so ive been running an RTL-SDR v3 for probably two years now doing mostly wideband stuff, airband, some weather satellite decoding with SDR++ and it's been fine honestly. but ive been wanting to get into HF more seriously and the direct sampling mode on the RTL just isnt cutting it. signals are there but the dynamic range is garbage and anything near a strong broadcast station just turns into a mess.

been looking at the SDRplay RSP1B which seems like the obvious next step without spending HackRF money. anyone actually use one for HF? im mostly thinking shortwave broadcast, maybe some 40m and 80m amateur traffic, and potentially WSPR decoding. the SDRuno software looks kind of clunky from the screenshots but i guess you can use it with SDR++ too which would be nice. just not sure if the jump in price is worth it over throwing a cheap upconverter on the RTL and calling it a day

had an RSP1A before the B came out and yeah the HF performance is genuinely a lot better than any RTL setup ive tried including with upconverters. the noise floor is lower and the ADC resolution makes a real difference when youre trying to pull weak stations out from under broadcast splatter. SDRuno is clunky but you get used to it and like you said SDR++ works fine with the API. the notch filters in the RSP hardware are actually useful too, helped me a lot on 40m with a nearby MW station killing everything.

if you're serious about HF its worth the money. if you just want to dabble maybe try the upconverter route first but honestly once i went to a proper SDR i never went back to the RTL for anything below 30 mhz

i went hackrf route myself mostly because i wanted to transmit eventually but for pure receive on HF its actually not that great compared to dedicated RX-only hardware. the noise floor on the hackrf is pretty mediocre. ended up buying an RSP2 later just for listening and that combo works well but its more money than you probably want to spend. RSP1B for what you're describing sounds about right to me