| N1YZ |
Rating:      |
2004-01-18 | |
| Excellent Speaker !! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My previous post was made under my old callsign.......this is the same post with the current callsign just to clarify who made the post :) Sorry for the confusion....
I've been using the Clear Speech Noise Reduction Speaker in my mobile HF station for over 18 months. After significant grounding efforts did not yield a great received signal in my 1994 Nissan PU, the Clear Speech Speaker made the difference.
The speaker now resides in my (much quieter electrically) Tundra, and allows for a significant enhancement in HF reception.
I have only two issues with the speaker: one, there is no power on/off switch (on my model), and two, the first speaker I had inexplicably failed one day. The manufacturer was very concerned about that and took my speaker (from a booth at the Huntsville HamFest) back to the factory for an examination. The speaker was under warranty and a new one arrived in my home qth within a short period of time. Congratulations on prompt, polite, warranty service.
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| W7ROD |
Rating:      |
2004-01-18 | |
| Excellent Speaker |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've been using the Clear Speech Noise Reduction Speaker in my mobile HF station for over 18 months. After significant grounding efforts did not yield a great received signal in my 1994 Nissan PU, the Clear Speech Speaker made the difference.
The speaker now resides in my (much quieter electrically) Tundra, and allows for a significant enhancement in HF reception.
I have only two issues with the speaker: one, there is no power on/off switch (on my model), and two, the first speaker I had inexplicably failed one day. The manufacturer was very concerned about that and took my speaker (from a booth at the Huntsville HamFest) back to the factory for an examination. The speaker was under warranty and a new one arrived in my home qth within a short period of time. Congratulations on prompt, polite, warranty service.
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| AD6KB |
Rating:      |
2003-12-18 | |
| P.F.M. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I originally bought it to silence spark plug noise in my F250. Now that I have a diesel pick up, I still use it because it does a FABULOUS job of elminating noise. As a 20+ year Coast Guard Radioman we would describe it as PFM. Pure F*&^ing magic.
Well worth the money. |
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| KX7E |
Rating:     |
2003-10-09 | |
| Unexpected Surprise |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Yes, the unit is a supurb speaker, but I and a friend who also has one of these units discovered that the unit transmits spurs. My friend brought it to my attention, he heard a spur on 146.94. So I used two different radios for receive,and noticed spurs at. 122.875/131.075/139.270/139.785/142.850/143.360/
143.875/146.950/151.585/147.975/and147.455k.
No measurement was taken to see what the power or s-meter reading was at near by locations. But this unit needs further testing, to keep it from making illegal transmissions. Run your own test. More test results may be necessary to make this a truly good product. Speakers are supposed to reproduce audio ONLY, not transmit RF in the VHF spectrum.
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| K1EJA |
Rating:      |
2003-08-25 | |
| A fine product works as advertised |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Excellent noise reduction. Really amazed how effective it is. Dramatically reduced white noise and other static, and pratically silences heterodynes on adjacent frequencies. Makes listening a pleasure. I enjoy working for long periods and it reduced fatigue by silencing constant background noise. Copying CW is less of a strain especially on weak signals. Don't expect Hi Fidelity, but gets the noise out.
Takes 3 or so seconds to cancel noise after switching back to receive mode. A quality product that would be hard to be without.
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| AC7RX |
Rating:      |
2003-08-04 | |
| Solid accessory |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I had to chuckle at the 2 negative reviews of Oct 23, 2002. If you cut the input down to nothing, yes, you may get a little "sizzling" sound, but jeeze, if you have your audio turned all the way down, why would you need a noise reduction unit??My experience is similar those who have rated this accessory with a 4 or 5 - which means that I feel that I am getting a lot of bang for my buck with the ClearSpeech DSP unit. I've used other amateur & commercial DSP units, experimented with various "communications" speakers, and this unit outperforms them all, and for a modest price.
I use the unit in mobile hf and vhf ssb and cw operations, including an extremely small signal application with my work: tracking radio-tagged animals for biological studies. This DSP unit turns what would be an otherwise marginal mobile tracking platform (ignition noise in a receiver with .05 uv sensitivity is hell) into a very robust setup. I am planning on getting a second unit soon. |
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| W3HKK |
Rating:      |
2003-07-03 | |
| Mobile Must Have |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Bought mine on eBay 18 months ago. Its not perfect but it is the best SSB noise reduction DSP I have heard. (and I have the $400 Timewave 599zx.)
