My hearing is incredibly sensitive when it comes to the sound sources. I
not only notice minute amounts of distortion but find myself getting
headaches quickly if there is too much 'pink' noise from excessive high
frequency content. I have literally bought and quickly re-sold numerous
high end receivers strictly because they were not listenable. It appears
that few transceivers, regardless of the final price or engineering
design advances from the front-end through the detector circuits, have a
great deal going on under the hood where the output audio quality is
concerned. This having been said, the most we can usually do is attach
the right speaker to 'transform' what the radio puts out into sound that
both communicates well but is also light on the 'extra' subliminal
distortion and noise that creates listening fatigue. I have tried many,
many speakers for the shack over the years.... including everything
Ten-Tec has had to offer from internal to external... as well as
offerings from Yaesu, Kenwood, Icom, and JRC. Some were definitely
better than others but most were basically terrible to me. What I ended
up with is a Sounds Sweet that I have had for a year and a half and
never, never tire of..
All of my heavily used Ten-Tec transceivers (Omni-VI+, Paragon, Corsair
II, Scout, Argosy, and Century 22) feed their audio out (fixed-level,
pre-output amp where available) into a twelve channel Mackie mixer which
in turn drives the Sound Sweet speaker off its 'headphone' monitor! The
Mackie has an excellent audio path for each channel as well as two
independent loop outputs which I use to connect any transceiver to
shared audio devices such as my external DSP processor and my "Son of
Zero Beat" cw offset frequency indicator. My computer resides on the
Mackie's tape in/out so I can process any rig through soundcard,
filtering, or recording applications at will (another story). I am RFI
free through this audio system at the maximum 600 watts output that my
station is capable of.
The Sound Sweet does not have a lot of lows nor a lot of highs.... but
everything in between is very open and clear. What is interesting is
that it is able to provide the necessary frequency roll offs without
incurring noticeable distortion products. In effect it is a very easy
speaker to listen to. The driver itself combined with an efficient port
designed enclosure requires little amplifier power to push it to room
filling volume so it doesn't incur the higher distortion products from
our limited amplifier output stages should they be pushed into higher
current/voltage requirements . When I desire full fidelity for a
listening session I listen to the Mackie's main monitor outputs that
drive an Altec Lansing system comprised of left and right satellites and
a separate subwoofer. I use the Altec system when listening to
international broadcast, AM broadcast, or on the ham bands if the
station is strong and has the audio content that justifies the extra
bandwidth. Absent those uses my listening on HF is via the Sounds Sweet.
I paid $99 plus shipping when I bought my Sounds Sweet. It was a great
investment then and I wouldn't hesitate to pay $120 plus if I had to
replace it. As I said... when it comes to what I listen to I am picky...
or rather I should say my ears are picky. If you find yourself getting
'tired' while listening chances are you are hearing more than what you
bargained for and it is that 'more' that is causing your fatigue. Don't
spend hundreds of dollars for 'matching' non-acoustically designed
metallic boxes with plastic front panels and cheap speakers. It is my
opinion that those accessories are great money makers for the
manufacturers but not even marginal value for our ears.
73,
Jerry, KG6TT
Fairfield, CA
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