so ive been messing around with an RTL-SDR v3 for about six months now, got it doing direct sampling on HF and its honestly not bad for what it is but im starting to feel the limitations especially below 10 MHz where the noise floor just gets ugly and the dynamic range issues are really obvious when theres a strong broadcast station nearby killing everything around it

been looking at the RSP1B and the price is reasonable enough that im not totally scared off, but i keep going back and forth on whether the jump in ADC resolution (14-bit vs 8-bit effectively) is actually going to translate to something i notice in day to day use or if im just going to be paying for specs i cant really hear

i mostly do utility monitoring, some amateur bands, occasional MW DX at night. not doing anything fancy. SDRuno seems fine from what ive seen in videos but i havent used it myself. anyone actually made this jump and have thoughts? or is there a reason people still just run with the RTL-SDR even when they can afford better

made basically the same move about a year ago, went from the RTL-SDR v3 direct sampling to an RSP1A (the 1B wasnt out yet) and yeah the difference on HF is not subtle. the dynamic range improvement is real and noticeable especially if you're anywhere near medium wave broadcast. i used to get complete desensitization on 40m at night from the AM stations and that basically went away. the noise floor dropped enough that weak utility stuff i was missing just showed up.

SDRuno has its quirks honestly, the interface took me a while to not hate but once you get used to where everything is its fine. some people run the RSP hardware with SDR++ instead which i actually prefer now, way cleaner interface and the RSP drivers work fine with it. worth trying both

if youre doing MW DX specifically the RSP is pretty much a no-brainer upgrade, the selectivity and dynamic range handling near strong signals is just in a different league from the dongle. not knocking the RTL-SDR for what it costs but yeah its night and day on HF

the 8 bit vs 14 bit thing is kind of a simplification but the practical result is what matters and yeah the RSP stuff handles strong signals way better. ive got a HackRF for transmit-capable stuff and an RSP2 for serious receive work and honestly the RSP wins for just sitting and listening, the HackRF noise floor is mediocre for RX even though its useful for other things

one thing nobody mentions enough is the software side making a huge difference regardless of hardware — like running a good LNA and a preselector filter even on the cheap dongle can close the gap more than people expect. but if youre already past that and still frustrated then yeah spend the money on the RSP