But I never leave home ( in the mobile) without my ClearSpeech! Kudos to a simple highly effective ( 3-4 S unit reduction) product.
But its not for cw. The automatic notch filter will see to that.
Bob |
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| KC2LBO |
Rating:      |
2003-06-15 | |
| its VOODOO I tell you!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Bought the Clearspeech speaker to use with my Yaesu FT-817 since it doesn't have internal DSP and does have a tiny internal speaker... but simply due to the proximity of DC power (powerpoles!) I tried it out on my Yaesu FT-897 first...
THIS THING IS VOODOO!! Yeh OK I know it's really science, but I really can't believe just how well it pulls the sound out of the signal, data, code, rtty, and especially voice. it just clears up everything in the background, even the stock Yaesu internal power supply hash (didn't they try these out first? Its going back next week.)
Anyway, doesn't much matter - with the ClearSpeech it's just gone.. reminds me a lot of the killer noise cancelling headphones I use on airplanes - seems to take a second or two to figure out the garbage and pull it out - however, it works, and much better than any of the 897's DSP..
So I just bought a base unit to keep with the 897 when the Speaker goes out with the 817! |
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| WY3X |
Rating:      |
2003-06-07 | |
| Works magic on cheap radios! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I got to try it out for a short time last night- on 20M, and put it through some
testing on the Ten Tec Omni VI+. I initially thought that it was just a simple
tuned speaker that enchanced the audio frequencies of human voice, and
wondered why it had power leads. Now I see why! Inside seems to be a
pretty sophisticated DSP unit that enhances voice frequencies while attenuating
non-voice frequencies. I did not try it on CW. The shape factor of the DSP
appears to be tailored strictly for the human voice. Interesting!
I dialed around and found a few signals and switched it in and out to see
what the difference would be. First I found a very strong S9+ signal that
was booming in. It totally eliminated the static in between his words, and
brought the sound out so it sounded like listening to a telephone! I had
seen this before, when I used to use a W9GR outboard DSP filter unit.
I'm almost willing to bet that the filtering in the speaker is an exact copy
of the W9GR III circuit, because it works so PERFECTLY.
Then I dialed around and found a very weak station. Again, I turned it on,
and MAN! WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Barely copyable without it, it
killed the static and brought in the weak station to where it was COMPLETELY
copyable! I turned it on and off a few times to see if it was the speaker or
if it was selective fading, and it was NOT fading, it was the speaker performing
magic on a weak signal! I was impressed!
Next, I found a station that was being interfered with. The speaker didn't fare
so well here. The station I was listening to was weak, but copyable, but was
getting "prop-wash" from a nearby stronger station. When I turned on the
speaker, the station I wanted to listen to got ATTENUATED and the prop-wash
got STRONGER!!! I duplicated this several times on other similar signals,
so it is deficient in this department.
As a comparison- I turned on the DSP in my Omni VI+ to see how it compared
side by side with the speaker. To be quite honest, I couldn't tell a whole lot of
difference- it sounded as good as the Clear Speech speaker. I also compared it
to the DSP in my Yaesu FT-847, and it whipped the crap out of the Yaesu DSP!
The DSP in the FT-847 is useless compared to the Clear Speech unit! So I guess
$ translates into quality DSP (the Omni ((new)) was double the price of the
FT-847, so it should perform better). In addition, the Omni has more filtering that
can be switched in/out to tailor what you want to listen to. It has low pass audio
filtering, DSP, and also a wide range of user-installed (me!) crystal filters.
The bottom line is that if I had a radio that did NOT have DSP, or had poor DSP
like the FT-847, it would definitely be worth the money to buy one of these. If I
had a high-end HF rig that had decent DSP built-in, it would be wasted money.
It gets a 5 out of 5 when used on my FT-847, but only 4 out of 5 when paired up
with my Omni VI+ because with it, it is an unnecessary accessory.
-Web Williams in Myrtle Beach, SC |
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| AB4YE |
Rating:     |
2003-06-01 | |
| Good Product |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I called to order speaker on a thursday, told them I'd like it shipped overnight. Got the unit Friday and have been using it all weekend. Extremely good product! Works great on all modes, including CW. I wish they would have put a narrow filter in here, but that is my only "gripe". The speaker audio is very high quality, and is a fantastic addition to my mobile setup with Ic-706. I used with my yaesu ft-817 and the difference is night and day. Good Job!
If you have a rig without DSP, this unit would be hard to beat. Build quality is nice even with the plastic mounting bracket. |
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