[Elecraft] Yamaha CM500 Headset is a WINNER (and a BARGAIN)

[Jim Brown]

Last night, K6MM posted to the NCCC Email list:

>Headset Report:  The new Yamaha CM500 headset performed flawlessly.   
>Great reports, comfortable all weekend, good soundproofing.  A real  
>bargain at $40 -- thanks again for the group purchase, Josh (W6XU).

After about 22 hours of use in SS-SSB, I'd like to reinforce John's 
comments on these headsets. I find the headset quite comfortable, 
the cans sound very good, and the mic produces GREAT audio. I bought 
three, and they are replacing the EV RE16 that I've used exclusively 
for contesting for the last five years!  If you worked W6BX, K9YC, 
K6MM, AK6M, or W6XU, you were listening to the CM500. 

The mic in this headset is not a FLAT mic, but it's quite smooth and 
clean sounding, and the EQ is close to perfect for ham radio and 
contesting. It sounds MUCH MUCH MUCH better than most Heils I've 
heard (and at 1/3 the price). Because it's EQed for communications 
use and my existing voice messages were recorded with an RE16 (a very 
flat professional recording/broadcast mic), I had to re-record all of 
my SS messages.

The only negative of this mic (and it's a minor one, because it's 
easy to work around it) is that it is a bit sensitive to breath pop 
and handling noise, so you need to roll off the low end AND keep it 
away from your mouth. I found myself alternating between two 
positions -- one below my mouth a few inches, and the other a few 
inches above and to the side, but out of the way of my nose (so that 
breathing didn't get into the mic). Both positions are quite 
comfortable, and both sound very good. I used the higher position 
for recording the messages. 

One VERY important caution -- the output from this mic is VERY high, 
and can easily overload the electronics that it is feeding if you 
don't take care with gain settings. To record, I ran straight into 
the sound card of my IBM T22 (eight year old Thinkpad) with the mic 
preamp OFF, the gain at minimum, and the mic about four inches away. 
Any closer caused the sound card to clip!  I did NO eq while 
recording. 

When operating, I plugged the mic and headset into the rear panel 
connectors, turned on the bias (tap 2 on the keypad while in the mic 
select menu) and set mic gain to Low (tap 1 on the keypad in the mic 
select menu). I used max cut of the two lowest bands on the K3 to 
minimize the breath and handling noise. With other rigs, you may need 
to do that with a series cap. 

73,

Jim K9YC