http://www.dxzone.com/icom-ic-7610-official-announcement/


Google translated page of icom.co.jp


"Scheduled to be released in May 2017 , price will be on 368,000 yen + tax (equivalent to 3250 USD or 3000 euro + tax)"

I just peed my pants a little.

Interested to see what the ARRL lab tests will reveal. That's a good price for a transceiver with a full-function sub-receiver.

Like with any radio, I'd give it at least a year to work out the small problems new model radios are known for.

I wonder when Yaesu and Kenwood will announce their new SDR rigs?

[ big three brands ]  " sales are dropping faster than sunspots....what can we do !!!"

"release some new -"must have"  products "

LOL

.

I'm hearing that the actual price in the US will be $4000-$4200.  At that price point it is going to have to score as well, or better than the K3S and Flex 6500.  Anything less is going to be a tough sell.

In a few years a slug of 7300's will be put up for sale as people upgrade.

A good thing about SDR radios is that it can always be upgraded by simply upgrading software only.
I'm still not crazy about them because of noisy receivers. My KX3 is the same way, it's receiver is a bit too noisy for my liking.

Would you explain this statement, please? The KX3 is ranked in the top 10 for receiver performance by Rob Sherwood. "Noisy" in what way? Compared to what?

One of the things that has really thrown a lot of people is the new trend towards accurate S-meters in modern radios, particularly the direct sampling SDRs, that are not built by the Big Three. For a very long time now, Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood have had the marketing department make the engineering department design S-metering that is horribly non-linear, such that the difference between S-units is in the range of 3dB below S8 or so. This has the effect of making noise floors appear to be much lower than on a properly linear S-meter where each S-unit is 6dB. The big three then claim that they have "quiet" receivers. But it is all a big lie. Even the Icom 7300 continues this legacy, as will the 7610 no doubt. Meanwhile, when people move up to a Flex or an Apache radio, quite often the first thing they complain about is how the receiver is so "noisy" compared to their beloved FTDX-5000, or whatever. They complain on one of the Flex or Apache forums and have to be schooled on the truth: "Yes Virginia, you really do have an S7 noise floor at your QTH."