[Elecraft] Speakers - Optimal Frequency Range?

[Don Wilhelm]

Dave,

While what you say (using the speaker as a filter) may have been 
advantageous in the days when receiver selectivity was "broad as a barn 
door".  I don't think that applies today for receivers have adequate 
selectivity to do that filtering job.  Some low end receivers that do 
not provide adequate filtering may benefit from a peaked speaker, but 
that is not true of any of the Elecraft receivers.

Besides, unless your "filtering" speaker matches the filtering provided 
by your headphones, there will be a vast difference when switching 
between the speaker and the 'phones.

In modern days, a flat speaker response in the 300 to 3000 Hz range is 
the best for communications.  If the speaker response is greater than 
that range, it will not matter because the receiver will not produce 
audio much beyond that 300 to 3000 Hz range.

To me, the goal is a flat speaker response in the range that the 
receiver produces audio.  The fact that the speaker is also flat beyond 
that range is of no consequence unless that same speaker is also used 
for Hi-Fi listening.

73,
Don W3FPR

On 10/16/2016 8:17 PM, Dave Cole wrote:
> On Sun, 2016-10-16 at 18:28 -0400, Don Wilhelm wrote:
>> Bret,
>>
>> In my opinion, a speaker should not "color" the audio response of the
>> receiver.
>
> Au contraire, the speaker is as much a part of the radio as the
> synthesizer, or the APF is.  We are not dealing with a high end stereo
> here, (where the speakers should never color things, but frequently do),
> we are dealing with the terminal end of a communications link, which can
> be several thousand miles long, and as such, the speaker is just another
> filter/device to reproduce the sound.  Filters by nature color things,
> hence the speaker must color the sound if we are to use all parts as
> efficiently as possible.
>