[Elecraft] KX1 headphones

Brett Howard brett at livecomputers.com
Sat Aug 22 21:05:54 EDT 2009


The filtering should be done before the audio gets to the headphones.
A low end pair of headphones only acts to cover up flaws in receiver
design.  A good broadband pair of uncolored headphones should be good
for reproducing audio as it was intended to be done so.  While some
audio reproduction systems are designed to be colored they are by
nature much less versatile and have narrower usage cases.

~BTH


On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 5:53 PM, Mike Morrow<kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>I would not have spent the money on my Etymotics just for listening to
>>CW, but since they are great for listening to music with great fidelity
>>while traveling on planes, which is something I do a lot of, I look at it
>>as a bonus that they will be nice to use in conjunction with my KX-1
>>once I build it.
>
> The absolute worst thing one can have in a speaker or headphones for
> communications use is "high fidelity" and broad frequency response!!!
>
> Communications-quality audio devices are deliberately *designed* for limited
> frequency response (typically about 300 to 3000 Hz).  Anything of higher
> "fidelity" is adverse to quality in a communications device.
>
> One might as well eliminate receiver IF and front-end filtering if high
> fidelity is the goal.  But, of course, high fidelity is not the goal.   Just as
> receiver IFs with limited bandpass are desirable, especially for CW
> communications, so are headphones with narrow frequency response.
> Narrow frequency response helps eliminate undesired signals as surely
> as that IF filter.  And since the front-end and IF filtering in the KX-1 is
> limited, hi-fi entertainment headsets are the last thing one needs.
>
> QRP rig designers usually provide a headphone jack that accepts the common
> entertainment-quality headphones with stereo connections.  That seems to
> encourage the use of these unsatisfactory entertainment audio devices,
> whether they be $5 Walmart specials or much worse, those wildly overpriced
> "specialty" hi-fi headsets.
>
> The best earbuds for communications use that I've ever found are Kenwood
> HS-7 mono earbuds, with the essential limited frequency response.
> Unfortunately they haven't been available for more than a decade.
>
> If you have headsets that are spec'd for entertainment audio purposes, that
> should immediately be a warning that they are far from optimal for communications
> use unless nothing else is available.
>
> Mike / KK5F
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