President lincoln II +

[543_Dallas]

People are just as guilty of this in the Ham world as much as the CB. Trying to sound like FM on the AM or SSB modes is like trying to squeeze blood from a turnip, they are different modes and operate with their individual characteristics so their sound is naturally different. FM's quality sound is derived from frequency deviation so as the modulation increases, so does the bandwidth at the frequency of the carrier wave form. This is what gives FM the superior sound and why it's the mode of choice for commercial broadcast music and broadcast TV before they went digital. Unless people have an old car with an old radio that is AM only, FM is what most people listen to for rich sounding audio for music. The only time I listen to AM is for news radio or to catch a ball game when I'm on the road.

Car stereo receivers don't do AM radio justice. It will never sound as good as FM mainly because they can't use that kind of bandwidth, there's just not enough room in the am broadcast band. I have noticed some AM stations are wider than others in my area. When I first heard some local AM stations on an sdr 20k wide with decent speakers I was impressed. Some are filling every bit of 20k some much less.

 

[fourstringburn]

Car stereo receivers don't do AM radio justice. It will never sound as good as FM mainly because they can't use that kind of bandwidth, there's just not enough room in the am broadcast band. I have noticed some AM stations are wider than others in my area. When I first heard some local AM stations on an sdr 20k wide with decent speakers I was impressed. Some are filling every bit of 20k some much less.

I've listened to some broadcast stations on my SDR but I'm hearing through high quality stereo headphones ( original AKG 240M made in Austria) so yes it sounds nice but if I listen on my HF radio, it not all that impressive nor did I expect it to be.

There once was an experiment with stereophonic AM broadcast but it never caught on. I agree, FM still sounds better!

 

[rabbiporkchop]

Thread hijacker alert!!!
I just love it when people say "hifi audio"...guess they're trying to say is wider then the tinny stock sound.
And new fad?? I gues my Ranger is "new"

I always try to avoid using that "HiFi audio" term. You can fit a lot of nice audio within a 5K bandwidth.

 

[rabbiporkchop]

You didn't really answer the questions,

How about the "wide" frequency response of the stock mic because you did state in a manner of first hand knowledge of it twice..what is it?

Do you really know what you are talking about here or are you just making assumptions and generalizing?

I've never seen an electret element with a bandwidth less than 10K.
the Palomar sl41 goes from 300 Hertz to 16000 Hertz and the stock microphone actually sounded much nicer and Fuller then the Palomar but probably that had something to do with the fact the radio was tuned specifically for the stock microphone and the guy did not have an oscilloscope to play with the mic gain setting to get it dialed in for the Palomar microphone because if it was dialed-in it would have sounded exceptional as well.

 

[Bow]

I've never seen an electret element with a bandwidth less than 10K.
the Palomar sl41 goes from 300 Hertz to 16000 Hertz and the stock microphone actually sounded much nicer and Fuller then the Palomar but probably that had something to do with the fact the radio was tuned specifically for the stock microphone and the guy did not have an oscilloscope to play with the mic gain setting to get it dialed in for the Palomar microphone because if it was dialed-in it would have sounded exceptional as well.

The problem is, on AM, most radios start to roll the Bass off around 300Hz, so everyone sounds thin.

The power mic circuits do the same thing, sure it helps the operator "Punch Through The Noise", but for general local chatting, it gets quite tiresome on the ears.

I have never modified a radio to get higher than stock/factory treble, but the Low End bass, that makes it easy on the ears... and isn't a hard mod...

 

[rabbiporkchop]

The problem is, on AM, most radios start to roll the Bass off around 300Hz, so everyone sounds thin.

The power mic circuits do the same thing, sure it helps the operator "Punch Through The Noise", but for general local chatting, it gets quite tiresome on the ears.

I have never modified a radio to get higher than stock/factory treble, but the Low End bass, that makes it easy on the ears... and isn't a hard mod...

I guess I got accustomed to that "punch through the noise" audio. I never get tired of hearing it.

