Save your $160 and stop in at your local Hamfest:
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests.html
and look for a communications speaker that appieals to you. Those old
Motorola police car type speakers are great for voice.

Paul P.

wrote in message
...
I like listening to shortwave and ham stuff using biggish speakers.
Little speakers like computer speakers sound chintzy to my ears.

As examples, I have an old 50's Caliphone record player/PA system that
has two remote 15" speakers and I just love the way my shortwave and
ham stuff sounds through these speakers. I also have some Electovoice
EV5's (again, big old mellow speakers) and I love the way things sound
through these.

If you want to build your own baffle or case, maybe you'd like to try a Quam
8C10FEPAXB. 8" coaxial (i.e. has whizzer cone), 40-20,000 Hz, 97 dB spl
(1w/1m), 8 ohms. $14.16 from http://www.tselectronic.com

On Jan 25, 7:35*am, " sho...@trailing-
edge.com wrote:
I like listening to shortwave and ham stuff using biggish speakers.
Little speakers like computer speakers sound chintzy to my ears.


I seem to come across lots of good deals on radio-phono combinations -
the typical late 40's or 50's radio phono in a squarish cabinet.
Passed one up lat weekend , 20 dollars , complete, with eye tube.
this is typical of them because no collector needs yet another one of
these. even the 60's transistor sets- same thing - can't give them
away.

but for parts, lots of good transformers, tubes, large speakers can be
had for a reasonable price usually.
you could buy one of these and modify the cabinet to suit your need
for a box to put it in, just re-use the speaker and cloth and cut the
box down to suit.

I hate destroying these things, because lots of enjoyment can be had
with them, but for large speakers, I dont' see why there is much
demand for those..

smaller speakers , like one would find in a tombstone or cathedral,
now that is a different story..
Phil

On Jan 25, 10:35*am, " sho...@trailing-
edge.com wrote:
I like listening to shortwave and ham stuff using biggish speakers.
Little speakers like computer speakers sound chintzy to my ears.

As examples, I have an old 50's Caliphone record player/PA system that
has two remote 15" speakers and I just love the way my shortwave and
ham stuff sounds through these speakers. I also have some Electovoice
EV5's (again, big old mellow speakers) and I love the way things sound
through these.

But I don't want to undo my record player setup or stereo system setup
to borrow the speakers. If I wanted a new speaker with similar
qualities - nothing fancy, just a big speaker in a big wood box -
where would I look? Would a guitar amp speaker (something I can buy at
a guitar store?) be the right thing for me to buy?

Going into Short Circuit City or Radio Shack I don't see anything that
really seems like what I want. I did get a couple of Radio Shack patio
speakers (5 inch drivers in a metal box) and those are better than
anything else new I've found, but they still don't sound mellow enough
and still a bit tinny. They're sort-of listenable and I've been using
them for a while but their tinny is kinda grating after a while. I
want big and mellow. Where do I go and what do I ask for?

Tim.

Something like these?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Two-12-PM-speake...QQcmdZViewItem

On Jan 25, 10:35*am, " sho...@trailing-
edge.com wrote:
I like listening to shortwave and ham stuff using biggish speakers.
Little speakers like computer speakers sound chintzy to my ears.

As examples, I have an old 50's Caliphone record player/PA system that
has two remote 15" speakers and I just love the way my shortwave and
ham stuff sounds through these speakers. I also have some Electovoice
EV5's (again, big old mellow speakers) and I love the way things sound
through these.

A little bit more insight: I went shopping for speakers and found that
almost all 12" speakers have a natural responsive range of a little
under 100Hz to a little over 3kHz when installed in a simple box (no
ports. etc.)

This is, through no strange coincidence, exactly the frequency range
that I want to listen to :-).

I ended up picking a 12" Jensen musical instrument speaker which
seemed to have a frequency response curve remarkably like all the
other 12" speakers out there. There were some 12" PA speakers but
those seemed to be aimed at power handling capabilities in the
hundreds of watts (approaching a kilowatt!) and price kept me away
from them (although it's very likely they would work as well and
probably stand up to nearly infinite abuse.)

For non-hi-fi radio listening, I think there's a perfect match going
on there. I feel (no proof, just my ears) that hi-fi speakers that try
to go higher than a few kHz are reproducing stuff coming out of my
radio that I never wanted to hear to begin with.

Looking at it, I have a hard time seeing how chintzy little computer
speakers can legibly reproduce speach etc. at all! I'm guessing they
don't get any flat response at all over the fundamentals of male
speech and are only good on the harmonics. Maybe in a perfect world
that's you need for legible reproduction but with all the noise and
scratch on the HF bands it does not cut the mustard with my ears.

Tim N3QE