Mike: Im a contester first and foremost, so I dont win any "HiFi" or "Voodoo" audio fidelity competitions with my ssb sound. (But I could if I wanted to).
Having said that, however, I do make a living in audio/video where I am paid to pay close attention to quality sound (and pictures). And Im rather picky. I can make my K3 sound narrow and punchy, with that classic "crackly" contest "bite", extremely narrow dynamic range and a very narrow peak to average ratio for wringing every possible watt out of my PA. Or, I can make my K3 sound smooth, open, and "realistic" with mid and near-bass "presence" (Im not a bass lover, its a total waste of TX power) with very little compression and with a clean and "sparkly" high end. And I can do anything in between. I can do all of this with one single microphone capsule, in my case, a $50 Yamaha CM500 headset with boom mic. All the settings that create these sound "profiles" can be recalled simply by pressing one button on the K3-EZ TX Equalizer property sheet (or by a macro from the front panel). With K3-EZ, I save the ones I like for later recall. I can save as many as I have hard disk space for (which is more than I will be able to use in a lifetime). Not only can I do this on transmit, but I can also do this on receive. The TX Gate now works as well as any of the basic ones I have used in Pro Audio circles. Its smooth and unobtrusive. The way a gate should be. (If you can hear the gate working, then the gate aint working!). The VOX is fast and responsive. Its very hard to false and essentially tweak-less once you set it for the way you like it. All this stuff (except the CM500) comes with the radio, and is constantly being made better. You dont need a rack full of boxes to do the deed. Its all "in there", inside the 9lb box. You need not worry about K3 transmit audio quality. Its just fine. But like safely driving a Lotus Elise fast, you need to invest the time to learn how to use the tools you have, because with power comes responsibility. It takes an investment on your part to RTFM and experiment to learn what you are doing and why. Plug and play its not. It really is "Hands On Ham Radio". -lu-W4LT- K3 # 3192 --------------------------------- Message: 5 Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 08:30:07 -0800 (PST) From: Mike Rodgers <[email protected]> Subject: [Elecraft] K3 ssb sound To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii I'm still hearing rumblings about how the k3 sounds on ssb. This concerns me. The k3 will be a huge investment for my income and I can't help but wonder if it will be the right one. I'm really not seriously considering anything else but I'm sure getting nervous about unloading the cash. I'm just a rag chewer so there's more to it than just making the contact. I have however listened to Hector's audio files and they all sound good. Happy QSO'ing. Mike R ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
