[Elecraft] K3 Harmonic Distortion

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

Julian, 

> The measurements that have been made seem to suggest that the 
> problem is not regular distortion or clipping.

I disagree.  Every set of measurements I have made shows the
speaker and headphone amplifiers in the K3 are very clean 
right up to the point that they begin to clip.   Those who 
can not get sufficient "clean" audio should be looking for 
more efficient headphones or higher power external amplifiers. 

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV 
 




> -----Original Message-----
> From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net 
> [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Julian, G4ILO
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 5:20 AM
> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] K3 Harmonic Distortion
> 
> 
> 
> The measurements that have been made seem to suggest that the 
> problem is not regular distortion or clipping. I am wondering 
> if it is some kind of quantisation effect due to the fact 
> that the signal processing is digital or analog? I am 
> thinking of the fact that there are people who claim that vinyl
> (analog) LPs sound better than CDs, and FM radio sounds 
> better than DAB.
> 
> Personally I find it hard to understand what the complaints 
> are about. SSB signals usually have quite a lot of distortion 
> in any case, due to compression and ALC and the fact that 
> they are transmitted through an amplifier whose response 
> would certainly not be described as "linear" by any hi-fi 
> buff, not to mention any multipath distortion effects 
> introduced by the ionosphere. It's hard to imagine what the 
> K3 could be doing to the signal to make it sound worse. I 
> just don't expect hi-fi audio when listening to the ham bands.
> 
> Perhaps the K3 is allowing you to hear the original signal 
> "warts and all", much as a top-end hi-fi would make 
> recordings that were acceptable on average equipment sound 
> unpleasant? I do find the K3 audio to have rather too good a 
> frequency response, and so on mine I have used the RX 
> equalization to cut the topmost frequency by -16dB and the 
> next one down by -8dB, which to my ears gives a much more 
> restful sound.
> 
> -----
> Julian, G4ILO. K2 #392  K3 #222.
> http://www.g4ilo.com/ G4ILO's Shack   
> http://www.ham-directory.com/ Ham
> Directory    http://www.g4ilo.com/kcomm.html KComm for 
> Elecraft K2 and K3