Importance of good audio on tabletops
On Nov 18, 2:11 am, wrote:
The question of decent audio is generally a much debated topic on this newsgroup. In years gone by I had a very fancy Sony graphic equaliser that had a marvellous audio spectrum analyser. In that era there was no doubt that the Kenwood R5000 was tops by a furlong with really stupendous audio, however it lacked synchronous detection and was thus superseded by the Drake R8B which was superb, but did not have a wide audio spectrum like the Kenwood R5000 did. Still, the R8B was rock steady when listening to fine orchestral programs like the famous "Proms" which I love to listen to. I have two phases in my radio listening life with my table tops. During the nightime hours it is mostly hunting for those faint far off exotic DX, but during the day I want my table top to produce lovely sound on AM whilst either listening to BBC or other major broadcasters on SW, and produce flawless audio on my favourite AM BCB MW station. I think in the upper price class to me the Drake R8B is still tops with the AOR 7030 a close second, but then there are the super high priced tabletops like the Watkins Johnson, NRD 545D and Ten Tec, which when coupled to the Sherwood synchronous detector are alleged to have super rock solid audio of AM on SW. Alas, no Sherwood has ever entered South Africa so I have no experience there. But I would really like to see an opinion on how a Drake R8B in synch mode shapes up to a Sherwood detector? So I really did myself a disservice when I sold off my R8B, something I regret very much now, because in my shack now are an older version Drake SW8 (without synch) and my super Icom IC-756 PRO III, which has great audio on AM SW, but with no synch detector, suffers terribly from fading and multipath distortion, so I am forced to listen in ECSS/ SSB which doesn't produce as nice and full audio as my old Drake R8B. Then there is the other side of audio requirement, that of the serious DXer who is trying to dig out ID's from the faintest most garbled signals. After years of doing this and going over recordings post DX session, I can attest to the fact that very good audio helps a lot in IDing those very difficult stations, because of their broader audio spectrum allowing you to hear the full spectrum of audible sound with sibilants and harmonics that help you decipher that very difficult ID. Here I can truly say that the audio on a wide 3 Khz SSB setting on my 756Pro3 is just awesome, and those who have heard my recordings of faint far off exotic stations will attest to that, helping make getting that crucial ID easier. There are two strains of thought on getting difficult ID's though: there are the AM purists who insist that a better ID results from a good AM recording, obviously aided by good filters and a good frequency offset facility. Then there is the other camp, which includes me, that require superb wide band audio on their SSB. Again the Drake R8A/B are superb on AM and my 756Pro3 is superb on SSB. But having said the above, I challenge anyone to produce better recordings than my MW DX buddy Gary Deacon on his Yaesu FRG-7 frog - his recordings of exotic DX are simply awesome. More ramblings on my audio experiences with the Drake and Icom can be found at:http://www.dxing.info/community/viewtopic.php?t=1655 My dream had been to win the Lotto and get a top range tabletop that would have Sherwood like AM reception and be superb in SSB DX as well, so I had pinned all my hopes on the newly released Icom IC-R9500, but alas!, Passport 2008 knocks it's synch detector into the ground, so I am still searching for my dream receiver. Perhaps I will get another R8B from eBay? John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods Drake SW8 & ERGO software Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100 BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A. GE circa 50's radiogram Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270 Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whiphttp://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx John - Thank You for Your Insights in to Good Audio and Table Top Shortwave Radios; plus it was a nice read as always. ps - keep those 'lotto dreams' alive - someday . . . ~ RHF |
Importance of good audio on tabletops
On Nov 18, 7:31 am, RHF wrote:
