The K3’s (I have 2) come sounding pretty bad on SSB. But there are some
standard settings for the equalizer which get them sounding pretty good. I’m
not sure why they don’t leave the factory that way.
All in all I find the K3s unbeatable for CW and on a par with other good rigs
on SSB. Basically most of the really advanced receiver functions for most
radios are more functional with narrow discrete CW type signals. SSB signals
bleed all over each other so there is only so much a radio can do.
On Jun 16, 2014, at 3:42 PM, Guy Olinger K2AV <k2av.guy@gmail.com> wrote:
> K3's underwent an extended evolution on sound issues in the first two or
> three ears. There are a lot of sound mods, including an outright
> replacement of one circuit board. A lot of K3's do *not* have this mod, as
> those with typical age related loss of high range hearing may not hear the
> distortion, as I would guess might be true for the Elecraft principals.
>
> New K3's and K3's with all the mods can have quite decent audio when set up
> to *personal taste*.
>
> A lot of RX satisfaction simply depends on an appealing sound. Though there
> are some very fuzzily defined common preferences, a lot of what "sounds
> good" is personal preference and varies over the map. And discussions about
> this comparing rigs, because the elements of the discussion are terribly
> poorly defined, often turn into a "Nyah, nyah, na nyah, nyah" or "My rig is
> better than your rig" verbal p***ing contest.
>
> Some things we do know...
>
> o Younger operators on average hear highs much better than older ops. This
> can cause two ops listening at the same time to the same RX to perceive the
> audio in completely different ways. Confusion reigns.
> o Band noise from a voice-width passband, reproduced with utter fidelity,
> is commonly unbearable, and at very least, nearly uniformly unpleasant.
> With a quiet circuit, a gradual rolloff over 2.5 kHz is near universally
> preferred for voice. This preference is frequently the opposite for a noisy
> circuit.
> o High fidelity noise, due to some common poorly understood human stress
> mechanism, is usually tiring and sometimes tiring to an extreme.
> o The part of the communications voice bandwidth most important for
> comprehension, syllibants, is the upper range, which is also the most
> irritating for noise energy.
> o For contesters, what they prefer for SSB contesting and prefer for casual
> SSB ragchews are often violently different, *Particularly* in terms of how
> loud they push the upper octaves in RX audio. This is also true for filter
> bandwidths. Contesting is usually set for intelligibility alone, and
> ragchews for pleasantness of sound.
>
> An exhaustive list of these issues is fairly long. I almost never see these
> elements transacted in a discussion of rig audios.
>
> I bought my K3 so the RX front end would not be creating the noise base on
> 40 meters listening to a 5 element wide spaced quad on a 200 foot catenary.
> Crushing signal levels. Now I can clearly pick out solar noise at certain
> times. I use 1.8 kHz filters for SSB contesting with the passband shifted
> up for maximum intelligibility, a setting I cannot stand to listen to for
> casual ragchewing :>)
>
> "Sound horrible" can be for so many reasons. On a K3 you need to know the
> settings of filter, shift, audio passband shaping, NB & NR settings,
> whether all the audio mods were done, in order to qualify what "sound
> horrible" might come from.
>
> Some folks can't stand K3's because they can't stand the small knobs and
> buttons. Some others hated K3's until they used them as a guest at a
> contest station. Others just do not like the sound no matter how adjusted.
> I have more than one acquaintance who "hated" them until they got one.
>
> Early on in K3 history, at the first WRTC with the K3 shipping, fully half
> of the rigs brought to the WRTC championship in Europe were K3's. It was
> clear that the contesters had found something they wanted. The next largest
> contingent was FT1000MP's. At roughly that time, operators at NY4A had
> owned or did own eleven FT1000MP's. Over a period of time, this list of
> hams replaced the MP's with 15 K3's and one Orion, nothing else. Nobody was
> coerced, and for sure each of that crew comes to his own independent views
> and purchases.
>
> Far and away, even now, the K3 is the common choice for serious contesters.
> The sub RX is electrically identical to the main RX, just on a differently
> shaped PC board to fit in its space. If those looking for rig opinions are
> or will be contesters, a used K3 sent back to the factory to have all the
> mods checked/done and firmware set to production levels will be a long
> lasting choice. Audio on a K3 has to be set to something, making a
> contesting setup and a casual setup possible.
>
> One firmware revision a while back made a huge improvement in audio
> quality. This was because prior firmware DSP calculations for AGC did not
> use enough significant digits and were introducing digitalization
> distortion to the audio. THis varied with AGC settings and signal strength
> making trouble ID and fix exquisitely difficult. A K3 that is not up to
> date can have some interesting issues. There *are* K3's out there that have
> never had a firmware upgrade or had a mod done.
>
> Having said all that, a lot of hams ONLY do casual operating, making some
> number of rigs *without* a lot of settings nicely decent for their
> purposes. I have recommended K3's a lot, but after listening to some
> fellows talk about their operating, recommended a TS590S. At this writing
> there were no K3's listed on eBay, and seven TS590S.
>
> My advice to anyone trying to get close to a "keeper" is to locate someone
> who has one and will let you come over and operate it, and get familiar
> with the settings and how you do with the layouts and knobs. Do this for
> all the rigs that tempt you. If you contest, include an up-to-date K3 and
> an Orion no matter what anyone says. Otherwise buying a rig on reflector
> advice is still going to be a cr*p shoot because you will not have HEARD
> all the choices yourself. No matter what the science, if YOU don't like how
> it sounds, you won't be happy.
>
> 73, Guy.
> _________________
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
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