 

[Bow]

Totally understand, it is a personal preference. That is one of the great things about the radio hobby, there are different ways to approach it.

I have an old Superstar 3900 that I modified to modulate down to 70 Hz with a few Cap swaps... it sounds a lot more natural on the air and I use it for the locals on AM...

If I'm going for DX, I'm running SSB anyway, but still at 3.3kHz wide (bass down to 40Hz)

I enjoy the audio side of this hobby...

 

[rabbiporkchop]

Totally understand, it is a personal preference. That is one of the great things about the radio hobby, there are different ways to approach it.

I have an old Superstar 3900 that I modified to modulate down to 70 Hz with a few Cap swaps... it sounds a lot more natural on the air and I use it for the locals on AM...

If I'm going for DX, I'm running SSB anyway, but still at 3.3kHz wide (bass down to 40Hz)

I enjoy the audio side of this hobby...

I enjoy the audio side of this hobby as well but I like it a little bit wider like this.

 

[bassman21]

LOL that dude does sound like Winnie the Poo on that video.

Unless the mic has changed, on the V3 Lincoln 2 I have, the mic has too much bass for AM making the audio sound muffled, when I switched to the Xtream 2018 mic it make a big improvement in the audio. I use an adapter and don't have any problems, wiring mics are usually a fail for me so........

 

[rabbiporkchop]

LOL that dude does sound like Winnie the Poo on that video.

Unless the mic has changed, on the V3 Lincoln 2 I have, the mic has too much bass for AM making the audio sound muffled, when I switched to the Xtream 2018 mic it make a big improvement in the audio. I use an adapter and don't have any problems, wiring mics are usually a fail for me so........

This is the exact same PR781 microphone plugged directly into a Stryker 955 but a different tune.

 

[Bow]

That is a pretty natural sounding setup. If you watch his normal You Tube repair videos, then hear this (I'm Assuming) Off the Air recording, he sounds like he does in the videos.

That is a nice audio signal right there.

Now if you want that AM Broadcast sound, you need to either:

A) Be James Earl Jones

or

B) Invest in sound EQ and compression.

I actually have a Stryker SR-655HPC that I would like to open up the audio on.

 

[codeman]

I hear a couple of guys running their ham rigs on sideband using compression and what not and they sound good, however I think an old cobra 138 one of the guy runs sometimes sound so much more natural. Damn fine sounding radio. Nothing but the Mic to the radio and out through the coax!

 

[Sonar]

This is the exact same PR781 microphone plugged directly into a Stryker 955 but a different tune.

RP. Do you use the same audio clips of mark everytime you're trying to make your point of his excellent work and the incredible audio ones going to get if after sending him one or purchasing one of his Stryker 955's. The majical no one else but himself (mark fine tune) can get sounding like an FM radio station on AM? In all honesty I've said it in the other post and I'll say it here. I hear nothing special about his (Mark's) audio. It sounds good but nothing incredible. I enjoy hearing this and all those other clips of widebanded "HiFi" CB'S. I especially enjoy hearing them on air. It makes me appreciate a good sounding 30 year old cobra or the like. Especially when matched with the right mic. That "HiFi" stuff also keeps me grounded. I don't want any part of it. It make me enjoy my stock audio third generation Madison with my fet modified silver eagle. And appreciate 3 khz wide and how nice they actually sound with the right microphone and mic gain set in the correct spot.

 

[StrangeBrew]

....
A) Be James Earl Jones
....

This brings up a good point, running the same bandwidth as a guy who sounds really good on the air doesn't guarantee that you'll sound just as good. To sound natural you need a radio that reproduces the frequencies contained in your voice, problem is we all have very different voices. A good place to start may be with an assessment of where the energy is in your voice and then tailor the TX to match.

 

[Bow]

Yes Sir StangeBrew... all the EQ'ing in the world won't make you sound cool on the air, if you naturally sound like Pee-Wee Herman