[TenTec] Why Stop Here ? MFJ Cleartone replacement

[Travis Martin]

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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