[Premium-Rx] The "Sound" Of Receiver IF Amplifiers

[Ed Tanton]

Any time someone wants to stretch the "premium" receiver definition a 
fairly large amount to somehow include the 51S-1, I'm all for it. It's THE 
receiver I'd want to have if stranded on a desert island with few (or no) 
tools, a magical source of 120VAC, and a box of spare tubes!!! It's not 
necessarily the BEST in any category, but averages right up there with and 
above an awful lot of good receivers, when you take electrical and 
mechanical reliability into account. It just does a great job, whatever you 
ask it to do (excluding swimming and Bengal tiger attacks) and keeps on 
doing that great job, day after day.

>/// snip
>
>The Drake R7A sounds superb on the SE-3, as does the Collins 51S-1.
>And because the 51S-1 uses offset 2.75-kHz mechanical filters, you can
>switch from AM to USB to LSB without losing lock on the SE-3. This is
>the first time I've been able to take advantage of the 51S-1
>mechanical filters on AM signals since the non-synthesized VFO just
>isn't stable enough for normal ECSS tuning. And the SE-3 preserves at
>least 90% of the crystal-clear audio the 51S-1 is capable of.
>
>Another thing that surprised me is how well-matched the 51S-1's
>mechanical filters are. Using the SE-3 it's hard to detect any change
>in tonal quality switching between the USB and LSB filters. In
>contrast, the MSR5050A's USB filter definitely has more treble
>emphasis than the LSB filter.
>
>Anyway, what these few quick comparisons have proven to me is that
>many of our Premium Receivers have wonderful features which are hard
>to do without once you've used them; stable and precise VFOs, memory
>channels, keyboard frequency entry, etc. But as for producing the
>best, most-listenable audio, some non-premium receivers have them
>beat.
>
>Any comments or observations from the group?
>
>Regards....
>....Bob
>
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73 Ed Tanton N4XY <n4xy at earthlink.net>

Ed Tanton N4XY
189 Pioneer Trail
Marietta, GA 30068-3466

website: http://www.n4xy.com

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