Though I have the typical reduction in high frequency hearing at my current age, I remember well being able to hear TV horizontal sweep frequency (15+ kHz) quite loudly walking into a room with a television on. I began to lose that in my fifties. Due to some lab equipment at college, I know I could hear 20 kHz, though not as well.
The DAC artifacts I see clearly on spectrum analysis down 60 would have been 20 db over my hearing floor, and annoying, as I had the typical reaction to someone raking their fingernails down a chalkboard. However, I still DO hear any intermod in 3-6 kHz over top of a 3 kHz bandwidth signal, and it DOES make the audio seem harsh if there is anything there. Does harshness make any difference in a contest? Not that I can tell. 40m has all kinds of annoying crud that comes in. Less crud if it's a K3. 40m is an annoying band. But I didn't buy the K3 for audiophile audio. In the CQWWCW 40m I lost only 15 busted/NIL out of a claimed 1728 QSOs. I credit this to the clarity of the K3 listening to terribly weak signals up close to overpowering signals. To boot, the log includes many signals that pre-K3, I simply would not have attempted. Not that I wasn't trying very hard to be accurate in the contest, but this result simply stomps any prior personal best, where I was trying just as hard. We were all K3 at NY4A and the other bands/ops reflected like improvements. It was no personal fluke. Given that, I would have to say that the RX is an unqualified success in its intended design. But if Elecraft was to offer an audiophile upgrade to the K3 audio, I would put it in -- not for contesting, but just for listening pleasure. I still far prefer my old tube 75A3 for SSB listening (not contesting), echoing an old complaint from audiophiles about anything transistor vs. anything tubes. Then again, my K3 hears clearly and accurately much stuff that is inaudible on the A3, and the skirts on the A3's mechanical filters are no match for the K3 combined DSP and INRAD. It would be really neat if somehow Elecraft could produce audiophile audio in the K3, but for the price spent and the central premise of the design, an admitted harshness is just nit-picking. I'll take a K3 board that Elecraft intends to be audiophile outcome, and complain about that if it misses, but I bought my current K3 for the contest results. 73, Guy. K2AV ______________________________________________________________ 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
