so ive been running an RTL-SDR v3 for a couple years now, mostly just poking around on HF in direct sampling mode and doing some airband stuff, and honestly it works well enough that i keep talking myself out of upgrading. but the RSP1B keeps showing up in my browsing and the price point isnt insane.

main thing i do is just wideband monitoring, some WSPR decoding with WSJT-X piped through SDR#, occasionally ill run it through SDR-Console when i want the waterfall to not look like garbage. not really doing anything serious, just like to see whats happening across the bands.

the direct sampling mode on the RTL-SDR always felt like a compromise to me, like yeah i can hear stuff on 40m but the dynamic range is obviously not great when theres strong local stations around. wondering if the RSP1B actually makes a meaningful real-world difference or if its one of those things that looks good on paper and in practice youre like oh its slightly better i guess.

anyone whos actually used both and not just read the spec sheet?

went through this exact same decision like 18 months ago. short answer is yes the RSP1B is noticeably better on HF, but how much you care depends on what youre doing with it.

the dynamic range improvement is real, not just spec sheet numbers. i had a local AM broadcast station that would just wipe out a chunk of the band with the RTL-SDR in direct sampling, and it got a lot more manageable with the SDRplay. the front end is just better designed for HF work, the RTL dongle was never really meant for it.

that said if youre running SDR# and happy with your workflow, SDRuno (which is what SDRplay pushes you toward) has a bit of a learning curve and honestly i find it slightly annoying to use compared to SDR-Console. you can use the RSP1B with SDR-Console though so thats what i ended up doing mostly. just something to be aware of before you make the jump.

for WSPR decoding specifically i dont think youll notice a huge difference unless youre in a noisy RF environment. but for actually listening and monitoring across HF the improvement is worth the money in my opinion.

honestly if budget is a consideration at all i'd look at the HackRF before the RSP1B, different use case obviously since its transmit capable and way wider frequency range, but for just monitoring HF the RSPdx might actually be the better SDRplay to consider over the RSP1B. little more money but the notch filters for broadcast AM are genuinely useful.

im probably not the best to ask though because i went way down the rabbit hole and now i have three different SDRs on my desk and my wife has questions