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| Reviews Summary for MFJ-616 Speech Enhancer |
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write your own review of the MFJ-616 Speech Enhancer.
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K5OQ
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 30, 2005 11:49
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Outstanding - With A Serious Limitation
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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MFJ-616
Outstanding - With One Serious Limitation
Recently, I had a sudden and nearly-complete loss of hearing in one ear. All that I could hear in the affected ear were a few high frequencies at high amplitude. The prevalence of wide-band transmitter audio caused my bad ear to vibrate like a broken speaker cone when subjected to moderate levels of high-frequency audio.
The MFJ-616 Speech Intelligibility Enhancer now allows me to listen to all types of transmitted audio with adjustment for a specific station's audio - on my IC-756 ProIII. The MFJ box allows tailoring of four broad ranges of the audio spectrum, either boost or cut. By cutting the 2400KHz range, the eardrum rattling sound is abated. Only one station that I speak with often has such piercing highs that I must use all of the 2400Hz cut (about 20db) to reduce the rattling in my eardrum.
The MFJ input in mono, but there are two separate audio amps, so you get a pseudo-stereo effect, and there is a Balance control to shift more audio to one speaker or headphone than the other. Why there is no red LED for ON/OFF is a puzzling oversight.
MFJ points out that only 4% of speech intelligibility is contained below 500Hz. Even when both ears were nearly perfect, I did not enjoy listening to most of the "broadband" audio signals on the air, with the emphasis on low-end. Now, I cut the audio below about 300Hz on most broadband audio signals - and enjoy better intelligibility. The middle ranges can also be cut or boosted, depending on particular abnormal frequency responses in your ears.
For now, I am using two AES PCL-1 speakers, an old Heil Pro boom headset, and a variety of stereo headphones. I will experiment with different speakers and perhaps one of the new Heil boom headsets.
The MFJ-616 has one glaring weakness. It is designed to correct for symmetrical loss of frequency response in both ears. Although it has two audio amps and a Balance control, this does nothing to help where one ear has a profound difference in frequency response from the other. What is needed is a dual-channel design with separate filters for each ear. For example, if I cut the 2400Hz response by about 20db in deference to my 'tin' ear, I am also robbing the good ear of the higher frequency response.
I am giving some thought to buying a second MFJ-616 and use one for each ear, with one speaker from each unit and a composite stereo headset plug to tap right and left audio from the two units. It would be nice if MFJ would produce a new model with two audio channels and separate audio bandpass tailoring for the right and left ear. A lot of people with asymmetrical hearing would probably pay the price for such a unit. Why buy a $3,000 to $10,000 rig if you can't hear the output clearly? What's another $300 to hear clearly! Say again your prefix, please. Dick K5OQ
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K9FTB
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 9, 2003 15:19
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Meets Expectations
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I took a chance purchasing an MFJ product, given their reputation for product quality and customer support. This product has performed very well and is trouble free (about 18 mos. now). I find that once I've set the audio bandpass for "my ears" there's little need to adjust it in the future.
My only nit to pick is that there is no power "on / off" indicator (LED, lamp, etc.). The power switch is push in / out style. At a glance, it would be handly to see if the power is on or off.
You can certainly vary the audio bandpass and the unit makes quite a difference in what you hear - especially if your higher frequency hearing is shot, as is mine.
Never have had the cover off (yet) so I can't comment on manufacturing quality.
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W4JFR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 19, 2003 20:11
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I am pleased
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I purchased this item rather skeptically. I have never been a fan of MFJ and assumed at first that this was nothing more than a gimmick. But, like the first reviewer, I have experienced some deterioration in my hearing (age is 52). I have particular difficulty hearing in the lower range of the human voice. So, I thought I would give it a try. I have been very pleasantly surprised, to the point that now I can't live without it. I use it with a Ten Tec Paragon and Sennheiser HD 590 stereo headphones -- I have no speakers hooked up to the unit.
The audio quality is greatly improved and, more importantly it allows you to adjust for the variations in an individual's voice characteristics. Now, I find myself "tweaking" it every time I listen to a new station. The effect is not only higher quality audio, but a sense of noise reduction as well. It is particularly good with rather weak DX transmissions. Stations that I could never read clearly before, now sound much better.
The product lives up to its claimed performance and, I believe, is well worth the money.
Jim, W4JFR
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WA6IPD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 30, 2002 16:32
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Excellent
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have a severe hearing loss and have to use headphones to hear anything on the radio. It was becoming more and more difficult to copy voice signals so I thought I would give the MFJ-616 a try and WOW what a difference it made. I am using an Icom IC-756 with Kenwood HS-5 headphones, I also have the Heil Proset but for my ears the HS-5 works best. Everything they claim for this unit is true, I can actually make signals sound as clear as they did when I was 20 years old. I also find that sometimes when there is interference I can copy the signal 100% using the 616 but nothing when I hit the bypass. It’s a little pricey but for me well worth the money.
Here is some added information for those thinking about buying hearing aids. For minor hearing loss the in-the-ear units are fine. They tend to be fragile, the battery doors often break, they eat batteries, are uncomfortable and often oscillate. Most people quit wearing them after a while. The price of hearing aids is negotiable so never pay list price, shop around. You should also get units with automatic volume control, they call that compression. As your hearing deteriorates you will want to get behind-the-ear units. These have more gain but again they are uncomfortable, suffer from wind noise and transmit your chewing noise so when you are out eating forget about hearing. If you forget you are wearing them and it is raining you will likely need new aids. Here again insist on compression, also with this aid you can get directional microphones so ask for that feature and insist on wind shields for the microphones, even with wind shields you will be lucky to hear in the slightest breeze. I gave up on the commercial units and designed my own pocket unit which suffers none of the above problems. Had I done that to begin with I would have saved thousands.
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