[Elecraft] Headphones

[Jim Brown]

On 7/10/2011 10:46 AM, Edward R. Cole wrote:
> 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.

Hi Ed,

The Yamaha CM500 is quite comfortable.  In the 18 months so that I've 
owned mine, it's become my only radio headset, and I often do weekend 
contests that keep me in the chair for 15-20 hours (and sometimes as 
long as 30 hours) in a weekend.  The large Sony phones (MDR7506 and the 
consumer MDR equivalent) are also quite comfortable.

Some thoughts about using headphones WITHIOUT your hearing aids in 
place. The condition you've described of very strong loss of hearing 
above 500-1,000 Hz is characteristic of the vast majority of people with 
enough hearing loss to use (or need) a hearing aid, but the details of 
the response shape varies greatly depending on many factors, including 
the noise to which the victim has been exposed over the years, and 
various medical/physical factors.

  A good hearing aid will include equalization customized to the hearing 
loss of each ear to try to restore something approaching "normal 
hearing."  The RXEQ section of the K3's signal processing can take a 
major step in this direction. A hearing impaired user should set the 
lower four frequency bands to their lowest settings and boost the top 
two bands.  Since ham communications, by their nature, have limited 
audio bandwidth, there's no benefit from boosting frequencies higher 
than 4kHz.

One thing I WOULD strongly suggest, if it's practical, is for Elecraft 
to add an optional DSP setting for hearing impaired individuals that 
would do some simple but strong low-cut and some general contouring of 
the spectrum above 500 Hz.

In general, the biggest single thing we can do to improve speech 
intelligibility is to minimize the bass content (below about 350-400 Hz) 
so that these sounds, which do NOT contribute to speech intelligibility, 
don't waste audio power that can be used for the higher frequency sounds 
that DO carry intelligibility.

73, Jim K9YC