[Elecraft] 817 audio better than K2?

[Don Wilhelm]

Ron and all,
I have wanted a front facing speaker for my K2, and have been experimenting
a bit with different speakers - and found not a lot of happiness with most
of them - the 1 watt out of the K2 is just too "wimpy" to drive many
speakers.

So, I ordered a speaker just like the one in the K2 (Jameco # 99995)
expecting better results.
I hooked up the new speaker --- and was sorely disappointed -- the volume
was much too low to obtain good response from this speaker in free air.

So, wondering what the effect would be, I put the speaker over the top of a
plain vanilla plastic water tumbler --- WOW, what a difference.  The
resonance created by the tumbler was just what was needed.  The speaker
response peaked nicely at about 500 Hz, much of the higher frequency band
noise was reduced, and even though there was that 500 Hz peak, SSB signals
seemed easier to listen to than on the K2 internal speaker.

I will likely build a box for this speaker using the tumbler as a resonant
tube because it seems like a keeper at this time.  BTW, the tumbler
dimensions are 6 inches tall, 3 inches diameter at the mouth and 2 1/4
inches at the bottom.

73,
Don W3FPR

----- Original Message -----

>
> I have found a great deal of difference in the relative "efficiency" of
> various speakers. One watt isn't all THAT much audio when you want to
> make a lot of noise in a room.
>