Since nobody has answered yet, I will give it a shot, although it is entirely subjective and not even based on recent observations. I am commenting only about receive audio, and only ssb. I have a KWM-2, and had the same question on my mind years ago. Here is what I recall. When I got the KWM-2 I had an FT-1000D, and I noticed that ssb sounded much better in the Collins, at the same 2.1 KHz filter width. I attributed this to two separate effects: Class A audio power amp in the Collins vs push-pull semiconductor pa in the Yaesu, and mechanical filter in the Collins vs. xtal filters in the Yaesu. I think the mechanical filters may have less phase distortion and less group delay variations than the xtal units; at least that was my guess at the time. Then I sold the Yaesu and bought an early K3 #18xx. The K3 was much superior to both the other radios in almost every respect, but the ssb receive audio was the rare exception. It was inferior to the Collins. I felt it was also worse than the Yaesu, although both rigs used xtal filters (not the whole K3 story; spare me the flames) and solid state push pull audio pa's. Later I got Elecraft's hardware upgrades for the rx audio, and they made a big difference. I now feel the K3 is at least as good as the Yaesu. Still I don't feel it is as good as the Collins. Later still I got a KX3. It sounds incredibly good in a certain sense that I attribute to the selectivity being affected by on no xtal or mechanical filters. OTOH I feel that its audio pa suffers from not being class A. So the KX3 and the Collins have opposite strengths and weaknesses. Overall, the KX3 wins over the Collins. So, with these radios to choose from, which one do I turn on when I have time to get on the air? The K3 wins overall, and not just because more tx power is available. It is just a little bit more comfortable to operate. BTW I haven't experimented with running the K3 with a roofing filter much wider than the DSP bandwidth; perhaps that would improve the receive audio noticeably? Warning: The above are my subjective observations and not supported by any measurements. I post this with much hesitation. Probably some Elecraft detractor is going use it as justification for writing something on another board to the effect that Elecraft audio is bad. Shame on that person whoever it may be.
73, Erik K7TV Bill W2BLC wrote: It has been many years since I sat down to a Collins 75-S3. So long that I cannot remember if they were really that good. Anyone out there have a Collins receiver they'd care to compare to a K3? I am only interested in the quality of the receive audio. Of course there is no DSP, memories, and all that. ______________________________________________________________ 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
