No doubt there are 1000+ opinions on this, but what are some really
clear external speakers for use
with SSB phone signals through my Yaesu FT-897? I'm 61 years old with
high frequency hearing
impairment due to 40 years of sitting by computers, and I need all the
help I can get in
understanding voice over static.

I have seen several enthusiastic recommendations for the Peavey Impulse
II mini monitor which is
fairly small and costs about $100. Does anyone have any experience with
it?

Icom and Yaesu both make multi-hundred dollar external speakers that
have gotten mixed reviews.

I would recommend one of the Motorola mobile external speakers from the
90's such as a Spectra or Syntor speaker.


I have a few, including the Mastr2 mobile speaker and Motrac/Mocom 70 metal
speakers that are very efficient for use on portables. There are subtle
differences in the response curve due to different speaker and housing
design Kenwood also makes a smaller mobile speaker that seems to peak at the
higher end of the voice spectrum. A little shrill for me. You really need
to try different speakers to see what works best for your ear and
environment. I am currently using an RCA home theater speaker for an
external speaker in another room but another works best in the shack. It is
no use to have frequency response below 200 Hz or above 3kHz for best voice
reception. PL tones or excessive bass at the low end will interfere with
intelligibility at the low end, and at the high end you battle with noise.
The actual spectrum that is required for most reliable discernment of what
is being said is between 400-2400 Hz.

There are several hearing test web sites that ask stupid questions, but
there is one that actually uses test sounds with noise at various levels.
If you have a calibrated variable attenuator on your stereo, you can
actually plot your hearing performance in each ear. One of these days I
hope to stumble on to it again.