[Elecraft] Nearfield monitors

[Jim Brown]

On 10/27/2010 5:30 PM, The Smiths wrote:
> and when you put a cheap speaker on it it tends to accentuate the freq. that the radio was made to deliver... 100Hz through 4KHz (if that).

Nope. The problem with cheap speakers is NOT limited frequency response, 
it is BUMPY frequency response, which makes it harder to copy both 
speech and CW.  I know -- I've MEASURED a bunch of cheap speakers, and 
that's what they look like, and it's how they sound. I've got good, near 
field speakers hooked up to my K3 (main and sub-rx).

> My point was plain and simple, the NS10's which are probably one of the worlds foremost nearfield monitors used in the studio environment don't sound good using only the K3 to drive them, neither do the Tanoy's (yet another VERY popular nearfield monitor used in professional studios).

The shortcoming of most small speakers, including the ones you cited,  
is that they have POOR VOLTAGE SENSITIVITY, meaning that it takes more 
voltage to drive them than the K3 is designed to deliver. They are 
designed to be driven by big power amps, not the low power chip used in 
the K3, so the K3 doesn't have enough voltage headroom for them  I 
suspect that it is this is at the root of your dissatisfaction with your 
studio monitors. But Don is entirely correct that the ideal loudspeaker 
for a ham rig is one that has FLAT response in the speech range, and has 
good polar response (that is, the response remains the same as you move 
around in front of it.  The fact that it has good low end or high end 
does not matter -- it's neither a plus nor a minus.

73, Jim Brown K9YC