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Reviews For: Sounds Sweet Communications Speaker

Category: Speakers for communications

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Review Summary For : Sounds Sweet Communications Speaker
Reviews: 121MSRP: 160 USD
Description:
Speaker designed for use with amateur and two-way radio, shortwave and scanner listening.
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.soundssweet.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
001214.7
KE4WY Rating: 2009-03-27
Just OK Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Just OK. I have & have used speakers I like better than this large box.
K3DAV Rating: 2009-03-27
A BIG Disappointment Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just got the $178.(w/S+H) Sounds Sweet speaker today. I connected it up to my Icom 706MKIIG. I made this purchased based on the eham reviews. You guys are usually right on the money with your opinions of products. But not this time.

Before I continue, let it be known that while I may be 54 years old, my hearing was checked back in August, and I have excellent hearing from 30Hz to 19,000Hz. Also I realize that many factors may produce different results from a speaker or microphone. Room accoustics, proximity of the speaker to the listener, and most of all, the radio itself. Some manufacturers emphasize bass, and some the high tones. So as the old saying goes, "Your milage may vary". With that in mind, let's continue with the review.

First I listened to a couple of guys on 2M FM simplex. It was OK but lacked the natural high tones normally found with FM.

Then I listened to some music and talking from AM short wave stations, and local AM radio broadcast stations. It was very flat sounding. Very little bass and no highs at all.

Then I gave it the ultimate test for any serious ham operator. SSB! I found a few different QSO's to test with. Some of them were brassy sounding, and 2 of them had nice wide fidelity SSB audio.
With the Sounds Sweet speaker, they all lacked clarity in the higher tones. I couldn't tell the difference between the call sign letters "F", "X" and "S", or a "D" from a "B" or "P" or "T".... well you get the picture.
While one ham with wider SSB audio was in a long key-down, I quickly switched back to my Radio Shack bookshelf stereo speaker, (RS Cat# 40-5001) with a cast metal case, a 17oz. 4" long throw woofer, and a 1" dome tweeter. All of the sudden, I could hear the clean natural bass and highs in his audio. The wide SSB sound came to life. I could hear the call sign letters again.

With that last test, I put the Sounds Sweet speaker back in the box, and it's going back for a refund. The sad part is, it cost me $18 to ship it to me, and another $18 to send it back. That's $36. to be disappointed. Don't waste your hard earned money on this one. I learned the hard way.

I can not imagine how anyone can think this speaker is that great. It's like any other normal speaker with all the highs removed. Well here's the scoop guys. Sometimes we need to put up with a little hiss to distinguish a "T" from a "P", "B", "D", "G", "C", "E", "V".................
N7BBX Rating: 2009-03-26
Not so sweet Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased one of these monsters a couple of years ago based on the ratings on this web site. After collapsing the end of my mobile home due to excessive weight I immediately sold it. I found a "bass" speaker at my local Good Will store for $2.00 on Senior Day that is better sounding all the way around than the the Sweetie. Granted it does not match any of my equipment but a speaker is to be heard and not for show anyway.
VK4TZA Rating: 2008-08-30
not so great on SSB Time Owned: more than 12 months.
The Sounds Sweet was purchased based on the Eham reviews. It’s a well built speaker, but just didn’t work well for me. Used exclusively in SSB the Sounds Sweet was not that sweet compared to a Yaesu SP102 or BHI NES 10-2. The unit simply did not work “that” well for me on SSB. Another weakness was the unit too big for my small shack. In my experience size did not prevail over received SSB audio, while other products did.
K6JEK Rating: 2008-07-21
It's the one I use Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I've had it a couple of years. I have many other speakers, Hi and Lo Fi. This is the one I use 90% of the time. If conditions are beautiful I might use a hi-fi speaker to listen to a really great AM station, KO6NM for example. But I push the button for this one the most. I have a variety of equipment from an OMNI VII all the way back to an SX-62.

It's big.
K8MAZ Rating: 2008-04-26
An excellent product for hearing disabled hams Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have hearing in only one ear and to a very limited degree. That being said, I need all the help I can get to stay on the air in my preferred modes of CW and SSB.

There are a variety of problems people with hearing loss endure and I won't go into them here. But if you're so disabled, you know them all too well, and the last thing you need is to be turned out of your radio shack, your last bastion of civility and fun.

The sounds sweet will keep you on the air and happily so. I highly recommend it. Well worth the price.
WD4MBE Rating: 2008-04-20
Just ok for ssb Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am evaluating the speaker based mostly on ssb operating. I have used the speaker for over a year and am not that impressed with it for ssb. To me, there is too much bass which hinders my understanding each word spoken in a qso, especially under poor band conditions.

I now only use the speaker for fm reception with my FT-2500, and it performs great in that capacity.

I switched the Sounds Sweet out for a Peavey Impulse II speaker for ssb, and the Peavey does a superb job under all band conditions.

K4ELO Rating: 2008-02-15
Very good cw sound Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My xyl bought this for me at Xmas, with a little hint of course.

I can't say the fit and finish are a 5, but the cw sound sure is. Definitely removes a lot of the high frequency hash on the band. Sure makes cw a lot easier to listen to.
KG6PNH Rating: 2008-01-27
Fantastic Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Too many receivers and transceivers have tinny sounding speakers. The Sounds Sweet speaker provides a mellow, full, mellifluous, deep sound that makes audio that would otherwise give you a headache sound just wonderful. It simply makes listening to the radio much more pleasurable.
Definitely a keeper!
WA1DMX Rating: 2008-01-09
A Quality Speaker Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Good sounding audio but too basey for SSB operation.
Have an old Midland 2-way radio speaker that sounds better on SSB.
Rating is good because of it's construction quality and overall sound quality.
I won't give it up. I have plenty of other radios I can use it on.