[Elecraft] K3 Audio (WAS K3 eHam review after 2+ years)

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

Though I have the typical reduction in high frequency hearing at my current
age, I remember well being able to hear TV horizontal sweep frequency (15+
kHz) quite loudly walking into a room with a television on. I began to lose
that in my fifties. Due to some lab equipment at college, I know I could
hear 20 kHz, though not as well.

The DAC artifacts I see clearly on spectrum analysis down 60 would have been
20 db over my hearing floor, and annoying, as I had the typical reaction to
someone raking their fingernails down a chalkboard.

However, I still DO hear any intermod in 3-6 kHz over top of a 3 kHz
bandwidth signal, and it DOES make the audio seem harsh if there is anything
there.

Does harshness make any difference in a contest?  Not that I can tell.  40m
has all kinds of annoying crud that comes in.  Less crud if it's a K3.  40m
is an annoying band. But I didn't buy the K3 for audiophile audio.

In the CQWWCW 40m I lost only 15 busted/NIL out of a claimed 1728 QSOs.  I
credit this to the clarity of the K3 listening to terribly weak signals up
close to overpowering signals. To boot, the log includes many signals that
pre-K3, I simply would not have attempted. Not that I wasn't trying
very hard to be accurate in the contest, but this result simply stomps any
prior personal best, where I was trying just as hard.

We were all K3 at NY4A and the other bands/ops reflected like improvements.
It was no personal fluke.

Given that, I would have to say that the RX is an unqualified success in its
intended design.  But if Elecraft was to offer an audiophile upgrade to the
K3 audio, I would put it in -- not for contesting, but just for listening
pleasure.

I still far prefer my old tube 75A3 for SSB listening (not contesting),
echoing an old complaint from audiophiles about anything transistor vs.
anything tubes.  Then again, my K3 hears clearly and accurately much stuff
that is inaudible on the A3, and the skirts on the A3's mechanical filters
are no match for the K3 combined DSP and INRAD.

It would be really neat if somehow Elecraft could produce audiophile audio
in the K3, but for the price spent and the central premise of the design, an
admitted harshness is just nit-picking.  I'll take a K3 board that Elecraft
intends to be audiophile outcome, and complain about that if it misses, but
I bought my current K3 for the contest results.

73, Guy.
K2AV