Re[Elecraft] ceiver distortion

[Mike Harris]

G'day,

| n4lq wrote:
| >
| > The K3 has the cleanest receive audio I've see thusfar.
| >
| I'm likewise a bit skeptical (but I could be wrong) about the alleged K3 
rx
| audio issues.  My experience is that the K3 rx audio is more 
"transparent"
| and thus any problems with the other guy's audio will be glaringly 
apparent
| with the K3.  This might be what some people are hearing - the bad 
signals
| are going to sound "badder" on the K3.  The K3 rx is less "forgiving"
| because you are hearing better.  I do seem to be noticing how bad most
| signals sound on 20M ssb lately, although there is the occasional smooth
| sounding signal.  I routinely A/B with my Orion to confirm what I'm 
hearing.

Certainly even with the K2 and any other receiver it is easy to find some 
pretty lousy signals.  More so during contests.  However, to suggest that 
the K3 is sooooo good that others sound routinely bad is heading towards 
the "golden eared" audiophile nonsense.  Nope, it's not the receiver, it's 
the 169 strand single crystal oxygen free copper unidirectional leads to 
your external computer speakers.

Now, where did I put that $500 solid silver power lead with the "special 
edition" gold APP's on.  That's just got to improve the TX IMD surely?

The reported A/B with the R2C and an unbiased(?) XYL seemed to suggest 
otherwise.

Apologies.

More seriously, I've been fiddling with the bandwidth, Lo and Hi cut and 
audio settings on my K3 and achieved a compromise I like.  It has 
nevertheless made me ponder the whole concept of AD/DA converting a low 
level signal in a noise background.  All AD/DA conversion results in some 
level of quantisation distortion which might be more noticeable in this 
circumstance which is routinely encountered in DXing.

Mike VP8NO