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Reviews For: Ten Tec 705 Desk Mic

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Ten Tec 705 Desk Mic
Reviews: 11MSRP: 79.95
Description:
Older model desk mic. for Ten Tec rigs
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.tentec.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00114.6
K7NA Rating: 1999-09-18
A Compact Electret Mic that Produces "Natural" Sou Time Owned: unknown months.
Having recently acquired a new Ten Tec Omni 6+ transceiver, I was anxious to test various mics I've accrued over the past 38 years. So, I confounded and bored my friends to death with my game of microphone musical chairs, trying a crystal D-104 (non-amp'd), Shure 444, Electro Voice 630 and a Heil Pro-set with HC5 element. Of the group, according to my friends, only the D104 produced acceptable audio, the others having been dismissed for various subjective reasons.
Enter the Ten Tec 705. I pleaded my case on the well traveled Ten Tec Reflector and was rewarded by a number of good, informative postings from other hams who had experienced similar reports from their mish mash of microphones. The consensus offered: try the Ten Tec 705. I thus ordered the small electret condenser desk mic from Ten Tec ($79.95 retail plus shipping) and received the product a week later.
I plugged the unit into the Omni mic jack and found that it did indeed produce good, smooth, clean audio, and lots of it! This mic includes a small internal audio amplifier which is powered by the 4 VDC present on pin 4 of the Omni mic jack. It includes a PTT mic button and a locking button as well for ragchewing. Using the mic on VOX also is a snap. Mic sensitivity is rated at -52dBv and the mic will drive any mic input of 100 ohms or more. An internal compartment is available for insertion of a 9 volt battery should your radio not include the necessary polarizing voltage.
The reports to date have been very satisfying, indeed. Typical of electret mics, the audio passband is pretty flat and the audio reproduction is smooth, not terribly crisp but not overly bassy either. I am often told the audio sounds "very natural." I have not really tried using the mic with the Omni's built in speech processor yet, in part due to the fact that I just have not needed it.
The mic is compact, light weight and build quality, while not that of the chrome plated D104, is nonetheless acceptable for the price. With it, the mic gain, processor gain and vox gain all do not need to be turned up far on the Omni as is the case with many other traditional mics. I'll be playing with this mic for the next 30 days, since Ten Tec includes a 30 day trial return privilege on their merchandise.