On 5/15/2012 10:37 PM, Richards wrote:
Am I the only one to think the audio output kinda sucks ?
With some receivers it certainly does, especially those that are power
or supply voltage limited. BUT -- I like to think that I know the
difference between my ham rig and my home entertainment system. There
are MANY important radio specifications, both from functional and
performance points of view. If you want a rig that is very light to drag
up a mountain or put in your pocket, battery voltage and current drain
will drive the design, and that will limit output level. That IS a
design objective of all Elecraft radios, and the K3, even with two
complete high performance receivers draws only 1A on receive. I ran
single-op Field Day nearly full time QRP with a K3 and two big Costco
deep discharge batteries, and still had plenty of charge left at the end.
FWIW, for ham radio at home, headphones have ALWAYS been my primary mode
of operation. I use a loudspeaker only for casual listening. Every
radio I've ever owned has had quite adequate drive for headphones. On
the other hand, a mobile radio, including a talkie, needs enough audio
to get over ambient noise, and many of these rigs don't.
10% distortion is a standard spec for industrial paging systems. That's
the distortion at the peak of the signal just below clip, and is typical
of many computer sound cards. You would be surprised how GOOD 5% second
harmonic distortion sounds -- Aphex made big bucks selling audio
"sweeteners" for broadcasters and recording studios with a knob called
"warmth" that. What it did was intentionally PRODUCE second harmonic
distortion. Third harmonics and higher orders (fourth, fifth, and so
on) sound bad at very low levels.
73, Jim K9YC
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