External speaker

[N7WR]

Years ago when I was an FM stereo nut I purchased several sets of RCA bookshelf speakers which have woofer, tweeter and midrange speakers in the housing. Very compact but also excellent audio. The stereo bit the dust long ago but over the years I have used the speakers with many different ham transceivers ranging from inexpensive to pretty spendy. Right now I am using 3 of those oldie but goodie speakers in the shack...one with my HF rig, one with my 2/440 rig and the other on a public safety radio since I still work, occasionally, in that field. I may sell radios but doubt I will ever sell those speakers.

[KH2G]

Rule of thumb- the bigger the magnet and the larger the cone, the better the sound. Not counting such things as cone material etc. Fact is the small speakers built in any radio will never sound as good as a full blown external speaker. (Or good headphones).
Regards
Dick

[VK2AKG]

Rule of thumb- the bigger the magnet and the larger the cone, the better the sound. Not counting such things as cone material etc. Fact is the small speakers built in any radio will never sound as good as a full blown external speaker. (Or good headphones).
Regards
Dick

Unless you have a poorly filtered power supply, Hmmmmm ;-))

9KdF8YYb7wsDqZUGaZAcgD

[K8MCN]

Amen to that--just cant beat the used Moto speakers...no distortion at high sound levels,and if they survive the beating they took in Emergency vehicles they must be good.the only thing i have found on the same level is old General Electric mobile speakers..they are usually found cheap on that "flea-bay" site

Best external speaker I've ever found is the classic "Motrac" speaker. Yeah, the one with Motorola and the red batwing. You can usually pick one up for $10 or less at any hamfest flea market or, check your local Motorola service shop.

Gary WA7KKP

[KB4MNG]

Been a ham for 25 yrs. The absolute best sounding speakers I have ever had were salvaged out of a Stereo-Record console from 1966. I built boxes for them. I was really suprised and did some research. It seems that the cheapie speakers are great for communication because of their wide range. kb4mng

[SM5JAB]

My speaker is a 12" subwoofer element in a cabinet. No extra filters. Lovely sound!

[NA0AA]

Don't confuse speakers with noise reduction systems though.

If you have a noice problem, then a circuit is needed to handle that - for those I don't have much experience - my mobile operation is FM. But there are a couple of speakers that are supposed to be OK.

As to external speakers in general, it's hard to give advice since preferences tend to vary so much. I will say that while I think matching speakers look nice in the lineup, they are not always superior, and are often quite expensive, although some do come with noice cancelling functions.

My personal fave speakers are 5" full range with big magnets - they seem to work great for communication use and don't require large amounts of drive to be audible. For my mobile, I use an MFJ "Clear Speech" $13. speaker, for me the secret is that the speaker is attached to the driver's headrest so it's right at my ear - takes very little volume even with window open.