Well guys (and gals) so far there have been 34 replies on this thread and I'm grateful for every one of them.

I guess we need to try out forming some kind of hood to see if that will work for the complainers and if that fails we may need to try an external speaker.

We actually had one guy last week (who is the main complainer) who boldly stated that he was a hi-fi buff and I just groaned silently! I also agree with the appliance-operator syndrome, where "it's no good unless it's totally plug and play"!

Several points come to mind:

The comparison with the IC7300 seems to be a fair one to me, because that rig also has an upward facing internal speaker and we did disconnect the external speaker to check. To my ears (and several others) the IC7300 had far better "quality" audio, but that said it is probably not optimum for Amateur communications, which is what many don't seem to realise is what we are 'actually' trying to achieve.

It may pay us to find time to experiment with the DSP settings with the complainers in the same room but unable to see the adjustments, to see if they can be appeased, but I have my doubts because I suspect that the prejudice is already well entrenched.

I brought the IC7300 home and compared it with my IC7100 and it didn't show a great deal of difference, perhaps slightly better because the IC7300 is in a bigger enclosure. I haven't yet made a comparison with my own K3.

One of the greatest problems with club owned equipment is the variation in members' preferences as well as poor test conditions. In a large room with many people, it's impossible to keep them all quiet and some folks seem to think it's OK to stand right next to the operator/s and discuss some other topic - LOUDLY. The only answer there seems to be headphones. The same goes for filed days/contests.

Perhaps we should start to wind this thread up now before it outstays its welcome? :-)

73,

Alan. G4GNX

-----Original Message----- From: Don Wilhelm
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2016 1:58 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3 audio quality

I was not going to "chime in" on this thread because that "horse" has
been thoroughly beat to death in the past.

Let's face it, a small speaker like that used in the K3/K3S is not going
to produce astounding bass and since it faces upwards away from your
ears, the high frequency sounds are going to get lost.
I believe it does exceptionally well for its size and quality.

If you want good quality speaker audio from your K3/K3S, you are going
to have to use external speakers - pick your quality there too.  I use a
pair of old Radio Shack Optimus speakers that I picked up for cheap at a
2nd hand store.  The 4 inch drivers sound great with my K3, but being 4
inch drivers they are not expected to produce 'resounding bass', but
that is not required for communications.  The internal speaker sounds
worse by comparison, but is usable if the external speakers are not
available.

So, if you are comparing the audio between two radios, don't rely on the
internal speakers.  Connect each one to good quality speakers - that way
you are comparing the radio's audio, and not the quality of the internal
speakers.  Some radios produce better quality audio from their internal
speakers than others - for instance the KX3 internal speaker is far
inferior to the internal speaker used in the KX2.

73,
Don W3FPR
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