[Elecraft] KX3: Cleaner audio with Yamaha CM500, also PTT

[Jim Brown]

On Sun,8/16/2015 5:12 PM, James Wilson wrote:
> All three of these are look-alikes and have electret mics and
> the same wiring and 3.5mm plugs. They sound almost the
> same plugged into the rear jacks on my K3 (with bias turned on.)

No surprise. BUT -- how comfortable are they?  Have you worn them for a 
weekend contest full time? My Sony MDR7506 and the CM500 pass that test 
with flying colors. Have you gotten any reports from CRITICAL listeners 
about how the mic sounds?

Several years ago, I browsed a big Fry's store for boom mic headsets, 
with the objective of Skype for the XYL, and bought a couple rather 
different cheapies. The mics sounded barely OK, the phones were about 
the same, and were VERY uncomfortable.

And this caution: The Koss mic is described as "noise cancelling." True 
"noise cancelling" mics must be talked very close to work, and they 
don't sound very good.  If the mic is simply a cardioid, it has a 
different problem -- an overemphasized low end when worked close, which 
wastes TX power, emphasizes breathe pops and handling noise.  People who 
sell this stuff and write the ad copy almost never know the difference, 
and often use the wrong words to describe what's going on.  For example, 
Yamaha's own description of the CM500 called it a dynamic mic, while it 
definitely an electret.

I suspect that the mic in the Koss is an electret, simply because 
electrets are cheaper than dynamics, and these are cheap products we're 
talking about. :)  The challenge, of course, is to separate the "good" 
cheap from the "bad" and "not very good" cheap.

I've not seen the Koss products, so have no opinion as to their quality.

73, Jim K9YC