both side by side for a while before i gave the dongle to my kid. the RSP1C has better dynamic range which matters more than people think when theres strong BC stations nearby stomping on everything. SDRuno is also pretty solid once you get used to the weird layout, it actually integrates really nicely with the RSP hardware, like the band presets and the notch filters are genuinely useful not just checkboxes.

that said if you havent tried putting a simple LC highpass or even just a broadcast band filter in front of the RTL-SDR in direct sampling mode you might get more out of it before spending the money. a cheap ham-it-up upconverter is another option but at that point you might as well just get the RSP.

I went RSP1C about two years ago and dont regret it, but I'll say the antenna matters way more than people want to hear. I had an RSPdx for a while before going back to the RSP1C because I dont actually need the extra low-band stuff and the price difference wasnt doing much for my specific situation.

One thing worth mentioning — SDR# with the right plugins actually works fine with SDRplay, you dont have to stick with SDRuno if you prefer the interface. There's an ExtIO driver that handles it. Just pointing that out since you said you tried SDR# already.