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Reviews For: Palstar SP30

Category: Speakers for communications

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Review Summary For : Palstar SP30
Reviews: 37MSRP: $59.95
Description:
Communications speaker
Product is not in production
More Info: http://www.palstar.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00374.4
KI6SZ Rating: 2007-11-06
Sounds Great! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
My Palstar SP30 sounds so much better than any of the other commercial speakers that I have in the shack (Kenwood, Yaesu, etc.). It is an excellent communications speaker!
K4ZNC Rating: 2007-11-05
Good Value Speaker Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I selected the Palstar SP30 for my new Tentec Omni VII, primarily because of Eham reviews and cost. The TT speaker was a lot more expensive and I just could not justify the additional expense solely to match my new Omni VII. The speaker outperforms the internal speaker for the Omni VII (to be expected) and the audio is fine for SSB and CW. Since I have not heard the TT speaker, I can't comment, only to say that I am very satisfied with the SP30.

John K4ZNC
RUSS324 Rating: 2007-11-05
Great Value! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Excellent speaker for the price. I found it a touch too much bass. I corrected it with the equalizer in the 746 Pro and it sounds great. I really like the metal case and it matches my all Icom shack quite well. I would recommend this speaker to anyone. Russ K8QF
WM2P Rating: 2007-11-05
Best value Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I sold hi end audio and engaged in the Audiophile hobby to excess for many years and developed a good set of ears. I am puzzled by the last review because I am bothered by speakers that emphasize the higher frequencies and do not not find these speakers to have the problem he described. In fact, I went through 5 sets of speakers in my shack and three in my car to find speakers that were more neutral sounding that what I had previously bought.

I use the Palstar 30's in my shack and think they are perfect for listening to any voice communications. Most shack visitors think they sound very good. Since their frequency response is 70-15Khz, I do not see how they would be perceived as having too much treble. But, as I learned, your hearing has a lot to do with how sound is perceived. Someone thinks something has too much bass while someone else complains about not enough bass. We each have to buy whatever sounds good to our ears. Since this is a speaker designed to reproduce the audio frequencies found in the human voice it tends to filter out the extraneous lower and upper frequencies that cause hum and hiss while letting the voice come through clearly.
HB9KL Rating: 2007-11-05
Not suitable for communications use Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased the SP30 (Serial No. 6731) because of the excellent ratings. The speaker has a rich low frequency response.
But to my disappointment the sound is a bit dull for communications use. The audio response is not balanced. The higher audio frequencies 2000Hz up are attenuated. In my oppinion the SP30 is not suitable for SSB and cannot be recommended.
My old little speaker (11x11x6cm) from Radio Shack has a far better balanced audio response for SSB.
K9XT Rating: 2007-09-15
A really neat speaker! Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Purchased this speaker at Dayton 2007 and found it to be an exceptionally good device. Its color matches the Kenwood gear on my table and its size is not overbearing.

I recommend it for anyone who wants a quality product at reasonable cost.

Well done, Palstar!
AI4VR Rating: 2007-09-02
Communications speaker, nothing more Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a communications speaker, nothing more, but it does that job as expected. The speaker comes with a 1/4" mono plug, so you may have to adapt/change the end to match your radio (I did).

It appears that the physical specs have changed as the one I received (direct from PalStar, in three days) measured 4.75"H x 6.5"W x 6.75"D.

It works, looks and sounds good, and doesn't require a second mortgage to buy - I'm happy with it!
KC7UI Rating: 2007-08-25
Best of the Three Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Compared to the ICOM SP-21 and Tentec 307, the Palstar SP30 has the best audio for both SSB and CW. Excellent quality speaker within the enclosure; color closely matches my ICOM 756 Pro III. Tentec 307 is a close second but twice the footprint.
TF3JB Rating: 2007-08-03
An excellent speaker Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I consider a good quality communications speaker to be essential for the shack. It is even a more important accessory here since I do not use headphones. So when I purchased a new 756PROIII recently, I needed a good speaker.

The speaker designed to be at the Pro3's side, however, does not get good reviews here at eHam.
Consequently, I looked towards the renowned "Sounds Sweet" speaker and waited for the manufacturer to reopen after relocation...but nothing happened for a long time, so I decided to turn elsewhere.

Asking around in the Pro3 discussion group, the Icom SP-20 and Palstar SP-30 came recommended. I felt the SP-20 was too expensive and ordered two pieces of the SP-30. The price was $59.95 each (direct from Palstar), but once cleared through customs in this country, the price was $114.

I am happy to report that I am extremely pleased with the SP-30. Yes, I use both of them (one at each side of the Pro3) since I prefer not to have the sound coming from just one side...and this setup also looks good). Well, the speakers are clear sounding, both on SSB and CW. There is also a very good balance in the audio between low and high frequencies, which seems to enhance the signal in such a way that listening fatique does not creap in. This quality is likely to be attributed to the 70Hz-15kHz freq. response of the speaker itself and to the construction and the size of the enclosure (6"W x 6"H x 6"D).

In closing I would like to mention that the overall workmanship of the SP-30 is very good and color is well chosen and blends well with that of the the Pro3. I do not hesitate to recommend this speaker to any ham.

73 de TF2JB.
W2DIP Rating: 2007-06-28
Great Speaker Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
After buying and trying about 5 different speakers I decided that these were the best for my needs. They are not wide frequency speakers to be used for HiFi audio listening BUT are designed to produce clear and crisp voice audio so that you can understand and work DX stations without headphones most times. Because of their design you also do not hear the normal hissing and artifacts that wide ranging speakers produce on the upper frequencies where there is no useful energy in speech.

I used a pair of these with an NCS Multi-RX and even run my TV through them. If you have a modern rig with RX /DSP/EQ you may not need to pay for DSP in your speakers and just want a very good sounding base station speaker that produces execellent human speach. Of course if you want to match your rig to make it look pretty then you have no choice but to buy those overpriced and not so great sounding speakers that are sold to match various rigs. For $60 it certainly is worth a try. I got rid of much more expensive speakers to make room for a pair of these gems.