[Elecraft] Headphones

Sun Jul 10 14:16:23 EDT 2011

Although I don't have hearing issues serious enough to warrant hearing aids, I do like wearing headphones and spent quite a while finding any that were as comfortable as the multi-hundred dollar ones we used to use in the military years ago. I settled on a Yamaha CM-500 headset as I do a fair amount of phone and CW. I used them on Field Day this year - the first time I had used them for more than a short period since I purchased them. I have to say that the audio was wonderful and they were very comfortable. The CM-500 microphone works very well. I use the same TX equalizer settings I use for the Elecraft hand mic and have received several unsolicited reports of very good audio which is even more satisfying since much of my work is, by choice, QRP or at least power levels below 25W.

For about $50, the Yamaha headset is certainly worth a look.

73, Chuck - AA3CS

On 10 Jul 2011, at 13:46, Edward R. Cole wrote:

> Lew and Bill,
> 
> You are both lucky if you can wear headphones without using your 
> hearing aids to copy signals well.  I am nearly deaf without 
> mine.  Increasing volume does not add comprehension.  My hearing is 
> <35 dB in both ears with roll off to nothing above 800-Hz.
> 
> But I use a pair of Sony stereo headphones MDR-V600 that have a soft 
> cuff the covers the ears completely.  My hearing aids are Phonic 
> Silvia over-the-ear models with two mics for noise cancelling (spendy 
> - cost $2600/ea.).  But they do not feedback when I wear 
> headphones.  When I fly I wear a pair of Bose nose-cancelling 
> headphones.  They do have a T-coil mode for use with telephones but I 
> find that it does not work well.  At home we have Panasonic 5-GHz 
> cordless phones with speakerphone.  That works very 
> nice.  Fortunately, I do not work the 5760 MHz ham band.
> 
> My problem is if I wear the headphones for hours there is some 
> physical discomfort from the headphones pressing my ear and hearing 
> aid, so I often remove the hearing aids when flying.  Of course then 
> my hearing is about -60dB and I hear nothing.
> 
> I have followed the critiques on the reflector for headset-boom mics 
> but have not bought any.  Mostly the reports are on audio performance 
> and not comfort.
> 
> 73, Ed - KL7uW
> ------------------------------
> 
> Message: 31
> Date: Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:12:35 -0700
> From: Lew Phelps K6LMP <k6lmp at me.com>
> Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Headphones
> To: Elecraft Reflector <elecraft at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <18FDEDDB-AF29-4B5B-A6A6-8ACD07DED2E5 at me.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
> 
> I recently began wearing hearing aids myself, so I know what you're 
> going through. You have to remove hearing aids to use conventional 
> headphones, or else you get audio feedback screeching. When you 
> remove hearing aids, if you're like most people, you lose ability to 
> hear higher frequencies, which is the range in which consonants 
> reside, and from which we discern the meaning of speech. (vowels are 
> about 300-600 Hz, but we don't extract much meaning from vowel sounds.)
> 
> As a first step, adjust the audio receive profile to give a some 
> boost to frequencies up to 1kHz and a lot of boost to higher 
> frequencies.. This will offset the increased hearing loss at higher 
> frequencies that most people with hearing loss experience, and 
> restore ability to discern consonants.  Unfortunately, this also can 
> increase background noise levels.
> 
> IF that doesn't do the job, other possible solutions include:
> 
> 1. Hearing aid compatible headphones such as the Geemarc CLA3 Hearing 
> Aid Compatible Headset (haven't tried)
> 2. Bluetooth adapter. Many modern hearing aids have Bluetooth 
> connectivity, so you can use them as headphones with a Bluetooth 
> headset dongle. Google on "bluetooth audio dongle 3.5" and you'll 
> come up with quite a few, ranging in price from about #$20 to $40, 
> that will plug into the headset jack and convert the audio output to 
> a Bluetooth signal, which you can hear directly through any Bluetooth 
> enabled hearing aid.  I haven't tried this, but I plan to do obtain 
> one very soon.
> 3. Have you tried speakers and hearing aids combined? If that doesn't 
> work, your hearing aids probably need adjustment or replacement.
> 4.  If you want to use conventional headphones without your hearing 
> aids, put a small stereo amplifier inline between line out  output of 
> your rig and your headphones. Preferably, use an amp with equalizer 
> controls, and boost the higher frequencies commensurate with your 
> hearing loss profile.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Lew K6LMP
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 73, Ed - KL7UW, WD2XSH/45
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