[Elecraft] Motorola Speaker VS Bookshelf Speaker ?

[Don Brown]

Hi

I'm not so sure all that much progress has been made in speakers in recen=
t years. I worked in a high end audiophile store back in the mid 60's. Th=
e book shelf speakers were the big thing then. Before that amplifiers wer=
e tube type and it was unusual to see more than 40 watts per channel. Spe=
akers were very efficient and also very large (5 to 8 cubic feet!). The m=
ost common design was bass reflex or folded horn. When solid state amplif=
iers hit the market it became easier to make a compact 60 to 150 watt per=
 channel amplifier (no need for a big heavy expensive transformer). The s=
peaker manufacturers wanted to sell a smaller speaker for apartment dwell=
ers and went to acoustic suspension type speaker cabinets. The efficiency=
 went out the window but that was not a problem because amplifiers were m=
ore powerful. =20

With the history out of the way, we now have home theater type systems wi=
th very small bookshelf speakers with a sub woofer in a relatively small =
box driven with 70 to 120 watts per channel and maybe 150 to 300 watts on=
 the sub woofer. These systems sound very good but trying to drive the sm=
all long throw acoustic suspension speakers with a couple of watts from a=
 radio will be a disappointment.

I have tried several amplified computer speakers with the K2 and some wor=
k well and they are cheap. Just be careful some of don't like strong RF f=
ields and will buzz or oscillate when the transmitter is keyed.

Several hams at field day had the Clearspeach DSP speaker and they seemed=
 to have plenty of audio even though it is rated at only 2 watts out. The=
y are a little pricey at $150 but one guy likes them so much he bought 3 =
of them one for each of his radios. =20

A good 6 to 10 inch PA type speaker in a wall baffle may be the way to go=
 as these speakers are designed to have a flat response at speech frequen=
cies and are fairly efficient. They are usually driven with only a couple=
 of watts in a PA environment. =20

Don Brown
KD5NDB

----- Original Message -----
From: kc4kgu@ENTERZONE.NET
Sent: Sunday, August 04, 2002 5:16 AM
To: JimWMiller@aol.com
Cc: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Motorola Speaker VS Bookshelf Speaker ?



On Sat, 3 Aug 2002 JimWMiller@aol.com wrote:

> OK if the communication speakers are better than bookshelf speakers but=
 newer
> also usually means better with respect to speakers.  Much progress has =
been
> made in the last few decades.  Are there any modern day equivalents of =
the
> Motorola Speaker that are available new ???

The Motorola speakers have evolved with time.  If you're going to use it
for COMMUNICATIONS, use a communications speaker.  If you're going to
listen to classical music on it, Get a set of Polk Audio or JBL bookshelf
speakers.  I use Polk for all of my home theator sound and have compared
one side by side with my Motorola.  The $15.00 motorola comm speaker blew
the $175.00 Polk away for use on the K2.  It is a lot smaller too.


73 de John - KC4KGU
K2/100 #2490


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