[Elecraft] K2 Sound and feel

Mon Apr 9 23:10:38 EDT 2007

There you hit the word I was looking for, "rumble".  I have the narrow 
250 Hz filter in a 706 and a 718.  That sums up the difference between 
them in the K2.  With those filters there is more rumble, and sometimes 
the signals blow right by the filters and blast you if you have the 
volume up.  With the filters in the K2, I find that I can use the wider 
bandwidths more than expected, and that the effects of the filter on the 
received audio is "softer".  If that makes any sense, where the received 
audio with the other units with narrow filters is harsher.

David Wilburn
dave.wilburn at verizon.net
K4DGW
K2 #5982

Brett gazdzinski wrote:
> I did some comparisons between my 756 pro and the K2
> on 40 meters tonight, only CW, SSB always hurts my ears
> so I cant say about that, plus I don't have the ssb option
> added to the K2.
> I used headphones, the same antenna, and tuned in strong 
> and weak signals, some had very close qso's going on, and
> others had ssb splatter, and lots of atmospheric noise,
> static crashes, etc. I have a station control setup that allows
> me to select any antenna, receiver, transmitter, etc, so
> doing A/B comparisons is easy.
> 
> I got to say, I never really spent a lot of time comparing the
> two radios before, but the 756 pro sounds HORRIBLE!
> 
> There was a lot of weird things coming out of the 756, much more
> noise and rumble, I suspect the early stages are being
> subjected to all sorts of interference, and while its filtered
> out, the results still come through somehow.
> Static crashes came through as massive rolling waves of rumble
> and other noise. CW sometimes sounded fuzzy and weak on the
> 756 yet its clear on the K2.
> 
> I cant even hear the static crashes on the K2, the close in ssb 
> splatter I can barely hear on the K2, and I don't hear close cw if I
> narrow the filter on the K2.
> I dislike narrow filters, but the 200hz filter setting I have
> on the K2 sounds much better than the 400 hz 756 pro filter setting.
> 
> If I had to listen to the 756 on CW or ssb for long under conditions 
> like what was on 40 tonight, I think I would rather turn it off.
> 
> I played around setting the filters up a bit when I got the K2 done, 
> but did not really get critical, I just tried a few different settings, 
> BFO pitches, filter widths, etc.
> I did manage to get the tone to stay the same when switching between
> filters, and using the spectrogram software put the bfo pitch in the 
> center of the filter bandwidth.
> 
> I find it kind of amazing that the expensive in its day 756 pro 
> sounds so poor.
> 
> I used to do a lot of CW on a heathkit HW7, then an HW101, listened
> to CW on lots of vintage gear, and the emtech kit, and while some of it
> had a lot of built in background noise, or poor filters, I don't
> think it sounded as bad as the 756 pro.
> Not that the copy is bad on the 756, it just seems to sound very poor.
> Maybe that's something that dsp does? combined with all those
> conversions?
> 
> I would venture to guess, on CW anyway, that if you find ANY rig that
> sounds better than the K2 on receive, you have something wrong with your K2.
> 
>  
> 
> Brett
> N2DTS
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
>> I'm a new used K2 owner. I have been getting use to the rig 
>> the last week.
>>
>> In another thread this was said:
>>
>> <quote>
>> I have used Spectrogram to align the filters, and I'll be 
>> doing that again with a 
>> bit more experience. That made a significant difference in 
>> the "feel/sound" of 
>> the radio. Like you, I intend to do some more "measurement" 
>> in addition to just 
>> setting things up and starting to operate.
>>
>> Compared to the FT990, a rig that I have really enjoyed for 
>> many reasons, the K2 
>> is much quieter and more flexible.
>> </quote>
>>
>> I have noticed I'm having the opposite experience. I have a 
>> noise floor of S9 on 
>> 40m. With my TS-430S and the ssb filter I can listen to the 
>> rig all day. But 
>> with the K2 after a half hour or so I have to turn the sound 
>> down to give my 
>> ears a break. There seems to be so many highs in the 
>> background noise that it 
>> really gets on my nerves in a short time. This is even with 
>> the MFJ DSP filter 
>> inline after the K2.
>>
>> I don't have the dead tree manuals yet, maybe later this 
>> week. So I haven't 
>> wanted to really get into checking all the adjustments until then.
>>
>> The rig is dead on frequency, when replying to a cw station. 
>> On ssb I am told my 
>> transmitted signal has great audio, MC42 hand mike. Power out 
>> is good. So, I'm 
>> jumping to the conclusion that it's all set up well. What 
>> gives with all the 
>> annoying highs even when using the cw narrow filters? Only 
>> relief I get is when 
>> I turn the AF1 on.
>>
>> I did use the spectrogram to move the cw center frequency 
>> from 500hz to 600hz. 
>> When I did this, I happened to set it up on the wrong side of 
>> the passband. A 
>> couple of folks got me straightened out on that. But the 
>> thing I remember was 
>> how wonderfully quiet the rig was when I was on the wrong 
>> side. Signals just 
>> popped up from the quiet and it was a pleasure to hear.
>>
>> Any suggestions why I'm hearing so many highs? And how I 
>> might could shift 
>> things around to change it when I get the manuals.
>>
>> TIA
>> -- 
>> GB & 73's
>> KA5OAI
>> Sam Morgan
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