Has anyone considered building a good audio filter to accomplish this? It
would seem to me that an active filter with an amplifier for an external
speaker, or maybe just a passive filter for headphone use, would solve
all the problems discussed in this thread. One could then use
comfortable music quality phones for his CW pursuits as well as for music
and be happy all of the time.
I'm not a design wizard; surely someone out there is. I'd guess that the
parameters would be fairly non-critical...frequency response of about,
say, 500 cps to 1200 cps with a fairly steep skirt, though the skirt
slope ought to be secondary to good audio quality and absolute abscence
of ringing. It HAS to be pleasant and not fatiguing or it defeats the
purpose.
If someone wants to volunteer to design it, I'll build a prototype and
test it...actually, I'm sure several people would try it. Combine it with
one of those inexpensive hybrid audio amps and mount it in a speaker
enclosure.
Maybe TenTec (you listening, Scott?) could offer an optional accessory
speaker. I'd like to see something on the order of an 8" speaker in a
nice enclosure with a very low distortion power amp and a switchable
CW/SSB filter tailored to the desired frequency response, together with a
headphone jack also filtered. I'd buy such a thing in a heartbeat. Maybe
a 4" quality speaker in a solid, well damped enclosure styled to match
the rest of the gear would be the ticket.
I have a Corsair II and a Collins S-Line in my shack. I have taken to
using the S-Line almost all of the time lately, including for CW, because
the audio is so much more pleasant. And I don't have to tell YOU guys
that the Corsair is, other than that, a hundred times better CW rig.
I've learned through my other passion, which is record collecting, that
vinyl records sound a lot better than CD's. Why? Because CD's are
fatiguing. I can't really put a finger on it; it is, for me at least,
below consciousness, but I can tell you that I can listen to records,
even scratched and dirty records, for hours with a smile on my face, but
have a hard time staying with a CD...I start getting fidgety and wanting
to go do something else. I think that there is something like this going
on with me on the S-Line/Corsair II thing.
This, by the way...the analog versus digital debate...is a hot topic in
the audiophile magazines. I realize that with the modern TenTec
transciever's audio output we aren't talking about digital reproduction,
but I suspect that there is a similar phenomenon. It's kinda like having
a comfortable chair to sit in. You can tolerate almost anything for a few
minutes, but try turning a mop bucket upside down and sitting on it while
you operate...after a few minutes, you'll be thinking of all the other
things you'd rather be doing, whereas if you have a comfortable chair you
can sit and work CW for hours on end. The audio needs to be comfortable
to your ears as well.
Any volunteer designers out there?
73,
Travis N5AY
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