On Nov 18, 2:11 am, wrote: The question of decent audio is generally a much debated topic on this newsgroup. In years gone by I had a very fancy Sony graphic equaliser that had a marvellous audio spectrum analyser. In that era there was no doubt that the Kenwood R5000 was tops by a furlong with really stupendous audio, however it lacked synchronous detection and was thus superseded by the Drake R8B which was superb, but did not have a wide audio spectrum like the Kenwood R5000 did. Still, the R8B was rock steady when listening to fine orchestral programs like the famous "Proms" which I love to listen to. I have two phases in my radio listening life with my table tops. During the nightime hours it is mostly hunting for those faint far off exotic DX, but during the day I want my table top to produce lovely sound on AM whilst either listening to BBC or other major broadcasters on SW, and produce flawless audio on my favourite AM BCB MW station. I think in the upper price class to me the Drake R8B is still tops with the AOR 7030 a close second, but then there are the super high priced tabletops like the Watkins Johnson, NRD 545D and Ten Tec, which when coupled to the Sherwood synchronous detector are alleged to have super rock solid audio of AM on SW. Alas, no Sherwood has ever entered South Africa so I have no experience there. But I would really like to see an opinion on how a Drake R8B in synch mode shapes up to a Sherwood detector? So I really did myself a disservice when I sold off my R8B, something I regret very much now, because in my shack now are an older version Drake SW8 (without synch) and my super Icom IC-756 PRO III, which has great audio on AM SW, but with no synch detector, suffers terribly from fading and multipath distortion, so I am forced to listen in ECSS/ SSB which doesn't produce as nice and full audio as my old Drake R8B. Then there is the other side of audio requirement, that of the serious DXer who is trying to dig out ID's from the faintest most garbled signals. After years of doing this and going over recordings post DX session, I can attest to the fact that very good audio helps a lot in IDing those very difficult stations, because of their broader audio spectrum allowing you to hear the full spectrum of audible sound with sibilants and harmonics that help you decipher that very difficult ID. Here I can truly say that the audio on a wide 3 Khz SSB setting on my 756Pro3 is just awesome, and those who have heard my recordings of faint far off exotic stations will attest to that, helping make getting that crucial ID easier. There are two strains of thought on getting difficult ID's though: there are the AM purists who insist that a better ID results from a good AM recording, obviously aided by good filters and a good frequency offset facility. Then there is the other camp, which includes me, that require superb wide band audio on their SSB. Again the Drake R8A/B are superb on AM and my 756Pro3 is superb on SSB. But having said the above, I challenge anyone to produce better recordings than my MW DX buddy Gary Deacon on his Yaesu FRG-7 frog - his recordings of exotic DX are simply awesome. More ramblings on my audio experiences with the Drake and Icom can be found at:http://www.dxing.info/community/viewtopic.php?t=1655 My dream had been to win the Lotto and get a top range tabletop that would have Sherwood like AM reception and be superb in SSB DX as well, so I had pinned all my hopes on the newly released Icom IC-R9500, but alas!, Passport 2008 knocks it's synch detector into the ground, so I am still searching for my dream receiver. Perhaps I will get another R8B from eBay? John Plimmer, Montagu, Western Cape Province, South Africa South 33 d 47 m 32 s, East 20 d 07 m 32 s RX Icom IC-756 PRO III with MW mods Drake SW8 & ERGO software Sony 7600D, GE SRIII, Redsun RP2100 BW XCR 30, Sangean 803A. GE circa 50's radiogram Antenna's RF Systems DX 1 Pro Mk II, Datong AD-270 Kiwa MW Loop, PAORDT Roelof mini-whiphttp://www.dxing.info/about/dxers/plimmer.dx John - Thank You for Your Insights in to Good Audio and Table Top Shortwave Radios; plus it was a nice read as always. ps - keep those 'lotto dreams' alive - someday . . . ~ RHF . I think getting a good set of Auxilliary speakers ; possibly hooked up to an equalizer is the best plan else This MFJ-616 Speech Intellibility Enhancer http://www.mfjenterprises.com/produc...prodid=MFJ-616 might help |
Importance of good audio on tabletops
This MFJ-616 Speech Intellibility Enhancer http://www.mfjenterprises.com/produc...prodid=MFJ-616 might help Review of the MFJ-616 Speech Intellibility Enhancer below http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/2554 "Why buy a $3,000 to $10,000 rig if you can't hear the output clearly? " |
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